Living Nativity 2023

Hey, this is one of those time honored traditions. Me trying to get this blog caught up on all the December fun before Christmas. So we are going to try to get through catching up on the last two weeks. I'll do this post about December 11-17 and then flip around and do one of the 18-23.

The main topic of this post is the Living Nativity that happened over the weekend of December 14-16. But we need to also talk about the stuff that happened earlier in the week.

Starting out with Monday December 11th. I'd been super sick the week before, but I was feeling much better on Monday. As I helped the kids get up and out the door for school I was like, "This isn't so bad. Why did it feel so hard last week?"

Charlotte and Lydia had their first combined orchestra concert. Charlotte is in Intermediate Orchestra and Lydia is in beginner orchestra. It was fun to see them get ready. 

Charlotte wanted her hair in a braid. Then she wanted to make sure it looked okay from the back. 

Charlotte and Lydia are very similar in many ways. But they are also a little different. Charlotte was saying things like we need to be there by 6:30. Meanwhile Lydia was laying on the couch saying, "I think we just have to be there by 7:00."

They could both wear Christmas themed flare and they both had Santa Hats. 

They also both had cute earing's. These were Charlotte's. 

And these were Lydia's. 

Brandon took both girls to the Middle school so they could be there by 6:30. I stayed home with Derrick and Veronica. We played spot it for a while. 

About 10 minutes to 7:00 we got in the car to drive over to the middle school. I was thinking that we'd left in plenty of time to park and get into the concert hall, but I'd forgot that this community LOVES the orchestra. There wasn't a parking spot in the big lot and we barely got a spot in the drop off/pick up area that operates as an overflow parking.

We made it into the auditorium just as the concert started. Brandon had saved us seats on the second row, which was GREAT except Charlotte and Lydia both sat in the back. We couldn't see them at all. I got a good view of Lydia's elbow during her songs and I could see Charlotte's ankle during her songs. 

Here's the best picture I got of Lydia when she was leaving the stage after her songs. 

She came and sat by me and I took a much better picture.

Here's Charlotte when she was done. She knew that it was hard for me to see her so she made sure to move her head out for the picture. 

The concert was great, but the main thing that sticks out in my memory is that it was short. Last year the concert was combined with the band and it was SOOOOO long. This year it was just beginner orchestra and intermediate orchestra. The concert was over by 8:00.

Here's how our house looked when we got home. I love that Brandon puts lights on the house. 

Since we got home so early I had time to get the sewing machine out and work on the kids Christmas Jammies. 

Meanwhile there were a lot of fun things going on in the living room. Derrick and Veronica were playing some sort of game and Lydia was working on a quilt. 

Charlotte had her computer out and was probably working on math homework. 

There were dress up days every day of the week at the Middle School. Tuesday was wrapping paper day. We'd bought big bows at Hobby Lobby for Charlotte and Lydia to wear. They were really excited about it. 

Derrick was also excited. He had never cared about dress up days ever. But for some reason he cared about this one. We went out to the garage to the wrapping stuff out there and found a small green bow. He put it on his shirt and proudly wore it the whole day at school.

That afternoon we had our last semi-simultaneous Boys and Girls Activity. Derrick and I dropped Veronica off at the church at 4:30 for girls activity. Then we went to Hobby Lobby to return some girls that we'd bought on accident on Saturday. (We'd grabbed some small LED lights for Charlotte and Lydia's best friends. When we got home we realized they were for a car and only ran off car power. So those went back to the store.) After we returned the gifts Derrick wanted to go to the toy aisle. He looked for gifts that were the size of the present that Charlotte bought him. He was shaking the toys to see which ones sounded like the one under the tree. 

Then we went back to the church and I dropped him off for Boys activity at 5:00. I went to Smiths and bought something (I've completely forgot what.) Then I went back to the church to pick up Veronica at 5:30. We were going to wait for Derrick to be done at 6:00, but we popped into the gym to check on him. He was doing a painting activity. He wasn't enjoying it very much so we all decided to just go home then. 

