Bethlehem Walk

On Saturday we took Claire to a Bethlehem Walk. We heard about it on the news and wanted to check it out. We were really thankful to have gotten there early, because the line was crazy long! Anyway, the whole set up for the event was really impressive. And it was FREE! They just asked for donations to Edmonton's Food Bank. We took three cans of food, and at the end we wished we had brought the whole pantry...our contribution just didn't seem to be enough.

We were ushered into a big room where we were told what to expect and what to do in case of a fire. Then, a shepherd came and led us into another room, which was supposed to be outside of Bethlehem. Claire was excited because there were sheep!

Suddenly, angels flew in and announced the birth of baby Jesus!

Then, we went through the city gate into Bethlehem. It was just like you would imagine a bustling marketplace in those days. Claire really enjoyed the generosity of the "townspeople." By the end she had a piece of leather and soap and had eaten a bisuit and lentil soup. The soup was really good!

Roman soilders...

A Bethlehem petting zoo?

Claire got to pet a bunny. I love those soft, cute bunnies!

Okay, so you know I HAD to ask the innkeeper....I just couldn't resist...so I said, "do you have any room in the inn?" I just wanted to hear him say that the inn was full!

Proof that there was no room in the inn.

We then went outside to the stable. I have to admit that when Claire looked at the baby and said, "hi Jesus" it was an emotional moment for me. "Joseph" said, "Jesus has been waiting for you to come so he could see you!" So sweet....

The real reason to celebrate Christmas!

I couldn't leave out the llamas!

Then, we went back into the church and were led in groups of 8 to a table to eat cookies and drink hot chocolate. There were carolers too!

Guess who loved the cookies?

This was the perfect activity to get us in the "CHRISTmas mood!" Merry Christmas everyone!

Jingle On Christmas Parade

On Sunday we went to the Jingle On Christmas parade. One nice thing about living in a cold place is having an INDOOR parade! The parade went through a mall downtown, which was really something to see. We ended up sitting near some stairs and there was a ramp set up for the parade to walk down.

Pre-parade entertainment.

Yeah, the ramp caused a little chaos!

Claire liked the dancers. It was funny because all of the different groups had someone using a wagon to pull their boom box down the ramp. Most of the music skipped when they bumped off the ramp at the bottom. Oops!

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police captured the Grinch!

I really want to see Claire dance in a parade one day...I can hardly wait to make those bows!

And then a Halloween float. Really? Halloween in a Christmas parade? Weird!

And scary Halloween people in costumes....even more weird!

But the best part was the dogs! Claire loved the dogs! And they were really sweet and gentle.

Finally, after two hours of this parade....the grand finale. I said, look Claire!"

Claire is looking...

And I said, "Santa! Look Claire! Here comes Santa!" And no joke....Claire said, "Mommy hold you!!!" Good grief. She has only seen him once and she is already scarred for life.

Maybe if he had given out more candy canes....

Festival of Trees

Whew! Things have been getting a little busy here. I'm still not sure where the last few weeks went. Wasn't Thanksgiving just yesterday (and I'm talking about Canada's Turkey Day in October!)? Anyway, last weekend just added to the business when we decided to pack in a couple of Christmas activities. I love Christmas activities! We rode the LRT (subway) to the Shaw Centre to see the Festival of Trees. They had been talking this event up on the radio and we were curious to see what it was all about.

Claire liked the Polar Bear display.

The festival had a lot going on. We decided to try letting Claire sit on Santa's lap first. A lady in the lobby gave us free tickets, so her generosity saved us four dollars! Anyway, Claire made it all the way to the front of the line before she starting screaming bloody murder. In the end, we got a picture of her on MY lap. Of course, now that it is all over she likes Santa because he gave her a candy cane! If you ask her what she wants from Santa, she will now say, "candy!"
After that trauma we went to the children's hospital area. There was a bunch of different learning activities here. Claire didn't understand most of them, but I was impressed with what the area had to offer. There was listening to your heartbeat, giving Elmo an IV, looking at xrays, sewing a teddy bear up, and getting a fake glitter cast on your finger.

Look at my fake glitter cast!

She walked around just like that until she realized the cast slides off. It was pretty funny!

Sewing up a teddy bear.

Next, we went to get hot chocolate and a cookie for a dollar. My favorite part! Sometimes it is nice to have a toddler. Claire didn't want her hot chocolate, so I got extra!
We watched some dancers perform and then looked at a few of the Christmas trees.

This one was covered in butterflies!

I really liked this glass tree!

Sorry about the terrible pictures on this post. My camera hates dim lighting. Anyway, before we left we attempted to get a family picture. Thank you to our friend who got nominated for the job!

I think we will be going back to the festival of trees again next year. It was a lot of fun!