Eagle Idaho Live Nativity

My sister-in-law called me today & told me about this live nativity out in Eagle ID (about an hour from my house...I know this now & I thought it would only take me a 1/2 hour to get there...I was a bit late! Dang! haha).

 When I got there I had to park quite a ways back...we all parked in a field & there were a lot of people there!

They had a fire pit going so that we could stay warm while waiting for the hay ride to take us up to the place to go to the Nativity.

Then we had to wait another 10 min or so to go in (I am assuming they didn't want to have to deal with crowd control LOL ;o) They only took 20 people at a time). They had this door that looked like a simple entrance to the city in Bethlahem (I am assuming haha I have never been there....)

When they opened the door we followed someone to the Inn that denied Mary & Joseph a place to stay. Teenagers were the people playing all of the parts ;o). They said they offered a place in the stable & they pointed to where the star was & the stable. (Now I didn't take flash shots because I didn't want to take away from the spirit of what they were acting out. I didn't want to ruin someones time by me flashing away haha ;o).

I think this girl would have made a good Mary....she was supposedly an inn keeper ;o).

Then we walked & there was this area that had a few angles who spoke to us...I couldn't hear them well...I was a little ways back. There was a single angel that spoke, but the picture I got was blurry so I didn't include it :o(.

Then there was a choir of angels that sang and I thought that was a cute idea. I got a video of that.

Then we went to the stable.

It was cute because "Mary" & "Joseph" kept passing the baby back & forth & so I got 2 pictures because not too often do you see Joseph holding the baby Jesus. Then they showed how the Wise Men gave gifts & there were a bunch of plastic grocery bags in front of the Nativity & someone (like the Wise Men or a narrator) said, "Anyone else like to offer a gift to the Christ child?" And I took my cans of food I brought (they said they were doing donations of food on the website...so I brought what I could). I thought that was a really cute idea, but I felt awkward being the only person in the group to give LOL! My sister-in-law said to me, "I didn't know they were doing this...how did you know?" and I said, "I happened to see it on the website before I left the house..." LOL! That made me feel pretty good. ;o)

Then as we walked to a house I saw a man dressed like the times of Jesus with a donkey & so I got a picture of him ;o) Again, I tried not to use my flash all night because I didn't want to take away from any spirit people were feeling...but with this guy I did cause he was at the end of the show and not too many people were gathered around him... ;o).

At the house they gave out hot cocoa & had another fire burning to keep people warm. It was so great & I enjoyed it. I really think that the Boise ID area does some great things! I am impressed with how many things they offer to the public & especially children! (oh & this was free...didn't cost a thing.)

Do your towns or cities do anything like this? I wonder if other places do this sort of thing, because I know I had never heard of anything like it. That is why I am so impressed with Boise & the surrounding cities.

Here is the official website of the Eagle Idaho Live Nativity so if you want to learn more & maybe see some better photos haha ;o)