Bethlehem

Tonight we went to Bethlehem. A baptist church near by puts on a big Christmas event every year. They turn their parking lot into Biblical Bethlehem and bring to life the nativity story. We went last year and the kids were so excited to go again this year.

Here is Mary and Joseph entering the market. They go and add their names to the Census and then proceed to the Inn to ask for room. Then go to another Inn.... well you know the story.


Roman soldiers patroled the streets. You can see the wise man riding through the town on a real camel. My kids loved to see someone actually ride a camel.


The wise men arriving at the stable.


Everybody at the stable.



My kids loved the petting zoo. Where you could pet and feed the goats.


In the market square there were a number of booths to try out carpentry tools, smell frankensence and Myrh, make a necklace try out some musical instruments and even some bread. We also enjoyed the hebrew style dancing that was done between shows.


Oh.. and don't forget the angel that appears to the shepherds outside the city walls.
The whole event is very well done and very well attended. It was very crowded. Much like Bethlehem probably was during that census taking 2000 years ago. But for those that live anywhere near by they are still doing shows every half hour each evening until Monday. So go and enjoy. It was a lot of fun.

Nativity sets

We really keep the Christmas decorating to a minimum. We just don't have room to store too much so we have our tree decorations and a few nativity sets as our only decorations. Here is a Nativity set that I made last year. I manly just had to assemble them. We made them at a Super Saturday activity. I love this set. It should be one that the kids could play with. It is only wood and cloth but the kids already picked some of the little gems and such off the characters so I ended up putting it up a bit higher so they couldn't touch it.

This nativity was given to me last year. My mom knew I admired this set and so she got it for me for Christmas last year. This set is of course on top of the bookcase. Sad to have it up so high. I don't get to see it much but maybe when the kids get bigger we can have it down a little lower.

This last nativity is one that the kids love! They are always asking me to light the candles so they can see it turn.
It is very small compared to some of the large German pyramid nativities we saw at the Creche exhibit last week. My kids were thrilled when they saw them there. This is by far their favorite of all our nativities.
Of course the one under the tree is still there. The kids play with it all the time but somehow all the pieces end up back in the stable at the end of the day. Sophie has also started making nativities out of her stuffed animals. She gathers all her sheep and horses and such and arranges them. She then finds some kind of animal family to be Mary, Jospeh and the baby Jesus. She even gets a few to be shepherds and wise men. I need to grab my camera next time she does this.
The kids have also gotten out all the nativity costumes too. I made these for our Back to Bethlehem Christmas party last year and the kids loved it when I pulled them out of the Christmas box. Henry refuses to put his costume on. I don't know why but he prefers his halloween costumes. So he runs and gets his Kangaroo costume. So we usually have a Kangaroo the visits the baby Jesus along with the others.

I just loved this picture of Henry looking at the candles and the nativity spin around.

Book Club Today - Children's books

Today was book club day (Our book club is just a group of Moms from church and we get together once a month, and bring our kids with us, and we discuss a book) and for December instead of reading a book to discuss we always bring some of our favorite children's books. This is the 3rd time we have done this so it was a little more difficult to pick some favorites. But this is what we ended up bringing with us.

Sophie brought Alice in Wonderland of course, but she was also decided to bring Sagwa, The chinese Siamese Cat by Amy Tan. We got this book a few weeks ago when we were studying China. Sophie has read through this book several times since. The artwork is very beautiful.

I had Henry bring Stop That Ball by Mike McClintock, which is one that have read so many times. We started getting it from the library when Sophie was little and each of the kids has just loved it.

For Ian I brought The Construction Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta. We have checked this out out of the library many many times. Ian loves diggers and big trucks so this one has been a favorite. We have also checked out many of Pallotta's other alphabet books. They are all very well done. I also brought Fred and Ted go Camping by Peter Eastmen. Ian always seems to find the Fred and Ted books at the library so we take them home a lot as well.

Books that I brought to share were:
Crinkleroot's guide to knowing the birds by Jim Arnosky.
An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Aston
Our Picture Atlas of the World illustrated by Brian Delf (We use this book all the time)
Nate the Great and the Crunchy Christmas by Marjorie Sharmat (We love Nate the Great!)
Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter by Cindy Neuschwander

I can't say these are my absolute favorite Children's books but they were good books that we found recently or that we have used a lot.

I can't wait to get the list of books that the host always collects and sends out. Some of the books that others brought sound so good!

