Lily Grace's ADVENT-ure...O Little Town of Bethlehem

Good Morning EVENING! all my friends out there!! I hope you are having a wonderful "ADVENT-ure" during this Advent season as we are getting ready for Christmas!!

(We started writing this post this morning, but Mommie was busy and had to wait until tonight to finish. She went to a UMW Christmas Luncheon and didn't take me! I guess she'll tell you all about it later in another post!)

I've had quite the "advent-ure" this week, as maybe you already saw on my Mommie's post the other day when they set up the village and the train under the Christmas tree, and I got to drive the choo-choo train around the track!!  That was quite exciting! I've never seen a choo-choo train before, let alone be able to "drive" the train...well, I moved the switch on and off so the train could run around the track!  Our family had so much fun setting up the little village and the train, and now I get to play with it every day!

I love to be the "engineer" and make the train go around the village, stopping to let people get on and off the train in the different places around the village.

There's the depot where people get their tickets and get on the train.

And there's a little park next to it, with a skating pond and I see Santa and a Snowman too!

There's the Village Church and the house next door is the "Parsonage", where the Pastor and his family live. Someone is shoveling the snow! I see a little house up on the hill behind the church, and there is a kid making a snowman in the yard. I wish I could do that too.

Oh, here's the hospital, where people go if they are sick or hurt. I hope I don't ever have to go there.

And around the bend there is a farm, with cows and pigs and horses...oh, and I see another little church over there, and there is a house beside the barn, where I guess the farmer and his family live. Up on the hill is a little log cabin. I wish could go visit there too!

I love the pretty red barn and wish I could go inside and play with the little calves and baby lambs and other animals.

I just love this whole little town, don't you?  I asked Mommie why do we put a village under the Christmas tree anyway? 

Mommie said she doesn't really know how that idea started originally, but she thinks it kind of has something to do with us thinking about the Little Town of Bethlehem, where Jesus was born on Christmas day.

Oh, here's another one of those special Christmas Carols that tells us about that Little Town of Bethlehem!

Mommie said some people have asked about these little caroling books, so she wanted you to know where they came from. These all belonged to Mommie's parents, and they kept them in the bench of their electric organ that was in their house, and their family would sing from them at Christmas time. When my Mommie's parents died, my big brother Scotty wanted that organ to keep for his own, because he remembers playing it when he was a little boy at their house and he still loves to play it. So he got the organ and he keeps it in his bedroom at our house. He loves to play it and says it is good "therapy". He mostly makes up songs, but some of them are really pretty, and some them, well, only Scotty could love them Mommie says. But anyway, these books were still in the bench and so we keep them there and use them at Christmas time still. She said some of the them are really really old, or "vintage", whatever that means! She said most of you would understand what "vintage" means, because she said most of her friends are all kind of "vintage" too, like she is!  

But back to the Little Town of Bethlehem.  Mommie said it probably wasn't as modern as our little village, but it might have had a kind of church called a Synagogue, or a Temple. 

And they did have a kind of a motel, called an "Inn", but for the weary travelers, Joseph and Mary, there was no room in the inn.  

So the innkeeper told them they could stay out in his "barn",  also called a "Manger", where the animals stayed. (I wonder if it was as nice as our little red barn in our little village?)

I also wondered why didn't they go to the hospital since Mary was going to have a baby? Mommie said they probably didn't have a hospital like our little village. Only the Inn.

Our little village has a little manger scene that shows Joseph and Mary and the shepherds and sheep, and oh! I think those are the Wise Men, bowing down to worship the Baby Jesus, who was born in the manger. Mommie says that really the Wise Men didn't get there quite that soon...they were riding on their camels for a long time,  maybe two years from the time they saw the big star shining in the east that led them directly to Bethlehem. But by then the young boy Jesus was living in a little house in town in Bethlehem with his parents.  Maybe it was that little house up on the hill? 

But that's a later story. For now, Mommie says at Christmas we find the Baby Jesus, lying in a manger with the cattle and the sheep and the donkey his Mother Mary had to ride on all the way to Bethlehem. But He was warm and cozy in the little manger, all wrapped up in swaddling clothes and surrounded by nice warm, clean hay.

Here's another special Christmas Carol about the Baby Jesus, "Away In A Manger".

Mommie says that's one of her favorite  songs, and that she used to sing it to her babies when they were little and they loved to hear it when she sang it to them.  She said it brings back sweet memories.

Mommie showed me this very special manger scene in our Christmas tree. She said it is a replica (copy) of one just like her mommy and daddy had in their Christmas tree all the years she was growing up. She found this one just like it on a place called eBay, and she bought it because it reminded her of the one her parents had.  So it's very special.  I love it too.

Do you have any special Christmas ornaments or manger scenes that you love? Mommie says we have a lot more Manger Scenes,  also called "Nativity Scenes", but she will save them for another time to show you.

I hope you enjoyed this little visit to the "Little Town of Bethlehem" . Maybe we should name our little village Bethlehem. That would make it extra special, don't you think? 

This story gives me some things to think about...how about you?

"O holy Child of Bethlehem,

descend to us we pray.

Cast out our sin, and enter in,

Be born in us today.

We hear the Christmas angels,

the great glad tidings tell,

O come to us, abide with us,

Our Lord Emmanuel."

Amen.

 

Friday Foto Friends: Deck The Halls!

Good Morning Everyone!  Happy Friday!  When I woke up this morning Mommie brought me and my sweet sister Baby Elva out into the living room, and guess what we saw?!  There's a big tree in our living room, and it has lights all over it, and now Mommie is adding all kinds of pretty things to the tree to make it so beautiful! She said to tell you it's still a work in progress, but hopefully sometime today it will be done!