Veronica showed me the lego nativity scene she'd been working on. 

It was really cute. 

She was also doing a lot with dominos in her room.

That evening Brandon was doing a marathon math homework session with both twins. Here he is helping Lydia. He also helped Charlotte. This is another area where the girls are different. After doing a lot of work on their homework they both had Bs. Lydia was like, "WhooHoo!!!! I have a B."  And Charlotte was like, "Oh no! I have a B."

I spent another evening doing lots of sewing. 

By the end of the night I had Derrick's sleeper done - except for the hood. (He's wearing it over his old sleeper so that's the hood that you see.) He was so excited about it. 

Veronica had had a panic attack at school on Tuesday on so when she started telling me that she didn't feel well on Wednesday morning I figured it had more to do with the panic attack than having a cold. 

Still I let her stay home. But I made her rest in her room for a long time. It was my day off, so I didn't have to go into work at Aspen Grove. BUT I had a lot of stuff I needed to do for Castle Therapy. I took care of that and then took a break by watching the last little bit of the Industrial Light and Magic documentary.  

Veronica came down and watched the last little bit with me. She told me, "This makes me want to watch Star Wars."  I was like, "sure!" So we turned on Star Wars and watched that while I did a really boring data entry project.  

Watched the last little bit of Light and Magic. Then star wars while doing boring data entry

We had to pause the movie about halfway through so that I could take Veronica to therapy. This was scheduled, but the timing was perfect because she was able to talk to her therapist about the panic attack. 

While Veronica was at therapy I went and picked Derrick up at school and then came back and got Veronica. We all went home and finished watching Star Wars. 

That afternoon when Charlotte and Lydia came home we all drove around to deliver neighbor gifts. We used to do plates of cookies, but Covid made us lazy. Now we do wrapped boxes of brownie mix. The kids love giving these out because when we are in our neighborhood I don't make them wear their seatbelts. And this time we were driving around with the sliding doors open. It was really funny. 

We also did gifts for the kids church teachers and my ministering sisters. We had to drive out of our neighborhood for those, so my kids had to wear seat belts. When we dropped off a gift at my friend Nicole's house I had to look up her address.  I pulled over and made sure we were in front of the right house. Then I backed up so we could be more in front of her house. I didn't realize her garbage can was behind me and I back up into it. Nothing got hurt, but we laughed about it for ever. 

Then it was back home for dinner and more math homework. Brandon was a saint to sit with the girls and talk them through all the homework. 

At 6:45 I went to the church to help prep for the ward party. The party would be on Saturday and I wasn't even going to be able to go because my family would be busy with the Living Nativity. But I wanted to help because I was so happy that I could actually do my calling. 

Basically the only thing I've done for this calling is water related. And this was not different. We had special decorative wraps that we were putting around the water bottles that would be served at the ward party. 

Water again. 

Is it any wonder I'm starting my own Ladies Scripture Study group? 

Or is it any wonder why I'm also volunteering at the Warming Center?

Speaking of which, when I was done with the water bottle prep I went straight to the Warming Center for my shift there. 

Things were much more organized than 2 weeks earlier. And I knew what I was doing a little better. I helped set out cots and bedding. I also set out the food and drinks that are available for the guests. There were five guests that night. 

I got home around 11:00 and then stayed up reading. I was reading the Glass Castle and I was sucked in. 

The next morning I got up and went around waking up the kids. Derrick was asleep on the couch. He said he had thrown up. So he didn't go to school. 

I had a ton of work to do and I didn't want to do it from home. Derrick said he was fine staying home alone so I let him stay home and I went to work. 

I took a nap that afternoon so I could have a personality that evening. That was important because that evening was the first night of the Living Nativity. 

We had an early dinner and then it was time to get into costumes. I took these pictures the next night, but I'm going to put them here so you can see them. 

Here's Charlotte's costume. She had the cutest little brown dress that she said she would probably wear just anyway. Over that dress she had a long vest made out of real wool. It was felted rather than woven. She had a brown head scarf. 

