Street of Bethlehem

The first scene
Kaden couldn't decide if he loved or was terrified of the Roman soldiers. 
Mary and Joseph making their entrance
Think Tinkerbell/Angel. The angel was pulled up behind the stable so that she looked like she was flying. Very exciting. 

  Friday night, Matt and I took the boys to walk through the Street of Bethlehem. This is something that my daddy used to take us to do each Christmas...only 10 years ago it wasn't nearly as big as it is today. A local church in Salinas puts on this amazing production every year that allows you to walk through what Bethlehem would have been like at the time Christ was born. They have Roman soldiers with real swords (Kaden was very impressed that they were real) riding horses and managing the crowd, donkeys (of course), goats, sheep, horses, bunnies (none of these were great for my allergies but the boys LOVED them.) and the church members are all dressed like they are from Biblical times, and they even had flying Angels! 

   Let me start off by saying, we had a very hard time finding parking even though we attempted to follow the posted parking signs. In our defense the sign that we followed had an arrow pointing right into a lot full of cars which we assumed meant we were supposed to park there. However, we quickly found out that we were not at the place where the buses were picking people up and driving them to Bethlehem. Faced with the choice of reparking the car or walking we opted for walking....bad idea. We started huffing it down this street (mind you it's cold, we're pushing Caleb but Kaden is walking, it's very dark, we have no idea where we are, and Salinas is NOT the safest place to wander. ) We head about 10 blocks or more from where we parked as we see buses turning on that street...the buses were turning there to go back to the parking what we didn't know was that after leaving Bethlehem the buses drove about 4 blocks north and then turned around to head to where they needed to be. We figured that out once we'd walked about another 10 blocks up from the other direction and ended up on a street that was close to where we needed to be not accessible...so we backed tracked and finally wound our way to Bethlehem (in reality we were close to where we parked and had we stopped and figured that out we would've saved a lot of time and grief! :) We tried to keep a positive attitude and explain to Kaden and to ourselves that this is what Mary and Joseph must have felt like...discouraged and tired! 

  Once we got there, I realized how big this thing had grown. You know at Six Flags when you're waiting for a ride and you have to wind in and out of all the turns to get to the actual ride....it was just like that! There were like 20 or more turns to go through before you could even get in! There were easily a thousand people waiting and they would let maybe 200 in at a time. The first scene was the wise men coming to visit the governor to find out where the new King was born. Then they let you pass into Bethlehem (the whole time the Roman soldiers are very rude and treat you like your there to pay taxes) and walk through the booths. They have booths that show how they made yarn, pottery, bread, tools, cloth, toys, incense etc. It's really neat but very overwhelming as it is so crowded. Next you pass through these gates and watch Mary and Joseph come into Bethlehem looking for a place to stay. Everyone is invited back to the stable and as you walk through the next opening there's a mountain scene where the shepherds are. The do a dancing/singing angle routine and then you finally see Baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph. The dramatic climax is when the angel flies into the air in celebration of his birth. The church does a good job talking about why Jesus was born and on the way out of the church they have 3 crosses set up as a reminder of why Jesus came. It was fun to go to as a family (once we got there) and a neat experience for the boys.

     My favorite quotes of the night...Kaden: "What is that SMELL" Mommy, "That's a donkey."

  Kaden upon hearing Mary ask, "Is there no one compassionate in this town that will help us tonight?"    "I WILL!!!!"

   Caleb while watching Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus, "Yeah for Babies, Yeah for Jesus, Yeah for Babies!"