We put up our Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving, and the kids (especially Hunter) were giddy when they saw our little Advent Calendar (which is actually more of an Advent House). They've been checking to see if there were messages behind the doors everyday. So this morning when they woke up and ran into the living room, they couldn't wait to finally open door number 1. And it said...drumroll....watch the tree lighting ceremony and Missle Toes show at the Galleria.
We'd been to look at their huge tree before, but I didn't even know about the show until a couple of weeks ago. We got there 30 minutes early to get a good spot and barely found one because they were already so crowded! After about 2.7 seconds of waiting Hunter was over it. It was a long 30 minutes...
Look at all the people!
But once it started, it was definitely worth it! I couldn't believe how young some of the skaters were...
Look at those teeny skaters!
Finally, Missle Toes came out...
I had told the kids that there would be an ice skating Santa and that fire would shoot out of his shoes. Hunter was so excited about it, and thought it was "awesome!" when he saw the pyrotechnics...
After his little dance, they lit the tree, which was my favorite part...
The kids loved that, too, but Char said her favorite was "when Santa danceded" and "all the cute, little dancers". Hunter just loved the "fire":)
It was crowded, but we'd definitely recommend it if you can make it to any of the Saturday shows!
Although I love the fun activities we do throughout advent, my favorite part is teaching the kids about the birth of our Savior. Our verse for tonight was Matthew 1:18, which says...
"This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit."
A funny story about tonight: As we were riding the escalator down to grab dinner after the show, we passed a menorah, and Hunter asked what it was. So I explained to him that we are Christian, and we believe that Jesus is our Savior, but some people are Jewish, and they celebrate a holiday called Hanukkah while we are celebrating Christmas. He replied, "Jewish people worship idols, like that door over there." I quickly explained that there are some stories in the Bible about people who worship idols, but that's not what the Jewish faith is about:). I thought about going into Jesus being a Jew, but it seemed a little heavy for escalator talk in a crowded mall. Hopefully it will come up again at home, so we can get a little deeper.
Looking forward to the season ahead of us! My favorite time of year...
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