Friday's walk down memory lane 12/23/2011

Family traditions:  Acting out the nativity on Christmas Eve.

Every year my family, like many other families, will read the scriptures associated with the birth of Christ from the New Testament and act out the nativity.  When I was younger, it was my dad who read the verses and my siblings and I who acted out the nativity.  I guess he wasn't always the narrotor though.

That's quite the head of hair baby Jesus has there.  Oh, and there's Smoky as a puppy again.  Funny how I never saw him in these pictures until this year.   

The most fun we had with it was when we were all in college.  This was taken during my winter Break my freshman  year while attending BYU.  My Aunt Nora was visiting and helped us ham it up and my new brother-in-law Michael was in on the fun. 

When Grandkids came along they were the baby Jesus.

The picture below was my first attempt at it without my siblings. That's a squirming baby Jordan wrapped up in a pillow case acting the part of baby Jesus, the nativity and nutcracker were the wisemen, the book filled in as the shepherds and his stuffed animals were to be the donkey and sheep.  I guess I felt I had to get a little creative with the props...a little too over the top looking back at it now.

Now my kids take over and there's no need to improvise much with our props...and there's never a fight (like there was in my own family growing up) over who is going to be Mary (one of the positives about having four boys and one girl).

The birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, really was a miraculous event.  The simplicity and humility that surrounded this event make it even more beautiful than it already would have been.  The greatest of all, our Saviour, was born in the humblest of circumstances.  I love the song from the Children's primary Songbook entitled Stars were Gleaming.  Let me share the first verse with you below.

Stars were gleaming, shepherds dreaming and the night was dark and chill.

Angels story rang with glory.  Shepherds heard it on the hill.

Ah that singing, hear it ringing, earthward winging, Christmas bringing.

Hark and we can hear it still.

When I take time to reflect on the birth of our Saviour I truly can "hear it still".

Merry Christmas!