The live Nativity

For the past few weeks I have been helping with the Live Nativity that is put on at our church each December. This is a two night event.  We invite our whole city to attend by handing out flyers and posting signs at the major intersections.  When people arrive at the church they first go into the chapel where Christmas music is being sung or performed by local musicians.  Then every 20 minutes the chapel doors open and the people inside proceed out to the parking lot (on the other side of the church building from where they parked) to where a stable has been constructed and there are about 100 chairs set up under a canopy. Everyone sits down and enjoys watching the nativity story unfold to15 minutes of prerecorded music and narration.   The seminary youth, ages 14-17, dress in costume and are the actors.  Following the performance everyone heads back  into the church to the cultural hall where there is a small crèche display and homemade cookies and hot chocolate.  This year our ward was in the charge.  I was asked to be in charge of the costumes.  There are about 40 costumes for the nativity and I made sure everything was washed, wrinkle free and ready for the kids to wear.  I filled bags with each costume's accessories.

I put each costume in the dryer with a wet towel to steam out all the wrinkles.

And I took pictures of what pieces go with which costume so the kids would know how their costumes went together.  This is one of the 10 shepherd's costumes.

I was there at the church for the dress rehearsal and 2 nights of performances. My job was to supervise the youth backstage and help them with their costumes.  They just put the costumes over their regular clothes but some of their accessories needed pinned on by me.

My daughter Holly visited with her Angel friends in one corner.

 I was happy she posed for a picture for me.

This picture was taken during the performance of Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus (who was just a doll).

 Holly came out as an angel and appeared to the shepherds.  This picture was taken at the end when all the kids came out to bow.

Today I am thankful that:

*I got to help with the live nativity this year.  It  took a lot of hours for everyone involved and we all complained but in the end we all made some good memories. 

They were unable to find the star that goes over the stable so I was happy I had one to bring to the performance.  Scott made this out of a wire a few years ago.

 *Holly recently put all her iPod pictures onto the computer and so now I get to see all the fun things she takes pictures of.   This picture was taken at school.

 *This was another of the fun pictures she had.  Pretty funny!