Bethlehem Experience

One of the women in the Bible study I teach told me about an event that her church was hosting tonight where people could walk through a reenactment of what Bethlehem would have been like when Christ was born. My in-laws' church does something like this called "Journey to Bethlehem." I've always thought it would be neat to check it out, but we're never there when they're participating in it. There was another event like this recently in Winchester that I missed, and a live nativity right down the road that I got the dates mixed up on, so I was thrilled for the opportunity to attend tonight. My Granny was interested in checking it out too, so she rode along and helped with the little ones.

 Happy to be there!

They have such a good turnout that there is quite a line to get in to walk through the attraction. However, their set-up was great. First, everything was hosted inside which was wonderful on a night with near freezing temps and wind advisory warnings. Secondly, the line extended into a room with cookies, punch, and Santa. Waiting in a long line with little ones is so much better when there are things like this to entertain them.While Caleb enjoyed a cookie while we waited, he didn't want anything to do with Santa tonight for some reason - a completely opposite reaction from his thrilling encounter two weeks ago. We decided to just let Hadley have a turn on Santa's lap, but she didn't think much of the white-bearded gentleman tonight either and cried for her daddy. Once she was back in his arms, all was right with the world again and she enjoyed watching all the kids who were also waiting in line. In the next room, they had a small orchestra playing Christmas music for all to enjoy which made the wait nicer too.

 Yum!

 Look over there! I think Granny is excited about Santa.

 A little hesitant

 Uh-oh! The pout lip!

 "Nope, I don't like this guy. I want my da-da."

Finally, we got to the front of the line and entered "Bethlehem." First we had to unroll a scroll and read a prophecy predicting the birth of Christ. Then we met a man who told us about the reason for coming to Bethlehem - the census, so we could pay our taxes. He gave us each a few coins to take with us. There were huge posters with Bible verses so we could follow the story as it was written in God's Word. There was also a computer with a map to show us where Bethlehem was.

We met some "local" people who let us pet their donkey and gave us water from a well.  We paid our taxes but had a hard time finding a place to stay since the innkeeper yelled at us that there was no room. Some nice shepherds let us check out their sheep, and then we headed for the marketplace where we were bombarded with people trying to sell us their goods. There were tons of people offering us real food to eat. (Caleb ended up with his hands full of goodies.) We came through the crowd quickly though and saw a few wise men hanging out right before we found Mary and Joseph with the baby Jesus.

 Giving us money to pay our taxes to Caesar

 Yay! An animal to pet!

 Rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's (aka paying taxes)

 Caleb knocked on the door to the inn. He giggled out 

loud when the lady came out yelling that there was no room.

 Shepherds with their sheep

 Hadley was very alert and tried to take it all in

 as her and Granny walked through the "marketplace."

People handed us things as we went through. A little boy gave 
Caleb a bunch of chips and another gave him an orange. 
Caleb was dumbfounded and just politely took everything 
they gave him, unsure what to do with it. 

  Lots of hustle and bustle in the marketplace... 

Maybe a little like Black Friday

Deals, deals, deals!

 A few wise men

The main event - Baby Jesus with his parents 
and a couple of onlooking goats

Some of what was happening was over Caleb's head, but this production was the perfect type of holiday event to attend. I don't think he would have been able to sit through a lot of the plays many of the local churches were hosting, especially since they end so close to his bed time. This we could sort of do at our own pace and could take time to explain a few things. Caleb's been pretty confused about the meaning of Christmas and is very adamant that it is Santa's birthday not Jesus' despite our efforts to try to teach him otherwise. It has been breaking our hearts, and we've been trying to figure out more ways to turn his focus towards Christ. We were thankful for another opportunity to demonstrate to him the Christmas story and reinforce why we celebrate at all.