The Most Photographed Christmas Pageant Ever

My ward has a tradition of putting on a children’s Nativity pageant the Sunday before Christmas.  It’s something that always makes me want to get down on my knees and personally thank the Primary presidency for.  Nothing makes me feel the true Christmas spirit like this little 30-minute presentation. My mother-in-law, my parents, and my brother Alex all drove to see it.  My parents declared afterwards that the pageant is “when Christmas really begins.”

Jeffrey was a shepherd.  He’s always been a shepherd, and will probably be a shepherd until the day he turns 12 and is deemed to big for the program.  He actually sang some of the songs this year, which is a big step for him.  (He knows all the songs; he usually just kinda freezes in front of an audience and does nothing.  But not this time!  Hooray!)

Eleanor was a sheep.  She was asked to come dressed in “animal colors” — black, brown, grey, or white — and was near despair when she couldn’t find white pants in her dresser drawer.  Eventually, we were able to convince her that khaki would be okay.

Two of my Wolf Scouts got to sing a small-group song with a pair of girls, and I pointed them out to my mom.  She said, “Yes, it’s funny how fast you grow attached to them, isn’t it?”  I replied that my scouts were pretty easy to get attached to.

The kids sang sweetly, and there was only one small moment when someone forgot their lines.  I highly suspect that the kid who played the “drummer boy” had his lines taped to the edge of his drum.  And the Angel Gabriel blew a retractable trumpet that looked an awful lot like a vuvuzela.  All in all, a most excellent program.

Afterwards, there were star-shaped sugar cookies, which made William rather happy.

The center of the refreshments table had this sweet little stable made out of gingerbread.  See how they used pepitas for the roof and dried oatmeal for snow?  My mom and I want to try this out next year.  I have a whole box of animal cookie cutters I inherited from Brian’s grandma.  Mmmm, gingerdonkeys and gingerpigs!  Can’t wait.