Shepherds Night

 Holidays and Traditions can either be a source of frustration or a source of heaven, often at the very same time.  This year I altered one of my favorite traditions to become even more splendid. I learned sometimes we try and do too much and try and make traditions too complicated and it makes it less fun. Simple is better.

Christmas Eve we always do a Shepherd's Night. We start off the night eating shepherd's pie, Have a game and read some books, scriptures, and traditionally make candy cane cookies.

Shepherd's Dinner

 

I realize that the shepherds really didn't eat shepherd's pie.  for the record most likely the shepherds ate fish, nuts, pomegranates, dates, figs, olives and other fruits that were easily dried, and pita bread.  we always set the table nice for our dinner but most likely shepherds ate on the ground with their fingers.  I thought about having a dinner with foods they ate and sitting on the ground. But my kids do not like fish, and are really not good about trying new foods like figs and dates, so I didn't want a battle on Christmas Eve, so we stick with our Shepherds Pie. But if you have more adventurous eaters it would be fun to have a real shepherds dinner.

 

Ye Shall Find the Babe

 

We then play a good game of Find baby Jesus. This is my kid's favorite Christmas tradition.  We swaddle a baby doll, and everyone dresses as a shepherd and then there is one Angel. My mom has a full set of nativity costumes, but on occasion I forget to borrow them and then we use towels and what ever we can find for ties around the head, and a pair of $1 store fairy wings, that works well too.

 

The Angel goes and hides baby Jesus somewhere in the house (while the shepherds are all waiting in a bedroom, or a bathroom or somewhere behind a closed door together).

 

And then the Angel comes and announces, "fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger"  Go find him. (the Angel then typically starts giggling uncontrollably in anticipation for the wild hunt to come)

 

 

 

Then the Shepherds disperse and look for baby Jesus. 

 

 

Who ever finds Baby Jesus gets to be the next angel and they swap costumes with the Angel

This is the point when the mom starts giggling uncontrollably because dad is dressed in a tutu and fairy wings

 

 

Shepherd Stories

This normally takes us pretty close to bed time so we just jump right into bed time stories.

Our long time favorite is J is for Jesus: the Sweetest Story Ever Told.

 

It is the story of the candy cane. My kids have loved it since they were itty bitty, so we continue to read it.  Though I am thinking of buy a couple other shepherd stories to read for next year.

I'm struggling to find any that really grab my attention so I am going to have to search the libraries and book stores. One off of amazon that looks like it might be cute is

The Greatest Shepherd of All

 

The Amazon description says: On Christmas Eve, Grandpa Woolly shares with three excited youngsters the story of the birth of Baby Jesus, and how three young sheep, much like themselves, met this greatest of all shepherds.

I will keep you posted if I find one that is just amazing.

We will also then read the scripture story of the shepherds.

Bed time

In the past we have slept on the ground all in one room together, just like the shepherds would have. the kids love this.  However I HATE sleeping on the floor, or actually I can't sleep on the floor so I have given this up, but my kids do all have a slumber party together in one room in the house.

cookies

Growing up we always made Christmas cookies for Santa Claus. I tried to carry this Christmas tradition on in my family. To tie in with the shepherd theme we made Candy Cane cookies after we read the J is for Jesus book. They are most delicious.  However, this is exactly what I am talking about by trying to add too much in to our traditions, this was just too much and it stressed me out. So I cut this out, don't worry I will provide the Heavenly Recipe. But this year we simply bought Santa his favorite cookies, Oreos, and called it good.  It just occurred to me that maybe next year we will buy him candy cane Oreos.  Now for our divine Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

 

The Fourth of July

“This nation, founded on principles laid down by men whom God raised up, will never fail. . . . I have faith in America. You and I must have faith in America if we understand the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” -President Harold B. Lee Deseret News, October 27, 1973 

When Mom was young she always went to the ball park by Grandma and Grandpa Martin’s house to watch the fireworks. Later they (being who ever shoots off the fireworks) started shooting the fireworks off from the ball park, which meant that mom could no longer go to the ball park to watch them because she might start on fire, go deaf from the loud kabooms or worse yet BLOW UP! So when she grew up and had kids of her own she started going to her mother (Grandma Martin)’s house to watch the fireworks. Her front yard was the perfect place to sit and watch the fireworks in the ball park. Grandma’s house was so close that all sorts of people would park in front of her house and in the alley to walk to the park to watch the fireworks. We would have to block off all the parking in the back of Grandma’s house so that our aunts and uncles would have a place to park, because, this was a time when all the Martin cousins, aunts and uncles gathered together. Everyone would bring their ice cream freezers and we would have home made lemon ice cream and home made peach ice cream! I remember the anticipation and the constant low grumble of the ice cream machines as they mixed the ice cream to freeze it. It was always so exciting when the ice cream had frozen enough to make the machine suddenly turn off because the ice cream was so stiff! It doesn’t get much better than that. One Independence Day I was hanging around out front and a man came up and asked if I would make sure his car stayed safe and no one broke into it, he then gave me ten dollars! It was GREAT! When car alarms first became popular the fireworks were so loud and so close that there were a bunch of car alarms that went off at the BANG of the fire works. That was the first time I remember car alarms.

 After Grandma died and Grandpa moved in with his kids, this tradition came to an end. Now for The Fourth of July our immediate family gathers together junk food and everlasting bubbles. We grab our blankets and we head to the hill at Jordan High and there we sit and wait for the Sandy City Independence Day Fireworks. Brother B, one year, sat and blew everlasting bubbles. They floated all the way down the hill and the kids chased the bubbles. Where ever Brother B and the Bubbles went there the kids went also. It was almost as if he was the pied piper. He got some nasty glares from parents and some of the parents told their kids they couldn’t play with the bubbles. It was pretty funny. Since then we have made sure we brought bubbles every time. In the past couple of years parents come up and thank us for entertaining their kids during the long wait for the fire works. We love to watch the kids with the bubbles. 

The Fourth of July was the first time the Family “MET” Sister-in-law S! Brother C and Brother D now comment all of the time that Brother J and Sister-in-law S saw their own fireworks. This was the first time Sister-in-law S got to participate with our family in our traditions. 

Charis