Bethlehem experience

We attended the Bethlehem Walk and we patiently waited in line for one hour! I took seven of our boys to this event that takes place in our community. Every year it grows by the thousands! My sons were very good waiting. I thought to myself that this was going to be "Ok" There was hundreds of people. It can definitely be very overwhelming for some. After one hour we were almost inside and my littlest son tripped on the cement curb. Blood everywhere. He landed right on his little nose, his lips and chin. Thank goodness his teeth were completely untouched. Poor little guy waited so patiently and suddenly with the quickest of slips, off he went! After cleaning him, we carried on through the Bethlehem village. It was amazing. If you haven't been and you can wait in long lineups it's worth attending. It has the feel of being in the streets of Bethlehem with street vendors, people calling out, real animals and as the picture above, real hanging meat! I can't explain enough on how real the city is.......one of my sons asked, "What happened to that chicken?" If you look closely on the table above, there is a real dead chicken. The meat vendor explained that's where the chicken meat comes from - the chicken. Which raised my eyebrows thinking, "mmmmm.... so my son isn't making the connection from the chicken on his plate to the feathered bird on the table" (This isn't one of my younger sons either) We carried on walking through the village, petting a donkey, watching some cows sleep, bumping into numerous people. I'm gathering Bethlehem was crowded in the streets. Very claustrophobic. Here I was with seven of my sons experiencing some history, I had two of our younger sons clenched to my side and another two following closely. I feared loosing someone......that's how crowded it was. While leaving Bethlehem we walked into the church hall where it was beautifully decorated. We were seated to have some hot chocolate and cookies while a choir was singing. The eight of us sat together quietly surprisingly for awhile. This was two and a half hours later, one hour past four of my sons bedtimes. The silence except for the choir singing and the beautiful atmosphere came to a sudden halt! A high pitched screaming continuous cry started from one of my sons over spilled hot chocolate. That was it.......we were done. We made our "grand" entrance in and now we were making one out. :) Believe it or not......I kept my patience, I enjoyed and really took in our experience. We came home and I put some healing cream on our sons face, tucked everyone into bed and I'm now ready to conquer another day that counts down to Christmas.