But to Baby Elva and me it is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!!!

We just want to sit here all day and look at it, and watch the lights sparkle!

Oh! Lookie! If you can see it, up there in right top corner of this picture (below), there is the word 

"Believe"!   Mommie said that was her "One Word" for this year, and it means we need to believe that "With God nothing will be impossible!" (but she said we will talk about that more later)

And guess what? Mommie said we are going to sing some more Christmas Carols as we "open the Advent calendar windows" and learn more about what Christmas is all about.

The song we are singing today is "Deck the Halls", because Mommie said one of the big parts of getting ready for Christmas is decorating our house inside and out, like we decorated the pretty tree. 

So here we go:

Deck the halls the boughs of holly, "fa la la la la, la la la la!"

"Tis the season to be jolly! Fa la la la la, la la la la!

Don we now our gay apparel... (see? My friends and I are all dressed up in our pretty Christmas dresses!)

Fa la la la la, la la la la!

(And, we are preparing a cake to celebrate Jesus' birthday!!)

Troll the ancient yuletide carol, Fa La La La La, la la la la!

See the blazing Yule before us, Fa la la la la,  la la la la!

Strike the harp and join the chorus, Fa la la la la, la la la la!

(This is me with the "Martin Sisters", Daisy, Vivian, Nellie, and Dorothy. My Daddy's mother is Vivian, and those are her sisters!!

Follow me in merry measure, fa la la la la, la la la la...

(Let's enjoy some tea from the tea cup Christmas tree! Isn't it beautiful???)

While I tell of Yuletide treasure, Fa la la la la, la la la la!

(We'll read some happy Christmas tea time stories too, while we sip our tea!)

Fast away the old year passes, Fa la la la la, la la la la...

Hail the new, ye  lads and lasses, Fa la la la la, la la la la

Sing we joyous all together, Fa la la la la, la la la la,

Heedless of the wind and weather, Fa la la la la, la la la la!

I hope you enjoyed this little sing along with all my little friends here at our house!

Yes, Christmas IS the most wonderful time of the year! 

I hope you are preparing your hearts for Jesus' Birthday, which is what Christmas is, you know!

Merry Christmas!!!

P.S. Be sure to check out my last ADVENTure "Joy to the World" HERE, and then be sure to come back and check and see what happens next!!

 

Lily Grace's Advent Calendar!

Hello all my friends in "bloggy land"!  I am just getting SO excited I don't know what to do first! Today is the first day of December, and Mommie says some very wonderful things are going to happen this month and so we need to watch our calendar every day and see what is going to take place!  Mommie says there are lots of surprises in store for me, because this will be my very first Christmas!  I don't even know what Christmas is!  But she said we will learn more about it every day, and maybe you can come along with us and learn about it too.

The first thing Mommie said is we need to have a special calendar called an Advent Calendar. Do you know what that is?  Here's what Mommie said about it in her blog a long time ago:

(Click on the link for that original post by Mommie)

 "The Advent Calendars are now being opened one day at a time...Did you have one of these as a child?  I can remember having one that we eagerly opened each day as we counted down the days until Christmas...each little "open window" on the calendar gave us a new glimpse into preparing for Christmas...getting ready for the Baby Jesus to appear....the shepherds watching, the wise men traveling from afar, the angels singing, the star shining, the cattle lowing, Mary and Joseph preparing the manger...and finally the Baby Jesus making His appearance on Christmas Day!"

So I said to Mommie that I want to open a window every day this month leading up to Christmas too! Maybe that will help me know what this Christmas stuff is all about!

Every day I am seeing different things appear all around the house and everything is getting so pretty and fun and exciting!

Today I found these people singing in our kitchen! I asked Mommie who are they and what are they singing?

She said that these are "Carolers", people who gather together and go around to sing Christmas Carols on the street corners and in neighborhoods and churches and anywhere that people will listen to them sing.  These boys here look like they came from the farm or out in the country...

And then there are these pretty ladies who are also singing and they are all dressed up like they are from the city...

I asked Mommie, "What are they singing?"

She said they are singing a lot of different Christmas songs like these people did in this little book of Christmas carols...

They are singing this song right now:

"Joy to the World, The Lord is come!

Let Earth receive her King!

Let every heart prepare Him room;

And heaven and nature sing, 

and heaven and nature sing,

and heaven, and heaven, and nature sing!"

I said to Mommie that I think I've seen those last words somewhere before!

She said, "Yes, that is what those words say that are above the window in my little "Room with a View".

Mommie said that Christmas is all about when Jesus came to earth as a tiny baby many many years ago. She said that when He was born, there was no room for His family in the inn, (which is like a hotel), and so He had to be born in a manger (in the barn). She said as the days of Advent come along...the days leading up to Jesus' birthday, we will learn more and more about that special story a little bit at a time. So she said we should "stay tuned" and come back again to hear more of the story next time. She said we will try to write something almost every day if we can, but if not, we will do our best. Sometimes we get busy and can't write every day, but we will still tell the whole story by the time Christmas gets here.

Meanwhile, I want to learn more of those special Christmas songs and sing along with these carolers!

I hope they don't mind me joining in!

Do you want to come along and sing with us?

Come on! It will be fun!

Joy to the World!

Let's Go and tell the whole world!!!

P.S., Please watch for my next ADVENTures over the next few weeks.  You can see another great adventure HERE: Deck the Halls