Season of traditions

One of my favorite things about the holidays are the different traditions that each family has.  I especially enjoy the traditions that our own family has.  We started or I should say re-introduced a tradition from when we were living in Hamer.  Instead of heading to the tree lot and handing over an obscene amount of money for an already dying tree, we decided to head to the south hills (south of Twin Falls) to cut down a fresh christmas tree on December 10th.  It was crazy how many people were heading down the hill with trees.  Definitely a popular activity for that day for many.  We couldn't have asked for better weather . . . it was sunny and not terribly cold.  We weren't anticipating snow so we didn't go prepared with snow pants, but we did have coats, hats, boots, and gloves.  We pulled over to the side of the road and were able to find a tree after about 15 minutes of searching. Chase was the mighty tree slayer and got to cut the tree down. Zander (who was sick) and McKay (who became sick the next day) weren't too thrilled about trudging through the snow that came up to their knees.  By the time we made it back to the car they were S.C.R.E.A.M.I.N.G!  So much for happy family time!

 The next day we decorated our tree . . . it seemed like a rush job this year, but they were all still so excited to put their own ornaments on the tree. 

The next night we started another new tradition for our family--decorating personal gingerbread houses.  The boys all loved this, especially dad.  I was very impressed with the creativity he used in decorating his house; he even made a tractor for it.  The boys then enjoyed munching on them for the next two weeks. 

Another of our favorite traditions is to take a day and make a ton of goodies to take around to our neighbors and people in the ward.  We made toffee, chocolate-dipped cinnamon bears, oreo truffles, caramels, and dipped Ritz.  Dad, Mom, Chase, Trey, and Layton we all in charge of different goodies.  Zander and McKay were helpers whenever they were needed.  Doing it this way made the acutal making of the goodies go faster than the delivering.  Delivering took us almost 2.5 hours!!  It is hard at times to feel in the holiday spirit when all you hear is kids fighting because they want to run the treats this house and that house, and people getting kicked in the face as another jumps over the seat.  It can be pure choas (when isn't our life choas), but it really is a great time and something that all the boys look forward to doing.  

I almost forgot a couple other tradtions we have leading up to Christmas.  Last year I made a scripture countdown found in the Friend magazine.  We read a scripture and then answer a question that pertains to the birth of Christ.  By Christmas day our countdown tree is covered with ornaments.  The other is we read "The Last Straw" for family home evening towards the first of the month.  Then we each draw a family members name and do acts of service for that individual.  A straw is put into a small manger for each act of service performed.  Then we draw names again every FHE until Christmas.  On Christmas Eve we put baby Jesus in his manger full of straw.  I was amazed at the amount of service that was performed by everyone in our family this year.  Our little manager was full to the brim.  This was a wonderful month of traditions!