Alpine Village

One of my new favorite Christmas traditions is our church's Alpine Village. The gym is decorated with village shops for the kids to visit--they decorate gingerbread men, choose a book, get candy, make a wooden toy, hang an ornament, etc. There's an area with fake snow coming from the sky so kids can play in the snow (something we don't often get to do around here). The North Pole is upstairs, with Santa waiting to hear all the children's wishes. Our puppet ministry team performs a terrific puppet show. A live nativity reminds us of why we celebrate Christmas. It's all free and manned by hundreds of volunteers, planned for months in advance. It's hard to describe in words and even harder to capture photographically--because the lighting is low and the place is large--but here are a few shots of the girls enjoying the day. We brought along some friends and Papa, too!