Even though this was the week before Christmas, we were apparently in the full swing of things, according to my pictures. To kick things off, our small group went to Woodmont Christian Church’s Walk Through Bethlehem on Sunday evening. It started off with a worship service of Christmas carols. I don’t know what was more novel to the kids: instruments in worship, or songbooks!
Turn to hymn number 413? Yes, we will!
They were so sweet and dutiful and earnest in this foreign church environment, searching out each hymn and singing right along. I loved watching them.
Then we headed over to the main event: a re-creation of an ancient Jewish town—presumably Bethlehem—culminating in a live nativity scene. The town was amazing: it was full of these interactive booths where the children learned about ancient culture. They did everything from grinding flour to rolling dough to (watching) grapes pressed to make wine. They tied ropes, tried goat cheese (Anna’s face was priceless—not a fan!), used a potter’s wheel, and so forth. They learned about the Shema, saw a century old scroll made of lambskin, and watched the production of olive oil. Truly, it was an incredible event:
The kids were totally enraptured, but the whole time, I was in wonderment over the logistics of pulling off an event like this. I kept getting distracted by questions like, What is the budget for this? Do they pay these people to run the booths? Is that guy really Jewish? How does one acquire a giant, stone olive press??? Was that made in the United States? Was it imported? What were the shipping charges? Seriously, I would love to sit in on a planning committee meeting for this event. I have so many questions!
It was fun getting to go with a big group from church. I think Mrs. Ashraf and Coleman were the oldest and youngest we had with us:
On Tuesday evening, we went with Chris and Jill’s family to eat at Moe’s in Opry Mills mall and then to the Opryland Hotel for the lights.
We had to let them get their sillies out before attempting to get normal smiles out of them!
As always, it was so fun to see all the lights. The highlight, though, was a fountain/light show that depicted Christ’s birth through words and music. Only in Nashville. It was quite amazing, though. Afterward, Luke turned to me and said, “That was awesome!” It really was!
I didn’t get as many pictures this year, just a couple of the cousins:
On Wednesday, we had our annual Y.E.S. Christmas party, this time in the Carpenter’s Square gym. Again, I barely got any pictures because it was so busy, but here was my craft station:
And the craft station from the other side:
On Thursday, we left for Macon, and of course, when we arrived, we had to have Christmas right then and there! (Well, I think we ate first.) Anna’s first gift was a stuffed penguin that was a bigger version of a penguin she already had, named Penny. When she opened it, she screamed in excitement, “BIG PENNY!” We all jumped a mile…and then laughed hysterically.
After that, the evening was a whirl of opening gifts:
The kids loved all of their presents, and Greg and I loved the motherlode of gift cards we received.
If memory serves, we spent Friday relaxing. Greg and I went to see the last Hunger Games movie, and the kids mainly played with all their presents. Dad had given Greg one of Mike’s old (and really nice guitars), complete with amp, and he spent the evening teaching Greg a duet for “Silent Night.” They gave us a great concert, and seeing them playing together made my heart so happy.
On Saturday, we all went with Gaga to see the new Star Wars movie.
I’m honestly not a huge Star Wars fan, but I am a huge J.J. Abrams fan, and I thought the movie was really good!
In closing, here are a few pictures I stole from Gaga. I’m not sure of when they were taken (I think the one of Anna was from Thursday night and Luke’s was from Friday), but they really encapsulate the kids’ joy and being at Gaga and Granddad’s house.
Wow, all that Christmas, and to think, December 25 was still a week away!
