O Come Let Us Adore Him

Every year, our church has a Festival of the Nativities where hundreds of nativities are put on display.  There is one huge display in the cultural hall of our building, a smaller, cozier display in the multi-purpose room, decorated to appear as though you've just stepped into someone's home, and two children's rooms where there are nativities to play with, stories to hear, crafts to make, costumes to try one, etc.  In addition, there are live musical performances held in the chapel, a live nativitiy one of the evenings, and even the lawn and foyers are decorated beautifully to welcome thousands of visitors.  The festival is a four day event and open to the public for free.  It's one of our favorite ways to start the holidays!

My mom came up a couple of years ago to attend the festival and has been hooked ever since.  She was back up this year, with my brother, Ben.  I wish I had taken more pictures, but here are some of the few I did take.  First of all, Ben was SO patient with Rori!  She loved having him here and I dare say, abused the poor guy quite a bit.  Proof:



Here are some pictures of the Festival:


These were taken in the first children's room.  In this room, there are nativities that are kid-friendly so the kids can play with them, trees decorated by the children in our church, a story corner, and my kids' favorite: costumes to dress up in and a stable scene to take pictures in:



In the other children's room, there is a craft to make, building blocks to play with, and a corner where wood whittling can be demonstrated.  This room is called Jospeh's Workshop:



We really love this event and are so grateful to be able to share it with our family.  This year, I had about 20 nativities/items displayed in the festival, including the handmade nativity that my cousin made me last year.  I love participating in it!  I love the spirit of the whole event: going to set up my nativities, seeing all the other contributors and volunteers putting it all together, hearing the beautiful music during the festival, seeing the hundreds of different kinds of nativities, watching the kids dress up as part of the Nativity story, feeling the spirit, seeing the community come to celebrate and worship our Savior, etc. 

Recently, my mom posted this and this on her blogs.  Good thoughts and reminders about our Savior during this season as well as every other day of the year. :)