Bethlehem in Burnet

In December we had a speaker for one of my MOPS meetings who talked about Christmas traditions.  She said one of her favorite things was Bethlehem in Burnet.  A church in Burnet (a city about 45 minutes north of us) has 2 city blocks that they turn into Bethlehem every Christmas for 2 weekends.  As soon as I heard about it I wanted to take the boys.

We got there 30 minutes before they opened on Friday night and the line was already around the block.

When we first arrived we had to register just like Joseph and Mary.  It was so cool-everyone was dressed up and in character.  It was just like walking around Bethlehem.

The boys LOVED it!  They got to play with everything and see camels, donkeys and all kinds of cool stuff from ancient Bethlehem.

We went to all of the different places throughout the city.  Jackson was walking around saying, “Shalom, we are looking for the Christ child.”  We saw all of the street vendors and went to different inns looking for room.  They were, of course, all full.

Bear’s favorite thing was the camels!

I took this picture from the second story of one of the inns.
I didn’t get a picture but they also had a baker making “Bethlehem bread.” It was amazing.  I’m not sure of the ingredients but it couldn’t have been healthy.  They gave each person a pretty small square and the boys went crazy for it.

After following the star we came to a stable where Joseph and Mary were sitting by the manger holding baby Jesus.  Bear kept asking me if it was the  real Jesus, the one in his heart.

The star we followed to find Jesus.

A couple of family shots.

Jackson was pretty impressed by the Roman guard.  Bear was a little freaked out by him but since Jackson got a picture with him, Bear wanted one as well.  Bear’s definitely in the “do and say everything that Jackson does or says stage!”

As we walked out they had different scriptures on the path.

After we exited they had cookies and hot chocolate for everyone.  Such a cool thing and I’m so glad that we went.  We had to leave earlier than we would have liked because Jay had an emergency come up at work but we’ve already decided that we definitely want to go back next year!
Very cool way to illustrate the true meaning of Christmas to the boys!