The Living Nativity

The first weekend in December, there was a Living Nativity here in Alpine.   We invited another family and went to see it. 

 

It was really cool how they had it all set up!  It was just on the edge of town and I think it crossed over a few different properties.  It starts at the bottom of a hill on a dirt path that you follow all the way up to the barn where the nativity was.  Along the way, they had shepards watching over their flock,

 

 and animals that would have been present, like donkeys and camels, and people dressed up, walking along the path with you or standing by a warm fire.

They even had HUGE men dressed up as Roman Soldiers!  Some were walking around and a few were riding big horses.  I have no idea where they found these guys!  They were some really big men! The costumes were amazing!  It took quite a while as we traveled along the path with hundreds of other people that had also come to see "baby  Jesus".

It was COLD!!!!  I don't think any of us had ever been so cold! 

But it gave us a good excuse to cuddle up!

About half way (It had already been over an hour), our friends decided it was too cold for their little ones, who were also starting to get tired, so they left.  We looked ahead at the line of people and wondered if we should call it a night too.  Ashlyn was very upset and said, "You mean we won't get to see Baby Jesus?!".  Jason and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows and knew we couldn't leave.  We took her frozen hands in ours and continued on our little journey.

It made me wonder what it might have been like for those that followed the star to find the Christ child.   I imagine it wasn't so cold, but I'm sure there were times that  the journey was hard or they questioned if they should go back.  It made me grateful for the experience and for Ashlyn's sweet spirit.

Towards the end of our journey we came to a big barn guarded by two huge Roman Soldiers.  They let a few people in at a time so it wouldn't get too crowded.  Inside was what looked like a small village.  There were the Three Wisemen,

Little shops set up with workers, and more animals.  It was really cool!!  I wish I had taken more pictures, but I couldn't feel my fingers by then!

Across the way we could see the barn where we would find Baby Jesus, but we still had to travel around to the back side of the building before we could go in.

We passed a beautiful choir singing Hark The Harold Angels Sing!, Silent Night, etc.  It was so peaceful and a temporary distraction from the bitter cold.

 

At last we were able to enter the barn and feel the sweet spirit of the living nativity scene.

 It's definitely on the list of things to do next year if we are here.