The Christmas Story -- Intro

This year, I had the brilliant idea to try to act out the Nativity with the kids on Christmas Eve. All week we had talked about it, and that morning I practiced with the kids, talking them through the whole thing. I had this vision of an amazing, memorable teaching moment, where all the kids would understand the true meaning of Christmas. (Yes, I realize that my kids are 6, 3, 2, and 6 months. A girl can dream, right?) They did GREAT in practice, everyone cooperated, nobody smacked anybody else, pulled hair, or tried to run off with the baby Jesus (aka: Claire.) The real performance was both amazing and memorable, just not in the way I was hoping. Dallin took some artistic liberties with his role of the shepherd. You may not remember the verses in Luke 2 where the shepherd terrorizes the baby Jesus, attacks Joseph, or makes Mary cry. Ahh, memories.