Advent Begins

Our church has an annual Christmas program in the old stone building built in 1774. This year the children of the church livened up our Hanging of the Greens service with their wriggly nativity scene.

We had a real newborn as the Baby Jesus (not the one in the photo above), and the kids were a little distracted when she was plunked down in their midst. They remembered their lines and the song, so all was well.  One sweet little cow was short enough that even standing in front she did not block the baby. Sapphire preferred to sit on my lap; she was a nonconformist sheep. Big surprise.

Monday night we headed out into a balmy December night to take in the Christmas lights a local park puts up. Pearl liked it all. Ruby was fascinated by the train room. Sapphire seemed most interested in defending her stroller from Ruby, but hopefully she liked it. 

Jasper enjoyed it too, mostly because it wasn't very cold.

The park had wrapped hundreds of trees in Christmas lights. They also went overboard with lawn decorations. At some point in the past they must have become bored with Christmas themes, because alongside the toy soldiers and nativity, they had a penguin section, a dinosaur section, and many butterflies and caterpillars.
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Staying out so late left us a little bleary-eyed the next day, my birthday, but we got it together and had a pretty nice day. I had the most successful breakfast in bed of my life: Chex cereal and a clementine. I liked that this meant there was no mess when I finally got downstairs. The girls treated me to the birthday song throughout the day.

Later missionary friends came for lunch, and we went out for dinner at an informal burrito place. Thanks for all the well-wishes!