Here's Veronica. She had a blue tunic with a really pretty poncho over it. She also had gold and blue scarves.

Here's Lydia. She had a white tunic and everything else was blue. It's hard to see but her little poncho had a woven detail. It reminded me of the details on Charlotte's poncho the past two years. 

And here I am. In other years I've complained about the fact that all my outfits always just make me feel like I can't dress right in any century. But this year I liked my outfit. My poncho was cute and I felt like I got the head wrap right this year. 

I didn't take a picture of Brandon at home, but here he is on the set. I like this picture of the both of us. 

I always like the 30 minutes at the Bethehem village before any visitors arrive. It's just people in costume making sure everything is ready. Here are people bringing around lamps (and nearly catching on fire.)

Here's Brandon's fish stand. He took over this stand in 2019 and has never given it up.

Here's some of the other stands. 

A Roman soldier. 

More stands. 

Ivan showed up and he and Brandon were so funny together. At one point they were singing "If I were a fish man" to the tune of "If I were a rich man." As a reminder, we met Ivan though the Living Nativity in 2021. He invited Brandon to join the Magic Valley Rep. Brandon and Ivan were in Guys and Dolls together in 2022 and then Music Man in 2023. Ivan started his own OT business this year and I volunteered to help him with his billing. That turned into another part time job. Ivan also helped us figure out how to help Derrick with some OT things. And he's just been an awesome friend. All of that came from the Living Nativity. 

Here's Veronica walking around. She really wanted a chicken so I helped her pull one out of the chicken coop.

Here's a weaving shed. 

Charlotte and Lydia really wanted to be in charge of sheep again. So they ran over to the field and got out sheep. 

They went to the entrance and let people pet the sheep as they came in. 

I started out at the rug stand next to the fish stand. But then I realized the basket stand on the other side of the fish stand had a CHAIR. So I moved over there. I spent most of the night sitting in that chair. Veronica sat by me and and made up a whole thing about a "wishing basket."  She'd have kids come over to her basket and make a wish. Then she'd lift the basket. The chicken was in the basket. She said the chicken meant that their wish would come true. 

Here's Charlotte hanging out. Charlotte had her eyes on the baby goat at the cheese making stand next to us. She really really really wanted to hold the baby goat. I overheard those people say that they were only here for one night so I told Charlotte I'd see if she could be in charge of the goat the next night. 

Here I am taking selfies. 

I didn't realize it at the time. But I look a lot like the painting "Girl with a Pearl Earing" in this picture. 

See the resemblance. 

Here's our traditional family picture. You are probably wondering where Derrick is. Well he has more sense than any of us and didn't want to spend the evening freezing. He stayed home and watched movies. 

Actually as far as December nights go, this night was a balmy 34 degrees. Last year temps had been in the low teens. So even though it was cold, it wasn't as cold as other years have been. 

Another difference this year was that the 8:30 end time didn't seem super late. When we started participating in the Living Nativity Charlotte and Lydia were only in 3rd grade. 8:30 had been WAY past their 7:00 PM bedtime. Now the bed time is at 8:45 and that's really only a guideline. 

Coming home at 9:00 didn't affect anyone's ability to get to school on time on Friday. 

My plan for Friday was to do a little bit of work and spend most of the day getting the house ready for my sister Emily and her family to come visit. They were going to arrive around 9:00. I didn't plan on going to the Living Nativity that night because I felt bad about leaving Derrick home alone for another night. I figured I'd have a productive night cleaning the bathrooms and then sewing pajamas. 

But the baby goat changed that plan. 

I texted Brit and asked her if Charlotte could be in charge of a baby goat. Brit said she could as long there was a responsible adult with her at the cheese stand. And since Brandon wasn't leaving the fish stand I was going to be that responsible adult. 

Brandon helped get the bathrooms clean while I made dinner and then it was time to get into costumes and go to the living nativity again. 

We were there a little early so that the video people could get footage of us. The lady took a video of the girls talking and pretending to sell baskets. Then she came over to the cheese stand and took a video of my hands as I squeezed out the whey from the curds. I was happy to do that for the video, but the whey was slimy and cold so I never touched it again that night. 

