Trip to Bethlehem

Monday morning and I already have the dishwasher, washer, and several children up and running. I have beans washed and on the wood heater for supper but I am already behind. This week I have a reading recital for 2 children and a drivers license exam for 1, plus the Christmas tree to decorate and I haven't bought the first present. The faster I go, the behinder I get and I need to work more margins into my life. That is one of my newyears resolutions so I have 4 more weeks before I have to worry about those.
We went to Atlanta yesterday to visit with my cousins and to go to my cousin, Sabrina, and her husband, Joe's, church to walk through Bethlehem. I really didn't know what to expect. I had never been to one of these presentations before, although I had heard about them. It was like being in a play. You went through in small groups and were treated as travelers arriving in Bethlehem on the night of Jesus' birth. It was dramatized very well and Alina and Elijah were terrified of the Roman soldiers. We were brought before the Roman governor, had to pay tax and register in the census, wound our way through a small maze of streets where we ran in to shepherds with real sheep looking for a baby that the angels had told them about. Finally we arrived at a small barn with Mary, Joseph and a real newborn baby. The adult Jesus, (very realistic looking guy for the part) appeared and briefly quoted parts of the gospel related to why He came, anyway, it brought tears to some of our eyes. We then continued on to a market full of culturally and historically( more or less) accurate food, crafts, and booths, including animals, and lots of things for the kids to do, eat and make. It was just really impressive and educational and fun. Afterwards we went to Sabrina and Joe's house and ate and had a good time visiting with them, my cousin Marchelle and their mother, Kay. The kids all had a great time running around the yard in the dark.
I dreaded the trip home and rightly so. Alina started screaming that she had to go to the bathroom along with one other child, although everybody had gone before we left. I was just coming in to downtown and was not about to stop and try and find somewhere there. They both wet their pants. We had put a diaper on Alina but not the other one. Big boys got silly and were rocking the van back and forth. Relient K and Switchfoot soundtrack to all this. Unbelievably, I got sleepy and had to open the window and eat peanut brittle to stay awake. Maria changed the ringtone on my phone, out of boredome and at my request since I was tired of the slow version of "Crocodile Rock" that Ray had put on there. I now have Ben's song "Come on" on there which I like better. After coming home and fixing the fire, feeding the animals, etc. we went to bed. I discovered this morning that we had locked a dog in the car in the unloading chaos. Everyone had dashed to the bathroom and left the car doors open. Someone went out later and closed the door with the dog inside. Luckily, she doesn't chew up things as half of the kids belongings were still in the car. We didn't even miss the dog last night. I guess I'm lucky I didn't leave someone in Atlanta or asleep in the car when we got home (we did that once, got to looking after about an hour and found them asleep in the back seat.)