___: December, Part 2: The Weeks Before Christmas

December, Part 2: The Weeks Before Christmas

In December we enjoyed the Christmas festivities. We went to a really cool thing put on by the First United Methodist Church of Escondido called the “Bethlehem Walk.” They have the whole outdoor area around their church all built up as if it were Bethlehem at the time of Christ, and costumed Romans and Jewish townspeople who speak in character. And each of us was assigned a different Hebrew name when we got there. There are booths where you can experience different things from that time, including Hebrew writing, a synagogue, a blacksmith, dancing, live animals, and food. And at the very end you get to walk to an area a little bit away from the rest where you can see an angel up above the stable where Mary and Joseph are with the baby Jesus. The whole thing was great, and we’ll definitely have to make that one of our traditions.

We went one night to hear a choir perform a Christmas concert and see the nativity and the lights at the San Diego temple. My parents & Aaron came and met us there, and Jennie came with her kids too. The little kids had fun going up and having their pictures taken with the nativity statue, and several of the small children were climbing on the donkey and sheep statues. At one point Isaac slipped off the donkey and got a scrape. (It was kind of funny later that week when he had his annual checkup and the pediatrician asked him how he scraped himself, and he answered, “I fell off a donkey at the temple.”)

We also enjoyed our ward Christmas party at church, where the boys got to sing and do sign language along with some of the songs they had learned with the primary children (and Jake & Michelle came into town, so Lizzie was up there singing right along with all the other kids). And Michael performed a beautiful quartet at the party too. But we tired Isaac and Lijah right out – they fell asleep on our blanket before it was over, and they slept there the rest of the night with all sorts of noise and kids running around. They even slept through Santa’s visit.

We also started a new tradition this year of inviting a big group of friends to go caroling and then come over to the house for treats. It was a lot of fun.

The week before Christmas was very busy with a piano recital for Kolby, Lijah, and Camden, followed by a kindergarten Christmas concert at Camden’s school, and then Isaac’s PEPP class’ performance of The Gingerbread Baby.

The Piano Recital: