Church Christmas play

Sunday was our annual children's Christmas program, it's a really fun day at Church.  Instead of Sunday school the kids put on their program for a packed house.  Then, at the end of service the elders present a gift to each family. This years was Ann Voskamp's new celebration of Christmas book, which if you are looking for a great holiday/advent book I totally recommend.  It's a little wordy but a great message and beautiful artwork.

This is a third year I've worked with another women (who is a pretty awesome director) to help put on the production. Although some years they do more creative interpretations we have stuck with the traditional nativity, it's a classic story, why reinvent.  Plus, it's been fun watching the kids grow up and progress through the characters (everyone starts out as a sheep).  It's also fun because it's put on entirely by parents which means several late nights at the church building putting the set together which Ev loved.  I was super proud of Jamie who built the stable from scratch (his plans were a sketch on a country financial notepad) and it ended up looking really cool!

Ev got to be a wise man this year which he absolutely loved, I wish I would have gotten video of it but I was "sheep catching" (making sure the 3-4 year old boys didn't wander off or get into trouble) and Jamie was running the AV/sound system so neither of us could tape .  Hopefully someone taped it.  Although it's fun, I am glad it's over because now we can listen to a CD that isn't of the songs they had to learn...you can only hear go tell it on the mountain so many times without going crazy.