A new Christmas tradition

Around Christmas-time, we're always on the lookout for new fun Christmasy things to do, especially those that center around the birth of Christ instead of Santa Clause. Last weekend when my parents were in town, we went to the Creche festival in Upland and had a great time. I was surprised at how much Maylan and Brandon got into all the different nativities. I must admit, I thought my kids would be bored. Sometimes I don't give them enough credit. So, when I heard about a live nativity put on by a local Christian church in Claremont, I really wanted to go see it. We went Sunday night with Ryan's mom, Lindsey and Ella and it was better than I expected. It runs for two more nights (I don't know how the rain will affect it now, though...) and I highly recommend going if you are local and get the chance. It was very well done.

I knew it was going to be good when we were greeted by the Roman guards in full character telling us to keep moving and go faster or he was going to "get us". Brandon was a little nervous getting a picture with him, but then he was fascinated by all the guards the rest of the time.

My pictures turned out mostly terrible because it was dark and my camera isn't that great, but here is Caesar declaring that everyone needs to return to their homeland to be registered and taxed. The nativity consisted of ten "scenes" that we would walk through, starting with the angel appearing to Mary and ending with the birth of Christ. A small group would enter the scene, they would close the door and the actors would perform. Each scene was only a few minutes long, but very well done and scripturally accurate.

My picture of the cow turned out okay. I thought this was a fabulous looking cow so I wanted the picture.

The donkeys were terribly little and cute, too. The kids were able to get up close and pet them.

And what is a live nativity without a camel? It was sitting when we got there, but halfway through the scene, he decided to get up. He was a big boy and Brandon decided he needed to back away from him a little.

Maylan couldn't decide which scene she liked the best, but surprisingly, this was Brandon's favorite. The three angels did a little song and dance "praise"-type routine that he really got into.

And at the very end, the birth of baby Jesus. It was beautiful. The whole nativity was so well-done, it will definitely be added to our holiday to-see list every year. One of the other nice things about it was as we were being moved from place to place and after each scene, all the actors participating and the ushers would tell us "Merry Christmas". We must have heard it or said it ourselves hundreds of times over the evening and it was wonderful. Just hearing over and over again "Merry Christmas" reinforced the fact that it is indeed Christmas and we are celebrating Christ. I loved it! As we were leaving, Maylan asked if we could come back again and I said sure, we could come back next year. She said, "No, I meant can we come back tomorrow?" Maybe not, but definitely next year!