Jesus is the Reason for the Season

Obviously the month of December and into the New Year was pretty busy for us - as it is for everyone. (Hence the lack of posts.) We had so much fun this year preparing for Christmas with Anna being the sweet age of 2 and of course celebrating Megan's first Christmas.

Anna found an affection for Nativities this year. We set ours up and she was very interested in checking out the shepard and the camel and looking at Mary getting ready to hold her precious baby. She then became very excited every time we drove somewhere and she had the opportunity to look for "Marewee, Jofish and Baby Jesus." It was always a treasured moment for me to hear her screaming from the back seat, "Mommy, another Baby Jesus!!!" It was a gentle reminder that we all should be so excited to see, and even search, for another Baby Jesus among the crazy secular materialism that our culture has created in Christmas.

Having a two year old this year forced us to focus first on Jesus' Birthday. We explained that Santa was friends with Baby Jesus and that Jesus wanted him to help deliver presents to everyone to celebrate his birthday. Surpisingly, we think Anna "got it". She knew we were celebrating a birthday complete with birthday cake and presents.

We made some fun stops at a few Nativities around town including the Cincinnati tradition at Krohn's Conservatory and a new experience for us at the Comboni Mission Center in Beechmont. They have a beautiful miniature Bethlehem set up with animation and an audio story teller. Anna really loved it and probably loved running up and down the hallways a little more.