Family Night--The Nativity

We had a great family night yesterday--it was Nativity night, so we tried to do it up right. ;o) Again, we used things we had available to celebrate the Nativity. We had a wonderful time together as a family. Kate is still young to really "get" a lot of this stuff, but I want to introduce the story of Christ to her as early as possible. I'll let our photos tell the story ...


Our festivities began when Kate woke up from her afternoon nap. She had a snack of Chex Mix ... I mean squares of hay and straw (what's the difference?) from the manger.


While she ate, these Nativity characters watched over her from the microwave cart. These guys are part of a Nativity activity set called "What God Wants for Christmas," which was a gift from my sister Cindy.


When Kate was napping, I set up her Little People Nativity under the tree. She received this for Christmas last year and has been playing with it since the holiday decorations have been out--but before yesterday, I am not sure if it had been set up completely (or stayed that way for very long--LOL).


Next up--coloring some Nativity pages I printed from the Internet. You'll have to overlook my earring on the coffee table. haha


After that, we watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas," which includes the story of the birth of Christ from the Gospel of Luke ... as recited by Linus. :o) For some reason, Kate isn't as into the Charlie Brown Christmas program like she was the Thanksgiving one--but it is so cute that she claps when the characters clap or cheer.


We read about the birth of Jesus in one of Kate's children's Bibles (a gift from her cousin Kylie).


Then we played with a couple more children's Nativity sets--both were gifts from Deborah, a family friend.


These are plastic finger puppets--really cute!


This photo was Tanna's idea--surrounding Kate with animals from the Nativity.


Then I told Tanna we had a surprise for him--Kate dressed up as an angel! I bought this angel costume at Target when its Halloween stuff went 75% off. I was thinking Kate could maybe wear it next year, but I don't think that will work. Believe it or not, it is size 3T-4T, and it is kind of small on her now. Kate isn't in that size yet; the costume is just really small. She can play dress-up in it, though.


Awwwwww, our adorable little angel.


Sorry for the topless photo! For dinner, I attempted to make cheese toast in the shape of the Star of Bethlehem. What's that? You think it looks like a snowflake? Shhhhhh ... I used a snowflake-shaped cookie cutter (a gift from my friend Jennifer B.), but for last night, it was the Star of Bethlehem. For some reason, Kate wasn't into her cheese toast (she usually loves it), so she ate green beans and applesauce (not sure how those fit into the theme--let me know if you have any ideas. hahaha).


For dessert, we had a cupcake to celebrate Jesus' birthday. We bought this yummy cupcake at Matty Cakes earlier in the day. I had been wanting to try one of their cupcakes since reading about them on Jennifer's blog back in the summer. It was delicious--especially the peanut butter frosting.


Our big event of the night was attending a live Nativity up in Duluth. I wrote about it here.


On the drive there, we listened to great Nativity-themed Christmas music from the CD "A Ragamuffin Christmas," by the talented Carlos Whittaker. Heather, Carlos' wife, aka "Whittaker Woman," is the one who introduced me to family nights via her blog.


In addition to a donkey, we saw a camel.


And some sheep!


Our little angel had fun--and stayed up past her bedtime. We had a nice time together as a family, contemplating about the true meaning of Christmas and the greatest gift ever given, The Christ Child. Thank You, Lord, for the gift of salvation through your Son, Jesus.