So much excitement and anticipation goes into our annual Barron family nativity! It has become a family tradition. We invite everyone we can think of to come. Neighbors, teachers, everyone from church, bus drivers, mail man, people at the store, Daddy's co workers, and they are all invited to bring their friends. It is a celebration of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Our Christmas season revolves around this big event. Every year I get nervous about the animals, the hot chocolate, the cookies, the weather and are all of the actors going to show up on time. The people come and take a 20 minute tour around the backyard. The tour begins at the top of the driveway. A tour guide welcomes them and they begin their journey to Bethlehem. Daddy set up five different sound systems around the yard that play music. There is music playing along the road to get people in a quiet and reverent mood. We also have tiki torches burning all along the tour. First they enter the shepherds field. There are shepherds and goats crouched around a warm fire. As the people look at the shepherds, a bright lights comes on behind them and it is an angel appearing. She tells them of the good tidings. Then many angels appear around her and they sing "Hark the herald angels sing". After this, the travelers go on to meet a roman solder who tells them where to go and that they need to find lodging for the night. They walk on further to a small inn. They knock on the door only to find out that the inn is full. The inn keeper tells them to check the animal stalls next door. As they approach the barn, lights come on and you get to witness the nativity scene of Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The shepherds approach and then the three wise men come to worship the new born King. Beautiful music is playing in the background. After the song is done, the lights go out and the people are invited to share hot chocolate and cookies with us in the garage. They stay and visit for as long as they would like. It is a fun night and full of the true spirit of Christmas. The first year we did it we had 150 people go through, the second year we had 200. This year we had 250. We did 10 tours. A huge success! We feel so blessed to be able to do this each year. I hope that the kids remember this tradition and that it helps thier faith the Jesus Christ to grow.
