The Baxters: Live Nativity

At the beginning of December (I know, I'm behind. Time to play catch up) we went with my family to a live nativity up in Alpine. My mom had heard that it was a really good one and she got everyone tickets beforehand (it's a good thing she did because it ended up being sold out when we got there!) and we all met at a church in the area. We waited in a very long line for a trailer ride up to the nativity area where there are no roads. We ended up waiting in that line for an hour, and I was holding Crew the whole time because every time I tried to put him in the stroller he would wake up and fuss. When we finally got up there, we met a shepherd who told us a little bit about what it was like back in Bethlehem in the days when Christ was born. Then we saw several animals, which the kids all really loved. After that we saw, to our dismay, another line. We had never been to this nativity before so none of us knew what to expect. We didn't know there was going to be a first line, a trailer ride, or another long second line! We waited in the second, slow moving line but we still weren't able to see anything coming up in the near future for the nativity. Finally, Jon and I had to leave because the baby had to be fed. Not too long after the rest of my family left too (without having seen the nativity) because it would have been at least another 30 to 60 minutes before they got to the nativity and with kids in that cold weather during dinner time, nobody was prepared for that. But despite not being able to see anything besides one shepherd and some animals, I found myself being very humbled by the whole situation. While it was annoying to be standing in those lines that no one had told us about for so long and not seeing anything, I was still carrying my little barely 1 month old baby. Carrying him for nearly 2 hours made me tired, and as it got darker and colder and I had to hug him closer to my chest to keep him warm, I started to feel a little more appreciation for Mary and what she went through, carrying her baby among those smelly animals, walking through the grass and mud, trying to keep him warm and protected. I wonder if she knew how much suffering her baby would have to go through someday. If I knew my baby would have to go through so much, I don't think I could ever let him go! I would want to hold him close to me forever to protect him from the world. Even though it was kind of a pain to go up there and wait in those long lines for nothing, It was really a sweet experience for me too and I'm glad I went. Since I was holding the baby, Jon took some pictures: