A statue of the baby Jesus is back where it's supposed to be this Christmas: in John and Joan Leising's yard in Buffalo.

The statue was taken from the Leising's lighted manger last Christmas, and a note said it would be returned in three days.

It was returned eight months later, with a photo album.

Someone had posed the statue in front of Thruway signs in Binghamton, Rochester, Albany and Poughkeepsie. Other photos showed it on a bicycle, on a horse, wearing a seat belt in a car, in a chair next to a campfire and in someone's kitchen.

A note said the prank wasn't meant to be "blasphemous or disrespectful."

John Leising said the real Jesus would have forgiven the pranksters, and he does, too.