Christmas Eve pageant both past and present

For as long as I can remember it has always been a tradition in our family for my dad/grandpa to read from the scriptures, the story of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ on Christmas Eve. This photo was taken in 1977 when our daughter Natalie, was an angel at the Christmas Eve Pageant at my parents home. I love how she is holding her cousin Kim's hand who was Mary and our son was Joseph who has his back to the camera. My sisters were at the Piano and leading the singing of Christmas carols...

 This next photo was taken in 1978 where three of our  children were participating with their cousins.

Our son Stephen, age 6 is the shepherd standing in the back and our Scottie, age 2 is our little Wiseman down in the front with his big sister Natalie age 4 who was our precious little Mary on this Christmas Eve.
(It has been fun collecting these old photo’s for my mom  this Christmas. Some of the following is  of a post I shared last year.

“It was the Sunday before Christmas, and the counselor in the Primary ( Children’s Sunday School) presidency was talking to the children. For her lesson she brought in her nativity set. The figures were in a box on the floor, and the stable was up on the table. As she told the story of Jesus’ birth, a child was invited to come up, choose the appropriate figurine from the box and arrange it on the table.”

Now for our own Christmas Eve pageants, it is our grandchildren who are our figurines :) Our little sheep this particular night was the best baa baa-er around:)!!! We adults had to try to keep our giggles to our selves, which wasn't easy!!!) This was serious business for them.
 “Probably if adults had been doing this, we would have put Baby Jesus in the middle with Mary and Joseph close by. The shepherds would have been off to one side and the wise men on the other. All the figures would have been facing forward, and it would have been aesthetically pleasing.

 But that Sunday, as the last figure was placed, and the last child sat down, this is what they saw: Baby Jesus in the center, and all the other figures shoulder to shoulder in a tight circle around Him.
At first the counselor thought she would just quietly rearrange the figures as the lesson was continued, but then the thought came that there was nothing wrong with what the children had done. "In fact, she thought, "that’s exactly what it would have looked like if we had been there on that night. We wouldn’t have been able to take our eyes off of Him, and we would have inched as close as we could get." Author unknown
It also happened with our own grandchildren as they too portrayed the birth of Jesus Christ on that  sacred night, so long ago as their own Papa read the birth of Jesus Christ from the bible.

 They also knew instinctively that those who had the privilege to be invited to the most significant sacred birth day in all of history, would not have worried about how they looked to the rest of the world. They would have focused all of their attention on the baby Jesus. I loved the loves and sweet kisses Baby Jesus  received at our own Pageant on Christmas Eve:)

Our family won't all be together again this year, but scattered in four different states across our country. 

Our daughter and her family will be joining us in celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ this Christmas Eve.  Their four little ones are already planning what role they will play in the annual Christmas Eve Pageant.
Traditions are the glue that help bind families together and build such cherished memories! :-)

May our family and loved ones know of our love and hopefully they and each of us will welcome the Savior of the World into our hearts and into our Christmas celebrations this year.

May you and your families enjoy a very Blessed and warm Christmas filled with much love!

~♥~