Children carry on family Christmas tradition by Melissa Lauber
UMConnection Staff  | | The Musselmans carry on a family tradition at Nichols-Bethel UMC in Odenton. | For the past eight years Roland Baldwin worked with his grandchildren one Saturday morning each December setting up the outdoor nativity scene at Nichols-Bethel UMC in Odenton. First there was Robert Musselman, 10, who began helping his grandfather by toting the camels and shepherds out of the garage and onto the lawn when he was only two. Then came Luke, 8, then Brock, 6, and
finally Maggie, 4. 'This is the start of Christmas,' Robert said. 'I like helping build it. It's turned into a tradition.'  However, this year circumstances prevented Baldwin from being able to participate. Undeterred, the four Musselman children showed up on the church lawn Dec. 4. 'Can we do this for PopPop?' they asked their mother Kathy. She said yes, of course, and oversaw the assembly of the wood figures, as the church's United Methodist Men erected a stable on the church lawn. Robert took the lead, while Luke, who is learning to use a drill, worked alongside him. Their parents eventually joined in, while Maggie hung upside down in a nearby tree and Brock found a praying mantis, which he placed on a leaf and proudly displayed to everyone present.  At one moment, Brock and Maggie rolled down a hill in the churchyard. Their mother remembered rolling down the exact same hill when she was a child. These traditions are one of the many things she treasures about church. On Christmas Eve, the children will take the place of wooden figures in the stable in a live nativity pageant directed by their grandmother.  Luke will be Joseph. He has an in with the director, his mother jokes. Robert, who has often been a wise man, will try his hand at being an angel this year. Their 'poppop' will watch as, even altered, the Christmas traditions live on. | 
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