Well, I'm not one to complain, but really, those people who work for the Romans, they're just the limit.

Let me tell you all about it. The Romans are in charge, you see. And whatever the Romans want, that's what you've got to do. You might have guessed that I'm not a Roman. No, I'm a Jew, one of those people whose country they've taken over. Now it's all check points and tax booths everywhere.

And it's terrible out there in Bethlehem today. The crowds! There's people arriving all the time. All wanting somewhere to stay. I was one of those people who had to travel here just because the Romans said so. I live in Nazareth really. You see, those Romans decided they wanted to get an idea of exactly how many of us there are in Israel. So they'll know how much money to charge us to pay for all their building projects. Roads and things, that's what the money's for. Fair enough, I agree that roads are a good thing. But this business of counting us! I mean, they can't just send us round a form to fill in. No, we've all got to go to the town our family comes from, and register, in person. So here I am in Bethlehem.

We travelled for days, on foot you understand. Some of us had donkeys to ride, but we couldn't all have a donkey. How my feet ached! I suppose it must have been worse for poor Mary. She's having a baby, you know, and getting rather big and heavy. The baby coming was a bit of a surprise. (SURPRISE!) God sent him, to save us from our sins, so they say. It was a bit of a shock for Joseph at first but he's got over it now. The angel told him it was all part of God's plan. Yes, an angel! That was quite a surprise too. (SURPRISE!)

It was a bit hard on the children too, walking all that way. They're not old enough to ride donkeys, of course. But then, they did enjoy themselves playing games on the way. I wonder if any of you play games like theirs. Games like leapfrog. Do you know that one? Where one person bends over, and you jump over his back? Do you play that? ..... Well that's a surprise. (SURPRISE!) And sometimes they played "catch" with each other. And the little ones had dolls and wooden animals that they took with them on the journey. Sometimes the children got left behind because they were playing, and we had to call them: "Hurry up, Simon! Come on Miriam, pick up your little brother, there's a good girl!"

The roads were quite busy. Lots of people were travelling, like us. Every so often we'd come to a town. We'd go to the market to buy food, like juicy fresh oranges, melons and grapes.

We knew we were getting near to Bethlehem when we saw the great city of Jerusalem ahead of us. It's set on a hill, so you can see it from quite a long way off. And on top of the hill, the great Temple of God. It's an enormous building, decorated with gold so it shimmers and shines in the sun. I don't think I've ever seen such a beautiful building. It's only right to have a beautiful Temple to show everyone how great and wonderful God is, after all. I couldn't take my eyes off the lovely city of Jerusalem as we passed it on our way to Bethlehem.

Anyway, finally we arrived in Bethlehem. Well, I had no idea just how many of us would turn up, from different parts of the country. It was a real surprise. (SURPRISE!) The town was swarming with people, young, old, rich and poor. All there to register.

We've been in Bethlehem a couple of days now. We went to stay with cousins, at their house. Well, as you can imagine, there were rather a lot of us. There wasn't enough room for us all to stay in the main room of the house. Some of us have to sleep with the animals, in their bit of the house. When I say animals, I mean useful animals like chickens and goats - we all have some of those in our houses. We get fresh eggs from the chickens and milk from the goats. Oh, and there's the donkeys, of course. We keep hay in a manger for them to eat.

Mary and Joseph are sharing their space with the animals too. Mary thinks her baby's going to be born quite soon. "Oh," she says. "Did you see that? The baby in my tummy just kicked!"

What a lot of surprises. First the angel visiting Mary, telling her that her baby will be a king, the Son of God. Then old cousin Elizabeth and her surprise baby. An angel appearing to Joseph in a dream. Then a journey to Bethlehem. I wonder if God's got any more surprises in store for us!