Oh, Come Let Us Adore Him

On Saturday we attended The Christmas Nativity Exhibit hosted by our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This is an annual event. It takes one week to set up and starts with just tables and tablecloths. Then members of 7 congregations donate hundreds of personal nativity sets, Christmas decorations, and time and transform the church gym into something beautiful and awe inspiring.

Musical numbers are played throughout the 2 day exhibit by individuals, churches, and other groups throughout our community. Keri assisted the Primary children (ages 3-11) in providing their musical numbers which included The Shepherd's Carol, Christmas Bells, and Samuel Tells of the Baby Jesus. The last of which refers to the prophesy of the ancient American prophet, Samuel, regarding the coming of Christ (Heleman 13: 2-4, 14: 2-4, 3 Nephi 1:9-15) as revealed in the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.

There is no admission fee to the exhibit and it is a special setting to feel the Spirit. The Christmas Nativity Exhibit is a lovely way to begin the month and stay focused on what is important: the gift of our Heavenly Father of His Son, Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ's gift of His atoning sacrifice.

It was fun to point out Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus, not to mention a few camels, to Sophie. We've been trying to teach her about Christ's birth and it seem to hit her when we said that Christmas was about Jesus being born and that we celebrate his birthday on Christmas. The key word there was "birthday" and it must have conjured up visions of birthday cake and candles in her mind. Anyway, it appears the light bulb went on and she gets that Christmas is about Jesus and that it's a special day.

We brought our Saturday to a close by dropping the kids off at our friends' house (thank you!) and going to a casual Christmas party where we ended up with an awesome white elephant gift--a framed cheesy portrait of another guest couple!