Every year, on one weekend for three nights, the Methodist church does a special Walk through Bethlehem. They transform the gym into Bethlehem, complete with a variety of costumed vendors, shops, hay/mulch, ending in a live nativity. Outside are camels, goats, a donkey, and sheep, with costumed Wise Men, shepherds, and dancers. Everyone in costume greets you "Shalom. Peace be with you." There are beggars, entertainers, musicians; everyone asking if you've heard about The Child. You wait in line out front, and enter through a tent, where a woman reads from a scroll from the prophet Micah about the coming Messiah. Then you go into the town, passing the Wise Men - who let you smell frankencinse and myrrh. The "gold" is a piece of chocolate in gold foil. Small "gifts" are given to the children. Inside, the vendors let you sample their ware, show how people lived in the year Christ was born, and let you try your own hand at things like grinding wheat, weaving reeds, pressing papyrus, molding a piece of clay. The girls love it.
When we came to the end, and went into the darkened stable to see the child, Cameron gave her bit of clay (shaped into a bowl) as a gift. It was a very sweet gesture (and I noticed quite a few plastic beads and other trinkets in the bottom of the manger). Brenna looked at her sister and looked at her own clay - and I could tell she was NOT going to give it up. But she couldn't let Cameron out-do her. So she quickly added the other thing in her hand at the time - a sample of the basket weaving.
Afterwards, we came home and ate dinner. After they were ready for bed, I let them open their Webkinz exchange gift. Cameron has a husky she named Hawk (after Heather's own husky, Hawkeye.) Brenna named her white bunny Claire.
All in bed - thought not until almost 10 p.m. CCE is going to come awfully early in the morning!
