This Christmas season a few things, namely blogging, have slipped through the cracks. Still, I feel the need to document that not all traditions and memory making opportunities have fallen by the wayside. It's been a great many weeks leading up to Christmas Eve and while my fatigue often outweighs my Christmas cheer, I am finding myself as excited and happy as ever going into this holiday.
The season was kicked off with decorating our tree. I traded in my desire to control the outcome for some wonderful sounds of laughter and excitement as the children chose ornaments they loved and placed them on the tree where they wanted to. They were so excited and Addie said it was "the most beautiful tree ever." Jack just said it was "awesome," which is a new word he throws out when you least expect it. Our first holiday event was the annual City of Heath Tree Lighting, complete with Santa and a train ride. Addie also had a Christmas performance at ballet, which she loved. Then we immediately regrouped with the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and felt ready to properly celebrate the birth of Christ.
We've visited with Santa and wrapped our share of presents. "Jingle Bells" and "Deck the Halls" have been played by 5 year old fingers all month. We've been to Christmas parties, hosted Christmas parties, and talked about going to or hosting a few more. We decorated our annual gingerbread house (from a box, of course!) and even received a few emails from Santa giving the "nice" approval to both children. The wonder in Jack's face over those emails was priceless!
Anthony has picked up some of the Christmas fun for me this year and really entertained the children with Simon, our "Elf on the Shelf." Simon has been caught eating Christmas candy, taken a "bubble bath" of mini marshmallows, zip-lined through our entryway, and partially unwrapped a gift...to name a few adventures. Both Addie and Jack have had some exciting mornings finding him and I've felt guilty that I was the one who got to see the reactions after Anthony did all the work.
In my efforts to replace energy with Christmas cheer I have hit my standby Alabama Christmas pretty hard. In a pinch "A Marshmallow World" picks me up as well. If all else fails, this Target commercial makes me laugh until I cry:
I took a tip from President Thomas S. Monson this year and read The Mansion by Henry Van Dyke as well as A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens in addition to Luke 2 as usual. Both books were a strong contrast to modern philosophies on charity that I enjoyed and learned a great deal from. I will definitely be reading both again!
This year we let the children pick out one gift for each other. Poor Jack was so unimpressed with his Christmas Eve pajama present that I caved and then put pressure on Anthony to cave and let them open something fun. I think it was a fun tradition we'll continue.
As Christmas Eve wraps up and we are preparing for Christmas Day, it is fun to look back at this past month and see how much really happened and how fun it has been. We've had to explain Santa's "parent gift approval" rule to Addie and the "list limit rule" to Jack. They are, of course, hyped up for the gifts of Christmas Day. Hopefully, the music we've had in our home, the books we've read, the Scripture Advent tradition we've continued, and the constant conversations we've had will set the true meaning of Christmas somewhere close to the front of their minds.
Tonight we had the Gardner family over for a great feast, prepared almost entirely by the men. It could have been cold cereal for me and I would have been happy just to not be cooking, but they really took things up a notch with prime rib, macaroni and cheese, green beans, and rolls. It was delicious. All followed up by Brent's homemade apple and pecan pies. Yum!
We closed our evening reading from Luke 2 with our finger puppets. It keeps the kids involved in the story and I loved feeling the peaceful spirit that entered our home at the close of the night as we read about the birth of our Savior. It was a great night!
Merry Christmas!
