Friday night, we met Mary and her kids at the Creche Exhibit. Kate loved looking at all the nativity scenes. She wanted to stop and look closely at each one. There are about 500 of them! When we made it to the children's room, we spent a lot of time there. There were cookies to decorate and eat, costumes to dress up in, puppets to play with, many hands-on nativity scenes to play with, books to read, and many crafts to make.
Zoe figured out how to make this paper star. She taught the adult volunteer in the children's area how to make it.
Yesterday morning, I went over to my parents' house so my mom and I could organize what we have bought the kids for Christmas. Then the rest of the day was spent getting ready for the parade. Zoe's friend, Hailey and Hailey's 2 brothers marched with us and Zoe's and Emily's friends, Caitlyn and Cassidy and their mom, Jen marched with us.
The kids looked great in their costumes!
The older kids should have been the shepherds instead of the wise men because they would have been more cautious with the shepherds staff. I'll know better next year.
My dad and I carried this banner. I am so grateful that Angie ordered the banner and decorated it to make it look so nice.
Jen carried the radio which was playing Christmas songs from the Children's Songbook and hymns from the hymnbook. The parade all worked out perfectly, as we knew it would, but not without some stress first! We had a few minor incidents like Zoe's crown breaking as she was putting it on, 3 of the candles got broken before and during the parade, and I dropped my side of the banner during the parade, but we all had a great time. It started to snow as we were marching, which was so pretty and perfect for the occasion. I had to encourage Eleanor to pay attention to where she was walking instead of trying to catch snowflakes in her mouth.
We sang this song in front of the judges...
We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year
What joy it will bring
to you and your kin
when you visit the Creche Exhibit
this weekend for free!
Having to sing the song stressed us out (we didn't have to stop in front of the judges, but I decided we would when I filled out the application), but the judges seemed to like the song and it gave us a fun way to spread the word about the Creche Exhibit.
The kids LOVED being in the parade, but they hated the wait before the parade started. The long wait didn't stop them from saying they want to be in the parade next year, though. After the parade, Hailey's mom said they have a trailer that we could decorate next year and ride on and she and her husband are all for helping us and would love to be in the parade with us. Yay!
I took Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor to McDonalds after the parade. Matt and I are still on our diet, so I was good and drank water. A lot of other people who were at the parade had the same idea, so it was crowded, but the girls enjoyed the treat.
Now I can focus on Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, Christmas goodies (for everyone else), and enjoying this Christmas season.
It's looking like Christmas around here!
4 comments:
Yay! I'm so glad everything worked out! Those costumes look awesome. Great job pulling that off. I'm sure the kids will remember that adventure for a long time. The snow is beautiful too!
It sounds like it went really well. And hopefully next year it will go even better. The song cracks me up!
That last picture is BEAUTIFUL!
I'm so happy that everything worked out as well as it did and that the kids had fun!
It sure is! How beautiful! I love reading about your family Joey--hope you and Matt and the kids have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year!
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