Baby Jesus

It was so much fun to get the house decorated for Christmas.  I love my wreaths in the windows, the large red and silver balls and frames on the Christmas tree, my big Willow tree nativity, my Believe plate, my green Christmas tree candles, the clock from Grandma Polson that chimes a new Christmas tune every hour, our Elf on the shelf (Buddy)…  We have a lot of favorites.  This year I seemed to put out less than usual though.  Simple and easy.

Putting everything out was so fun with Luke.  He is in awe of our transformation.  A big twinkling tree, stockings hanging from the fire place, Christmas music playing, and siblings bouncing up and down with excitement had definitely made him excited too, only he doesn’t even really know why.

One of the last things out was the soft fabric nativity set my mom gave me a couple years ago.  All the big kids were in school.  Luke was immediately interested so I took a minute to sit down and show him the pieces.  He called the camel a horse.  He made sure all the people were standing up.  I said, ‘where is baby Jesus?’  He looked around but couldn’t find any baby.  It was still in the bag.  When I got it out he knew exactly where it went and put it in the little manger box.  Then I took all the other people and one by one made them bend over and say “Hi baby Jesus”… “Hi baby Jesus”.  Then he took baby Jesus out of the manger and made a kissing sound as baby Jesus kissed all the people… even the ‘horse’.  It was a sweet moment… one of my favorites from the season. 

I am overwhelmed sometimes by the amount of knowledge each child needs to be taught in order to gain a testimony.  My six kids are of course at different levels.  I have some children who are feeling the Spirit and their testimonies are becoming sure.  As I played ‘nativity’ with Luke I realized that this was his first time hearing about ‘Baby Jesus’.  I felt humbled to be the one to introduce him.    So much to teach…  and yet, with moments like these, I can’t wait.