Oh how busy Christmastime is. It’s such a struggle to find the balance between doing too much and making it memorable. We try really to focus our celebrations on the Savior, but of course there is some fun mixed in!
MyLiege and I got our Christmas ornaments done early again this year. They turned out so cute and I was glad they were done right at the beginning of December. Thank you MyLiege for getting all the supplies!! It’s always fun to do something like that with a friend, especially since we made a lot of them!
We’ve missed the tree lighting in Canby for the last few years, so we were happy to attend Light the Night this year. It was the same as always: lots of people, we couldn’t hear the speakers or the performers, the parade was a short and lame, but the kids loved it. This year we just happened to find a spot right behind the Sunderland’s! That was a fun surprise.
We helped count down the lighting of all the lights in the park.
Christmas is so fun through the eyes of six year olds! We missed Emma this night, but she had just gotten home from the pool when we had to leave. It was a little too cold for a wet and tired girl!
The first Sunday of December means we get to watch the Christmas Devotional. It is one of our favorite traditions to cozy up in front of the TV with some popcorn and listen to the prophet and other leaders of our church speak about Christmas and hear the beautiful music. So nice!
We went to a nativity display and live nativity that my parent’s stake put on. The live nativity was awesome! We enjoyed it. Isaac and Grace each chose a favorite nativity that they wanted a picture with.
We had so fun having our Christmas breakfast for dinner with the missionaries last year that we decided to do it again this year. This time we had two sets of awesome elders at our house. We had a fun evening with them and they were totally good sports about the Christmas tree French toast.
Laura ended up joining us for dinner too. After the missionaries left we celebrated an early Christmas with her before she left for the rest of the month. We love LaLa!
We weren’t able to go the Milwaukie Stake nativity display as a family this year, so I took Isaac and Grace in the middle of the day one day. It was nice and quiet and they were the only kids there. It was amazing and beautiful as usual. Isaac found a Lego nativity that he loved and Grace was excited about the Charlie Brown nativity.
The kids room wasn’t nearly as cool as in years past, but they still liked doing the crafts. It was a nice little date in the middle of the day with my twinners.
As a family we volunteered at our local food and toy drive again. The last few years we have stayed on the food side, but this year they needed help with the toys. It was much more fun than sorting food, and I was so impressed with how excited Isaac and Grace were to find the coolest toys to give to somebody else.
The embarrassing moment of that night came when I realized I had a sock velcroed to my jacket. We might have joked around with a few Monsters Inc. references…we have a 2319!
I was totally excited to help in the kindergarten class on the day they made gingerbread houses. (Maybe because I was glad the mess was at school and not at home?) Isaac and Grace’s teacher had it so well organized and there was lots of candy for their houses, and she gave them permission to eat as they created! They loved it and made some pretty cute houses that they took home and ate.
Emma had a Christmas band concert. We were a little bummed that we had to pay to get in (!), but it was nice to listen to her play with the band (although we weren’t quite as impressed as we were with the her free middle school concerts!).
It was even nicer that Granny and Grandpa and Kaitlin were there!
We had our annual adult Christmas party at the Steele’s house. It wasn’t an Ugly Christmas Sweater party this year, but I resurrected my winning sweater from last year as one of our white elephant presents.
It was pretty funny, much to Lee’s chagrin. Sorry Linda that you ended up taking it home!
The best white elephant gift of the night were these two live chickens. They were silent the entire night and were one of the last things to be opened. The reaction on the face of the person who opened them was priceless. Pretty hilarious!
We gave peppermint popcorn as usual to our neighbors and friends this year. I think I make it just so I can eat it! Yum!
Lee and I were asked to speak in church on the Sunday before Christmas. There is a lot of pressure in speaking on Christmas Sunday! It sure was nice to really focus my study during the Christmas season though, and it all went well. I was glad when it was over… :)
The Sunday before Christmas we also pulled out the Christmas puzzles. The kids were so excited. OK, Lee and I were pretty excited too!
The Hawkins family came over that night for dessert and they quickly helped us finish up our first puzzle of the season. We got another one started before they left.
For Family Home Evening the next night we caravanned with the Sunderland’s down to Salem to see a neighborhood that gets all decked out with lights for Christmas. We ate pizza and drank root beer in the car on the way down which totally thrilled the kids. We also read A Christmas Carol out loud. It was fun to have Kaitlin with us.
The lights were pretty good. We got there right when the lights were supposed to come on and unfortunately there were lots of houses that had lights on them but they weren’t turned on yet. That was a bit of a disappointment, but it was still worthwhile and we had a good time.
I showed Isaac some Christmas Lego ideas and he got right to work making them. He sure loves his Legos!
The kids draw names to determine who they give Christmas gifts to. Isaac didn’t get Grace this year, but he really wanted to make her a doll house. He drew up plans for a wooden house but it was a little to close to Christmas to make that happen so we convinced him to make it out of cardboard instead. He and Lee built and painted the house.
Then I helped him wallpaper and carpet the rooms.
He was pretty proud of that house and SO excited to give it to Gracie. This is what Christmas is all about!
Isaac and Grace helped me cut out sugar cookies to decorate on Christmas Eve. Grace was especially excited to make weeping angels for Emma and Kaitlin. She’s never seen Dr. Who but she hears enough about it…
We enjoyed the weeks leading up to Christmas and made some good memories amidst the craziness.
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