hey, this post is timely if you celebrate magi style

(after all, the kings didn't show up until jesus was a toddler, y'all)

last year matt & i decided that we wanted to begin an annual tradition of our kids (and our friends' kids) acting out the nativity story. (i didn't blog about it last year, but my friend amy captured it here if you want to take a peek.) it is not super structured, more of the idea is for the kids to learn the story by acting it out and having it become a part of their own celebration of christmas. there are no set parts- if we have a couple of marys, then so be it (although last year the magi seemed to be hot ticket characters and this year we had quite a few angels). parents can help their kids by walking them through the story as we act it out, or by being one of the characters too. 

one of the shepherds (my mom) intermingles with a wise king (my niece) before we start

our wandering minstrels practice

and then we are off!

matt narrated the story and we all set off to find baby jesus.

first we stopped at one inn...

"there is no room in the inn!"

and then we tried another inn...

"there is no room at the inn! but you can crash over there"

the innkeeper shows mary where she can rest

and a short while later

baby jesus is born!

joseph keeps watch over him

and the young family poses in the hay

post-birth we sang away in the manger

mary & joseph bonded with their baby while an angel took up residence behind them

the lo & behold the heavenly hosts came to the shepherds to give them

 the crazy good news about baby jesus

even the sheep think it's good news

some of the shepherds are in disbelief but they go to visit baby jesus

the angel takes up a post in front of the baby's manger 

after the inn-keeper attacks baby jesus with hay & needs a time-out on the outskirts of bethlehem

we sing some more songs & a couple of years pass...

some kings come from the east looking for jesus

we see a star!

and find him...

and then we escape king herod by a back way, 

that includes singing some more &

 decorating cookies shaped like the nativity

a 3 year old's version of decorating a cookie

one of the angels partakes of a little sustenance

(you can watch the short video here if my play-by-play pictures didn't suck you in:)

we re-enacted the story again on christmas eve and christmas, 

and m knew everything that was happening and what came next in the story. 

i love that each time we do this 

it is kind of unorganized, a mess of random characters and a bit of confusion, 

because really - that is probably how the first christmas really was.