Trip to Bethlehem

Ok, so it's been about a month since our last post...why so long? Well, we've been out of town on a cross-country drive for 2 weeks, and cleaning our hurricane-ridden house (or so you'd think a hurricane came through!), and frankly, blogging is one of my least favorite activities, but we do it for the Grandmas...and anyone else who cares.

So here's what we've been up to lately:
I promised I would post about our very special trip to Bethlehem, so here goes. In Burnet, which is a town about 45 minutes from us, they have built a town to look just like Bethlehem looked when Jesus Christ was born. There was a market, a jail, a tax office, a church, homes, a bar, and of course, the Inn and the stable. They have people come and act the part of people living in that time period. There were weavers, bakers, potters, rope-makers, blacksmiths, and guards. It was really great; they didn't break character at all! In fact, Jaimason got a little scared when the guards were pushing people around and fighting them about paying taxes.

This is Ben in front of one of the shops. As you can see, the doors are very low and all the signs are written in Hebrew.

Jaimason sitting on a bed in one of the rooms of the Inn. There was a whole family of 11 staying in this particular room! They told us how shepherds had run through the city the night before, scaring them awake and calling out that the Christ-child was to be born.

Two of the merchants selling stuff. The lady in the top picture explained to Jaimason that she traded some of her stuff for the chicken she had in her hands (pictured below). She said it would make a tasty meal that night for dinner. You should have seen how big Jaimason's eyes got at that remark!

They even had live animals!

It was a very neat experience; one that I think Jaimason won't forget. It was really cool to see the star above the stable where Christ was born, and to follow that star all the way through the town to the Savior. The wait to get into the town was about 2 hours, but well worth it!

Here are a few other pictures of our adventure:

These are the Harlots who danced in the bar.

Some guards conversing about serious business.

Petting the camel ("watch out, it spits!")

The guards would actually lock people who didn't pay enough taxes up in this!

A chariot, obviously.

Trying out the well. At one point, the shepherds got up on the well because it was in the center of the city, and proclaim they had seen an angel, and that Christ was born.