just like mary & joseph

so on christmas eve we got all dressed up in our finery, and set off to find a fun place to have dinner. i had a few ideas in my head of places to go (ranging from traditional german to korean – in celebration of my mother-land!). the theme of the evening was flexibility – we hadn’t made reservations anywhere, so i assumed it might take a few places before we found one that worked. that said, in keeping with our tradition of eating EARLY (it was 5pm at this point), i figured we would be ok.

what i didn’t count on was the fact that this town SHUTS DOWN christmas eve. we pulled into the alstadt (old city) and both wen & i commented on how quiet and dark everything was. and then it dawned on us … nothing was open.

we drove around for a bit, and even parked and walked into the center of town to see if there was one lonely place open. nope. we popped into a hotel, assuming they would have their dining room open for hotel guests. nope.

by now it was 6pm, and since none of us had eaten a good lunch that day, stomachs were growling and moods were diminishing. we moved on to the inevitable plan B – yep, the drive thru. the girls were, of course, thrilled at the idea of bringing mcdonalds home and having a “carpet picnic” while watching polar express – why wasn’t this plan A all along, piper wondered!?

imagine our dismay to see those golden arches dark, and the chairs stacked on the table tops. piper’s dreams of a french-fry filled christmas eve were dashed. and thus the tears arrived. until ..

wen launched into the story of mary & joseph, and that fateful night in bethlemen. he explained how they searched for a place to stay, yet kept being turned away as there was no room for them at the inn. “but they found a manger!” piper exclaimed, to which wen replied, “yes, just like mary & joseph, we have to have faith and keep trying, and soon we’ll find a place to eat.”

well, i’m pretty sure our quest for christmas eve dinner is a pretty blasphemous comparison to mary & joseph trying to find a place to give birth to the savior of the world. but, it certainly got the girls quiet until we could figure something out! and perhaps even brought to life that element of the story … maybe?

the evening ended with doner kebabs (yes, really) and us cuddled in bed reading the christmas story from piper’s bible. we’re making some memories here, friends!

hope you & yours had a memorable christmas … xo.