December in a nut shell

Well I meant to post right after Christmas and catch up on all the events around here, but ever since December 26th we have been without a working phone line and therefore no internet either. We didn't report the problem until December 31st since we discovered the problem right before we were to head to North Carolina for Christmas with my family. But if we had known that it would take so long to send a worker out for 5 minutes to fix a wire on the telephone pole we definitely would have reported it before leaving town. Can you tell that we have been a little frustrated?

Anyway, I thought I would try to give a quick look at a few of the holiday festivities in the Hollans house for December. So here it goes....

A couple of years ago we went for the first time to the Nashville Christmas parade and were honestly impressed with the number of big balloons (like the ones in the Macy's parade) and floats that went by. It was so much fun and the kids loved it. They came home parading through the house for days and talked about the parade in the middle of summer. We have tried to go each year since, only this year the temperature was in the low 20's! That somehow added to the fun and excitement. I dressed the kids in so many layers of clothes that I felt like the mother from the movie The Christmas Story. In fact, Naomi really did have a hard time moving around because of the number of layers she was wearing. Still though we had a great time as you can tell from this picture...













And what made it best of all was when in the middle of the parade Ethan asked HG, "Daddy, are you happy? I'm very happy!!"

Another Nashville Christmas tradition is to "Walk thru Bethlehem". A church in town transforms into the city of Bethlehem so visitors can walk through and experience what life was like in Biblical times. It is absolutely amazing - you would never believe as you look around that your just in a church fellowship hall - the ground is covered in mulch and the ceiling with burlap.

The children get to see Roman guards walking through the streets, there is a census where the kids have to give their name to be counted, then the kids get to visit the city and see the temple, fish market, olive oil press, pottery shop, tent makers, musicians, wine press (the kids love throwing grapes in for the lady to walk on), weavers, and much much more. And at each area there are things for the kids to make or do.

One of the things they can make is a rag doll which is apparently the kind Mary would have played with. And as you visit everyone is in costume and full character asking the children how far they traveled and if they had heard about the special baby that was born. So, when you leave Bethlehem you find a small manger outside with the live nativity scene.

In the past we have found that the manger has been filled with the little rag dolls children have made, but this year my kids decided beforehand that they wanted to keep the rag doll so they made their own gifts to leave - crosses made out of popsicle sticks and several pictures. Every time we drive past this church Ethan and Naomi yell "There's Bethlehem!" In fact, I think they may really think this is the true Bethlehem!


























Although December was jam packed with other notable events I wanted to share about just one more... I learned over Christmas that it doesn't matter if a boy is 5-years-old or 70-years-old, the Star Wars light saber still has the same magic. Ethan and Granddaddy both had lots of fun fighting with the light saber.













But ....Granddaddy learned that a wrapping paper roll is no match against two light sabers!