All the schools have closed their doors for holidays, and we are busy getting ready for the BIG DAY. We hope you have a great Christmas at your house. As for us, we will be going to Kenny and Lori’s this evening for their 21st annual community Christmas party, church tomorrow, and, well, all the usual activities....
FIRST PUBLIC PERFORMANCE. Last Sunday night the choir at church hosted a dessert dinner. After eating we all enjoyed Christmas music. Leading off the entertainment were three of Ann Morris’ piano pupils. Jenna played We Three Kings of Orient Are as a duet with Mrs. Ann and she did a great job. She said she wasn’t nervous. We were all very proud of her.
CHEATER. Ben is a fast kid. When he takes off running you can tell it would be hard for other kids to keep up with him. Jenna sure can’t. I can still outrun him, but I know my days are numbered.
The other day he came in bragging about how he beat Jenna running back from Pauline’s. Usually when I race Ben I run to keep it close or I let him win. This time he was bragging so much I decided I’d challenge him and blow his doors in. So we went outside, agreed on a course (from the back porch, around the red house, around the chicken house and back to the porch) and took off on Jenna’s command. When I rounded the chicken house I thought I heard noises coming from the other side but I didn’t look back. On the final turn, as the porch came into view, Ben was standing there celebrating his victory. Knowing he had taken a shortcut I cried, “You cheated!”
“I did not!” came his reply, “You were getting ahead of me so I decided to go a different way!”
We brought our friendly disagreement into the house. Vicki laughed at our huffing and puffing (both from our physical exertion and our male egos).
THE NATIVITY STORY. One of the Sunday school classes at church reserved a movie theatre for a showing of this film last night and we all (except Nate) went. If you have not made time to see this movie you need to do so. This is a must see in our opinion. The acting was excellent. The movie stays about as true to the Christmas story as possible, but a few aspects were compressed or left out to make the story flow well on screen (e.g. no angelic choir appeared to the shepherds, the wise men show up the night of the birth as well as Herod’s orders to kill all the baby boys in Bethlehem being carried out that night).
This film really made everything Mary and Joseph went through become more real. I’ve thought about these things when reading the Bible but seeing this acted out on the big screen made things like the shame they suffered, the hardships of travel they endured, how life was under Roman rule and the dreams they had as parents take on a stronger reality.
I’m glad this movie came out after Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. This really made the scene after the birth more poignant for me. I kept thinking about what it felt like to hold one of my kids in my arms and look at their little faces, hands and feet. And then to think about Jesus like that, knowing the rest of the story...
(By the way, the actress that played Mary also had the lead role in Whale Rider. She did a great job in that film as well and it is a good story for a movie rental night.)
Joe
