A Few More Things

First, I think this picture of Mortimer is just too cute and must be shared. 

He has decided that this particular chair is his spot and spends most of his resting time in it.  He definitely doesn’t have a couch potato personality, so he still spends plenty of time running around, playing, and getting into things. 

Since there were some questions about the Bethlem journey experience from my last post, here’s a little more information about it:

The church that holds it is huge.  When you go inside, there’s a little foyer where they find out how many people are in your group, and you’re given tickets (it’s entirely donation-based) with a family name.  Then you go into the main part of the church.  This year, it was crowded, so everyone sat in pews.  They had someone playing Christmas music, and there was a big screen at the front where the family names came up.  When your family name comes up, you go to the back of the church, and they take you down an elevator.  Someone in modern clothes greets you, gives a brief spiel about what to expect, and encourages you to open your heart to the experience.  Then you walk down a hallway, and that’s when the Bethlehem experience begins.

You’re greeted at the city gate by a census taker and a Roman guard and asked how many people are in your family.  Then you go into the city and walk through it.  There are various market stalls, and you stop at each one.  They also have real herbs and spices, so it smells incredible!  There are also a couple of beggars along the way, which is where you can make a donation to the fundraiser.  Each stall is a little different; some of them talk about how crowded the city is because of the census, some of them talk about prophesies and strange things happening, a few mention seeing a young couple and that the woman was heavily pregnant (as you walk through, you learn that she had the baby the night before), and some are really funny with couples bickering or someone being determined to make a sale.  When it’s time to move on to the next one, either a Roman guard comes and yells to move along and clear the street, or the person at that stall says you have to see what the next person has.  The props and costumes are incredible.  Almost at the very end, you stop at the inn, where they tell you that they can only offer you food and drink because all of their rooms are full, and that they even have a couple who had a baby in their stable.  The last stop is the stable, where there’s a couple with a baby, and they tell you a little about Jesus.  After that, there’s one person collecting alms for the poor (one final opportunity to donate), and then you exit to outside. 

It's a lot of fun.  I absolutely love doing traditional Christmas activities since I didn’t get to do them growing up.  Nick’s family went almost every year when he was a child, so there are a lot of good memories associated with it for him.  I can’t imagine the time and effort that goes into making it all happen.  Nick looked it up online, and there are hundreds of volunteers, usually about 15 families with a baby up to three months old (I’m no baby expert, but I’m assuming at that age, dressed in a plain white outfit, they can probably use boy or girl babies), and various farms that bring animals.  It seems very appropriate for Christmas time that so many people work so hard to make it happen and that so many people give generously to the fundraiser. 

Finally, in case you’re wondering about the chickens, since I haven’t posted about them in a while, they’re still getting their snacks from me.  They’re eating more now that it’s cold (not just snacks; our neighbor said they’re going through a lot more chicken food since it has been cold). 

The free-range chickens are very persistent in making sure I remember their snack every day.  Here’s a video of them enjoying some tortillas.