The Hawkes Nest: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Hi all,

Liz, Anthony and I want to wish all of you a very merry Christmas and happy New Year. But my post doesn't end there. In case you haven't noticed it has been a while since I last posted anything so I figured I should fill you in on what has been happening up here in the great white north.

First, I believe that the last post mentioned something about snow. So far we have had about two major storms, but most of it has melted away, so currently there isn't much on the ground, and in most cases there is grass showing. Of course this is the winter I was hoping to try snow shoeing. I am sure that the worst is yet to come, and that old man winter hasn't let us off easily yet.

Why has it been so long since my last post, well to be quite honest there hasn't been much time. The last part of the November and first part of December is a very busy time at the Hawkes Nest, as all the family is taking part in the "Nativity Experience" at the church. During this time all, or at least one of us is out most nights, and when this is combined with our other commitments there isn't much time left.

So what is this nativity experience? Imagine a church turning itself into 1) Bethlehem -with animals and costumed carachters, 2) Christmas card scenes including a Victorian England street, 3) a play and choir presentation with a professional light show. I have a few pictures of this presentation.

First lets go to Bethlehem.

You would first be greeted by the animals. These are some of the animals that we had this year.

Then you would go into Bethlehem where the costumed carachters, Hebrew signage, buildings, and noise make this city very real. The pictures of the buildings below were taken before the room was filled with dry ice and lighting, so to say the least it doesn't do the final product justice.

The person in blue in the first picture is Anthony. The last one is a picture of the high priest on the front porch of the temple.

I wish there were more pictures of this but at the time this is going on I am having makeup put on and getting into costume.

So the next thing you would have encountered would be scenes from Christmas past. Here are a couple of pictures from that.

You may see some familiar people above. But in case you don't, Liz is in the black jacket and purple hat, I am in the red tie and top hat. Liz was involved in this section as a caroler, however she was also part of the choir in the play portion of the production. As a member ofthe choir she has been on TV twice this season, once as part of a telethon for disavantaged families and another time the news was doing a story on sounds of the season and featured the church choir.
You can see the choir at www.thenativityexperience.com

I was not part of this but my character this year, in the first scene was as a Dickens character, So we thought it would be cool to have our pictures taken like this. Unfortunately Anthony was in the town of Bethlehem at this time so he wasn't able to be in the picture.

So the next thing you would see would be the play. The church auditorium is changed into a theatre complete with stage lighting (which I always find cool). As you can see from the pictures below Anthony also was in the play as an orphan. He did awesome!!!! and really liked it. I figure he probably will be involved in next years production. I know I will.