We've been lucky with movies recently

My husband and I have watched a few really great movies recently. I have written about our Bollywood film fascination. We watched a great Indian film this weekend it is called Swades. Like all bollywood films it was long and there was a few musical numbers but what we loved about this film was how much more we learned about Indian culture. It takes place in a small poor village. So you get to see how a lot of the people in India live. Many of the bollywood films take place in the city or about wealthy families so you don't get a real image of what life in India is like. This film showed the problems that Indian people face as they face the changes of the modern world. Very good film!

We have also recently watched The Ultimate Gift This movie is produced by Fox Faith (The same people that put out the Love Comes Softly films) and is a wonderful film about finding what it really important in life. And how to find true happiness. The message came across very clearly and makes me think about all the things that I am very grateful for but also for all the good I could still do with that has been given to me.

So for anyone that needs a movie to curl up in front of on a cold night this winter. Here are a few great ones.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have to make cookies for a party tomorrow night. I was going through my recipes to decide what to bring and I have decided to make my favorite chocolate chip cookies. I always get compliments for these cookies. I don't make them often because they are more work then just the regular run of the mill chocolate chip cookies. Also this recipe makes a lot of cookies so it is perfect for handing out to friends and neighbors or to take to a party.

2 cups butter
4 cups flour
2 tsp. soda
2 cups sugar
5 cups oatmeal
24 oz chocolate chips
2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 8 oz Hershey bar (grated)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
3 cups chopped nuts
2 tsp vanilla

Blend oatmeal in a blender into a fine powder. Cream butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, then mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and soda. Add chocolate chips, grated Hershey bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake 10 min @ 375 degrees.

I have experimented with this recipe. I have made the recipe without blending up the oatmeal. It just gives the cookies a different texture. I have also tried out a number of different chocolate bars. I have made this recipe with Kit Kats and it turned out really good. But I think the best is when I make it with grated up Andes Mints. That little mint flavor is so good in these cookies. I always enjoy mint. I don't like nuts so I never put those in but if you like them then go for it!

Just thought I would share.

Book of a Thousand Days

I just finished the book, Book of a Thousand Days over the weekend. It is the 4th book I have read by Shannon Hale recently. I really enjoy her retellings of fairy tales. As I pondered why I think it is because her of characters. I grew to really like each of the heroines in her tales. One of the things that I thought about was how in each of the tales the magic that happens isn't really magic but just a person that is more attune to the natural forces. I guess that is what the x-men or other super heros do but it didn't really make me stop and think until reading these books. I delight in that the goose girl can talk to the wind, and therefore use it to do her bidding or that Enna learns to collect heat from living things around her and therefore can create fire. But I really enjoyed how Dashti was able to heal by singing. Her songs were able to help the body remember what it was like to be whole. The song itself didn't actually do the healing it was the person himself that did the healing the song just helped it remember. The person also had to be willing to let the song heal before it would work. I loved that idea. This is a superpower that I wouldn't mind having.
So for anyone that hasn't read these great books, head over to your library and look in the children's fiction section under Hale and you should find a few there. I hope to find River Secrets or Princess Academy there next time. I haven't read those ones yet.

Two Big Events - One Saturday

Saturday was a busy day for us. We really got our Christmas Season going with a visit to the Annual Christmas Creche Exhibit. At this show they display over 500 different nativities from 65 countries. We enjoyed walking through all the different rooms and seeing all the different interpretations of the same story. Some of the nativities were very elaborate and included many of the different characters of the story. Others were simple and just gave you the impression of Mary and the baby Jesus.
The kids did great not touching the exhibits but were thrilled when we got to the children's room where there were several nativities that they could handle.
They especially loved the marionette show. There is something magical about those marionettes and the performers did a wonderful job telling the story and everyone got to participate with the songs.
Also in the children's room was a area with all sorts of dress up clothes so the kids had a great time putting on outfits to be Mary or Joseph, the Wise Men, shepherds or even animals.
Here is Henry the Sheep.
Sophie enjoyed dressing up as Mary and riding a stuffed Donkey.
Ian looked great as a wise man.

After this event in the morning we quickly went home had a late lunch and then went off on our next outing. Every year my husband's parents take us to see the lights and play at a small amusement park in our area. The kids were so excited when we said we were going to do this today. They remembered all their favorite rides from last year and couldn't wait to do them again.

























It is always freezing when we go to this park so we bundled as best we could. But we still got so cold by the end of the night. But it was a lot of fun and we always have fond memories of going.

Here is our picture with Santa. Don't we all look wonderful in our bundled up, freezing loveliness.