Charlotte and I went to find Britt so she could tell us where to find the baby goats. There were two of them in a little cat carrier. Britt helped pull them out of the carrier. Charlotte got the black goat and called him Black Beauty. But later changed his name to Oreo. She was so happy about that goat.

 

Here's our cheese stand. Like I said, it had real curds and whey as well as two wheels of cheese. 

Veronica's basket stand was next to the cheese stand and Brandon's fish stand was next to that. It was like the Illguth's were moving up in the world to have our own row of shops. 

There was a bag stand next to us on the other side and then a shop with wool.

Here's the cheese stand with Charlotte next to it. She had to sit with the goat the whole night. She sat out in front of the booth so that people could stop and pet the goat. So many people said things like, "Oh my gosh it's a goat!"

Here's Lydia standing in the stand where I hung out all night. Most of the night she was over with Brandon at the fish stand. 

Here's Veronica with her baskets. She had a chicken in one again and spent most of night doing her wishing basket routine again. 

Here's the chicken.

This is looking toward the entrance where there were people lined up. I was trying to take a picture of the roman soldiers on horse back. 

And then they moved right in front of my stand and I got excellent pictures. 

Here's another selfie of me. By the way, I am TERRIBLE at staying in character or really even finding a character. I can't get out of reporter mode. I just want to document everything. So I'm the one hiding my phone and whipping it out to take pictures when there aren't any visitors around. I'm also ALWAYS mentally making notes of the things that are happening. 

Here's another view of the girls hanging out at the baskets. You can see Brandon cooking his fish in the background. There was one notable change to his stand this year - he didn't have a gaggle of children helping him out. In other years there were always a bunch of kids hanging around. Especially a boy named James. I actually found a little video I took in 2019 of Lydia saying, "Mom, this is our helper James."  James has always been at the fish stand with Brandon. But this year James was old enough to have his own stand. He jumped around from the incense stand and a few other places. On Saturday night I saw him at the sandal stand. Not only did the Illguths have a whole row of stands, our workers were growing up too.  

The Living Nativity officially starts at 6:30. When people started walking through I quickly realized that I needed to look busy. So I found about 10 cloths that were supposed to be straining clothes. I folded and refolded those clothes for 2 - nearly 2.5 hours. I folded them in triangles, I folded them in rectangles, I folded them in fan shapes. 

Some people stopped to ask about the cheese and I explained the process - basically based what I'd read in  Little House in the Big Woods. But the big draw was the baby goat. Here's Lydia taking a little turn while Charlotte got hot chocolate.  

Oh here's James. He stopped by for a second while Veronica was getting hot chocolate. He pretended to sell baskets and then moved on.

One of the fun things about the living nativity is seeing people I know go through as visitors. It's fun to say hi to them. Veronica's vision therapist came through on Thursday and Friday night. I saw two coworkers. Brandon had a ton of coworkers come through too. There were also a lot of friends from church. My friend Jori came through with her daughters and loved it. This was her first time. She's actually been to markets in Jerusalem and she said this took her back. She said she nearly cried at the incense booth. I told her I was going to have to tell Britt that.  And then Britt just happened to walk by. 

I hurried to take Jori over to Britt and introduce her. I told Jori, "Tell her what you told me about this place." She did and Britt was so happy to hear all the praise. I'm glad it worked out that way. 

The event was supposed to be over at 8:30, but there were still people milling about all the way until 8:45. And really who could blame them? It was another "warm" evening. There really wasn't a rush to get home. 

We got home around 9:00. Derrick had been fine on his own for another evening. We hung around for a little bit and then Emily and her family arrived at 9:30. It was so fun to see them all. They haven't been to our house in like 18 months. 

I was a little worried about the logistics of having 8 people in our house in winter. Every other time they've come to visit us has been in the summer. We've been able to eat on the patio. I wasn't sure how it would work this time. But it was fine.

The kids were all a little wired so I don't think they got to bed until about 10:30 or 11:00, but that was fine. 

