Bethlehem Village

We went to see a reenactment of the birth of Christ. It was in Burbank...I mean Bethlehem Village. You walk in and they take a census of your family. They then give everyone tokens you can spend at each of the stores. Some of the stores included: an ornaments, spices, animals, carpentry, food, jewelry, etc. They put together this grand reenactment every 30 minutes. We watched three of them. Finally at the last one we were able to take pictures with Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. Yup, that's me hunched over because Sammie wouldn't go up there on her own.

Ali and Sammie kept asking why baby Jesus was crying. It was uncharacteristically cold that night. So, poor baby Jesus had to come out in the cold every time! Then Ali asked, "We saw it three times. How did baby Jesus come out of Mary's tummy again and again? How did they put him back in her tummy?" I did tell her that they weren't the real Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. But she may have forgotten.

Christmas takes on a completely different meaning through the eyes of my children. Teaching them the true meaning of Christmas has been so meaningful for me. When Ali was maybe one, I remember my co-worker asking me if I was excited that Christmas was coming. At that time Christmas had always been about giving presents. Growing up, my memories are filled with last minute Christmas shopping. Stress, stress, and more stress. I never really enjoyed it. I always just longed for the days after Christmas because I could sleep in after more days of after Christmas shopping!

Seeing "Mary and Joseph" walking into Bethlehem my heart was filled with so much emotion. I surprised myself by tearing up as I saw them. Coming from a mother's heart, it is so hard to imagine such a young girl - maybe 14 or 15 - carrying the Messiah in her womb and all that she had to go through.

Here is a little video of it. I didn't get the entrance of everyone (Mary, Joseph, the Wise men), but it gives you an idea of what it was like.