The Nativity Play

For Christmas Eve, we went to Grandma R's house and had dinner and saw all of the cousins. It is always a big big deal to the kids to go over and play. But it was special on Christmas Eve. It is tradition to do the Nativity play.

Hannah was Mary last year and kept talking about how she planned to be Mary this year, so we took a couple weeks and kept discussing over and over about how she probably would not be Mary this year, but that she should be happy for whomever was Mary, and be happy about whatever part she got. It was a good thing we did it, because she was very cheerful about her part as a shepherd.
First, all of the kids were costumed. Darwin's mom has a box of costumes to outfit an entire Nativity play. Pretty impressive. Michael is a Wise Man...or perhaps a wise guy. ;) He was quite excited about performing.

Hannah was a shepherd and she practiced beforehand. Very holy.

Very dramatic. I missed the pose where she practiced shielding her eyes from the brightness of the angels. It was then I realized she'd been paying attention and studying pictures of the nativity. However, she didn't actually do any of these poses in the actual play.

Garrett was also a Wise Man, but he preferred running around the house with all the other 18 month olds to 2.5 year olds. He did sing a little Jingle Bells though.

Here is Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus, finding shelter in a stable after being told there was no room in the inn.

Here are the shepherds, learning of the birth of the Baby Jesus from the angels.

Here are the shepherds who fell down and worshipped the baby Jesus upon finding him in the stable.

Here is the Wise Man, conferring with King Herod about the whereabouts of Jesus, the King of the Jews, since they saw his star in the East and followed it, according to prophecy.

Here are all of the participants (minus Hannah, hiding behind her cousin and fellow shepherd), after having arrived at the manger.

It was a lovely evening and the kids loved their chance to be in the nativity. It is kind of fun to know that these are going to be their fond Christmas memories of the future.