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Wednesday, December 26

Silent Night


Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
'Round yon virgin Mother and Child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace.

- Silent Night by Franz Gruber

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     I hope you've had a beautiful Christmas! These photos are probably my most prized possessions in the entire world at this moment.haha! It was just such an unexpected turn of events that led to us being able to do this with the kids, and they were just in heaven all dressed up and proudly posing in their roles for the Nativity scene for us as we took these. 
     
     I don't share very often about my religious beliefs as a personal preference, but here's a bit of background: I was raised in a Christian household where we were taught to not write letters to Santa and think about the gifts we would be getting, etc, but instead about how we could help others and serve around Christmas, as the Savior did. Part of my late husband Martin and my efforts of having a Christ-centered Christmas was to spend our Decembers delivering pieces of the nativity scene in secret to other families with our few little babies in tow, taking treats and sending out cards to loved ones, performing daily good deeds and random acts of kindness for strangers and the community, etc, and we always read through the chapters in The Bible about the birth of Jesus Christ. The last time we did it before he passed away the kids were 4, 3, 2, 1, (and Evie was half-baked.haha) so while we put in a good effort to act it out, we really looked forward to the years when our children would be old enough to dress up in little homemade costumes and really play the parts to get into the spirit of the season like so many other families love to do. 

     Well this year we finally got to do it like that, and I know Marty was proud:) It was sweeter than I ever thought it could be, and having these photos to remember it mean so much to be! Long story short, I mentioned the above story to a dear friend and expressed regret that I'd not been able to do it yet. She encouraged me to not only make it happen this year but to reach out to another mutual friend of ours who puts on a big nativity production on her property every year, and ask to borrow her stable! Because I mean, isn't it the coolest?! And Evie's face in this next one especially. haha


     All in all, the kids started cheering and jumping up and down when I told them we were going to dress them up and that they were going to get to be in a real stable with a manger and hay and everything, and their excitement was palpable as we got ready quickly and tried to get through everything before it was too dark to see. It was such a wonderful experience for us that we'll remember always, and I just can't get over how darn adorable they are:)

      For the record, that's Evie and Alice as little humble shepherds on the left, John was pretty excited that he was a shoe-in for Joseph, Lydia is the beautiful wise-woman on the right, Ellie wanted to be an angel with a flowy white dress, and Sophie jumped at the chance to be Mary and hold the 'baby Jesus', which -fun fact- is a baby doll named Benjamin my parents gave to me when I was about 5 years old.

     Anyways, thank you so much for being here and for reading this through, and I hope you've enjoyed this post as well as all the other posts lately! I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts more and more, and once again I just hope that you have some peace and stillness in your heart this season and happiness in your home!

     Merry Christmas,
xoxoxo


4 comments:

  1. This is beautiful, Emily! God's blessings to you as you raise these precious little people.

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  2. This is so precious and what beautiful memories

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  3. Thank you sooo much for sharing these pictures! As I said on Instagram they are about the most precious I've ever seen! They need to be published in a magazine! Loved Ellie's post! Happy New Year!

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  4. These are absolutely beautiful photos ♥ I am so glad that you were able to do this!

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