12.21.2011

BETHLEHEM BLANKET

This holiday season has certainly been slipping by too quickly.  I am really excited to have the remainder of this week to spend with the kids at home during the day.  (Yes, I am very aware that by the end of next week- I will be singing a different toon!)  We’ve got some fun stuff planned, though, and I’m looking forward to some fun family time together.

Tonight after our 4th visit to the Dr. in less than 2 weeks with both kids, we decided to take them out to their favorite restaurant…Texas Roadhouse.  Alyssa loves their mashed potatoes with brown gravy, and Tyson thinks it’s awesome to get steak in a kids meal with a baked potato.  Those kids just love it there. 

Tonight before bed, we read a new Christmas book:

The Last Straw (Hard Cover Book) by Paula Palangi McDonald, illustrated by Carol Pettit Harding 

It was a good little story that put us in the mood to start the remainder of the week out right.  I’m more excited to have this book earlier in the season next year to make it a fun family tradition to incorporate.

We also brought out a little white woven blanket that Todd and I purchased in Bethlehem.  It came with a short poem.  As Todd read it to the kids, Tyson sat looking at and touching the blanket and his eyes seemed so intent on looking at it while taking in what was being said.  He said he thought it was so neat that we had this blanket from the actual place that Christ was born.  We decided to use a small wooden cradle that Grandpa John built for Alyssa’s dollies.  It will be just right for what we need to fill with straw and place our baby Jesus in on Christmas Eve.

Bethlehem Blanket

On that sweet night so long ago

A child was born in David’s Town

And in A manger bed of straw

His mother Mary laid him down. 

In swaddling clothes she wrapped her son

And rocked Him as the angels sung. 

And shepherds came to visit Him

As heavenly chorus sang. 

No regal cloth to cover him,

No blanket soft to cuddle down,

No remnant white to make His stat,

No purple, nor crown.

But now in David's city A blanket soft is made. 

The Bethlehem Blanket it is called,

“A special one” tis said. 

So wrap your baby in its fold

And think of that fair night

When Christ was born in manger poor

Mid angels Heavenly light. 

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