A Night in Bethlehem

************** For our ward Christmas Party this year we had A Night in Bethlehem. When I told people what we were doing I had many people, from many different religions, tell me what a neat experience this kind of night is. They were right. I went up to the church that afternoon to help decorate, and was amazed at the transformation. The cultural center no longer looked like a gym, but like a market place in Jerusalem. My kids really enjoyed getting dressed up that night, and playing the role of ancient Jews. Decota had invited a non-member friend to go with us, and the girls were so cute as they made their rags look more "fashionable". When we walked in we were given a bag of money and were told to keep our family close as we made our way through the crowded marketplace. There were many things for us to buy, dreidels, pitas, cookies, hummus, honey; but the tax man was always close buy trying to collect taxes. Rodney would not let the kids spend a lot of the money because he was afraid there would be some repercussion if he did not have enough to pay the taxes, but he was wrong and we ended the night with a lot of extra coins (of course, the one time Rodney wants to save his money it is fake!) Declan decided he needed more money than Rodney was giving him, so he walked around with a can chanting "Money for the blind". Thanks to the gracious spirit of the people, he wound up with more money than he could spend. Suddenly music started, families gathered on blankets on the floor, and Mary, Joseph and Jesus appeared. For the remainder of the evening we enjoyed listening to, and singing carols. It was a WONDERFUL way to get into the spirit of Christmas. We all thoroughly enjoyed our night out. I look forward to doing this again one day, maybe as a family next Christmas!