On Saturday morning Brandon made muffins and everyone could eat those without sitting so we didn't have to worry about seats at the table. 

Emily and I sat on the couch and talked. Our goal was to sit there and do nothing until 11:00. We actually pushed that to 11:45. It was great. 

In the afternoon we went out to the garage and made gingerbread houses. Brandon had moved the table to the middle of the room and covered it with white paper so it was the perfect work space. I'd bought gingerbread house kits and decorations. I'd also made stiff frosting to supplement the not so stiff frosting from the kits.

The kids had a blast decorating their houses.

The garage was the perfect place for this. We had so much room.

Derrick was very serious about his house.

Look at all of these hard workers.

Here's Derricks final house.

Here's Veronica working on her house.

She had a lot of fun.

This corner was probably put the most effort into their houses.

I'd been teasing Charlotte that ginger bread houses were her religion. She'd almost cried when I told her we were doing them with cousins.

Hazel put a ball pit into her house.

Here Charlotte's house. It's so cute.

I put all the houses together into a village.

I can't get over how cute they are.

This was such a cute project. I'm glad we did it.

We went back in the house and the kids watched a movie. I took a nap. We had baked potatoes and chilli for dinner. We ate that in the garage

The whole reason Emily and her kids came to visit was to see the living nativity. I was going to stay with them. So I didn't get into my costume. Brandon and the girls got into their costumes and went.

Around 6:30 Emily and her family Derrick and I got in our cars to drive to the living nativity. Emily followed me there. 

We parked a few blocks away and then walked to the entrance. Right away I could tell it was super crowded! Like so much more than other nights. I was in semi-panic mode trying to keep track of everyone.

But I was also happy to take pictures when ever I wanted.

We went to Illguth row. Charlotte had the goat again. 

No one was at the cheese stand so I think she was just confidently being her own responsible adult and hoping no one in charge would notice.

Here are Emily's boys at the basket stand.

Here's Brandon 

Lydia helping sell fish.

We walked around some more. This was a seafood stand.

With a real octopus! Britt goes all out.

We left the market place and went around back. There were shepherds.

And wisemen.

And the holy family.

We came back to the market and had two mini disasters. I told some of Emily's boys to not get second helpings of hot chocolate,but they did anyway and I got a little mad. I was like "there are so many people here. I'm not sure they have enough hot chocolate fur everyone."

The second mini disaster was that Juniper lost one of her boots.

But both ended up with happy endings. I felt bad about the hot chocolate incident so when we got back home we had a mini hot chocolate party -with the last if the whipped cream.

And I told Emily we'd go back when the nativity ended at 8:30 and look for the boot.

It was so fun to go back without the kids and without the crowds. 

Here are my three girls hanging out with the goat. This was basically Charlotte's dream Christmas present.

We found the boot on the hot chocolate table. So then we spent the rest of the time looking around. Here's a spice table.

Some of the booths still had people at them. Emily got the VIP treatment. The present booth let her put some birds around her neck and take a picture 

She was able to take pictures behind the seafood booth and the wool dying booth. 

We also looked at everything closely.i always like this bread.

We also ran into Britt. I'd told Britt my sister was coming from Layton. Britt was so happy to meet Emily. She was like "oh you came! I'm so happy." Britt is a master at making people feel special. 11,000 people came through the Living Nativity, but she took the time to celebrate Emily coming.

We went home. (We took Veronica with us because she was pretty done.) As soon as I got home there was a knock on the door. The bishops family was delivering left over ham and potatoes from the ward party. Those became breakfast the next day.

Brandon and the twins eventually came home. We stayed up talking for a little while but soon everyone went to bed.

Making it to church the next morning had been somewhat up in the air. But the adults woke up early enough to get the kids up. So we all made it to church. 

After church Emily's family packed up and then hung out for a little while. After they left our house seemed so much quieter. It was nice, but also kind of sad.

And I think that's where we will end this post. I'm hoping to finish another one about the next week before things get too busy with Christmas Eve. We'll see.

Thanks for reading.