December 24th

Hi from Naomi! One of my favorite things about Christmas is the Christmas Eve Program at church - this picture is of the children's chior singing. (consisting of the angels, shepherds, wisemen, Mary and Joseph, innkeeper, soldier, animals...) There were quite a few songs in the program, but my favorites were the children singing, "I'm Richer than a King" and the "orchestra" playing "In the Bleak Mid-winter".

"Mary" holding baby Jesus - Daniel! He didn't cry at all! Whatever else we do in the program, we always try to include the basic Christmas story - it helps us all remember what's really important in the midst of everything else.

This year we did the skit from the cantata, "The Richest Family in Town" - Silas played the part of Sammy and he did a great job! For those of you that haven't heard it...it's about a family in the late 40's that decides to scrimp and work to get money for a special offering their church is taking for the poorest family in town. To thier shock and dismay, the church gives the offering to them! In the end, they give the money to a visiting missionary - we've listened to the CD so many times over the years, we could almost all play any of the parts! Amos and Rebekah did a lot of the planning for the program.

Priscilla - or Gabriel #2

About 140 people came to the program and it all went very well (in spite of the less-than-perfect rehearsals!). Afterwards we had potluck Christmas cookies and then when we got home, us kids opened our stockings. Dad and us kids are in charge of putting things in them, and we're very glad to have taken them down b/c they always get in our way as they hang over the counter where we do our baking!