Our "Paper Creche" devotion idea...

To go along with our Spiritual Christmas Crib, we made the very beginnings of a simple nativity scene on a 2'x3' bulletin board we had lying around, stapling on blue construction paper for the sky, brown for the hills of Bethlehem.

Now, for each of the days leading up to Christmas, as we build our Cribs in our hearts, preparing for Our Lord's birthday, we're following along by adding the appropriate acoutrements to our bulletin board representation. So, on Day 1 we built the stable walls with round paper rocks, and on Day 2, we added a roof made of twigs. To stop the crevices on Day 3 we colored in the cracks of the stone walls with brown and black crayon and added an orange paper straw roof, so the snow couldn't get in. Today we figuratively swept the cobwebs out.

And for every good deed or little sacrifice that the children make for love of little Jesus, they get to add a star to the sky.

You can't see them in the picture, but there are actually several stars up there already. We're hoping for a beautiful star-filled sky by December 25th!