Christmas Past Memory...

Let's travel back in time to December 1987. Our family lived in Montgomery Village, Maryland for 20 years prior to retiring to Kentucky. Each Christmas the members of the Church we invited to participate in a live Nativity on the grounds of the visitor's center at the Washington DC Temple. When Nissa was in high school, she volunteered for the only female role in this cast and would spend an hour out in the freezing cold playing the role of Mary. They had a doll to play the baby Jesus. This doll was sooooo real. You really had to watch to see if you could tell if it was real or not. It even appeared at time to blow smoke from it's little mouth due to the coldness of the air. This particular year our family trundeled down with the masses to watch Nissa be Mary. We took pictures and watched her cuddle this little baby doll and then lay it in the manger and then cuddle it again. We walked up a little hill to get a picture of the scene with the temple in the background. As Claude and Andie and I watched our oldest fill this most important role, Andie, in pure Andie style, said, "Nissa looks so real doing this you almost expect her to breast feed any minute!" That my friends is a pure example of the Claude Christensen family as it really is...supporting and encouraging the family members while not missing the perfect opportunity for a quick remark. I do love my family.