CHRISTmas 2011!

Christmas eve day was spent getting last minute things done around the house.  For dinner we followed our tradition of having build-your-own pizzas and italian sodas.  The boys love this, as do I because of the simplicity of it.

 

After dinner the boys got to open up their christmas pjs, Chase got a santa hat because he didn't want pjs.  Then we read the story of Christ's birth from the bible wearing our socks from Grandma Yearsley.

 Before heading to bed the boys got to pull all of the gifts out of dad & mom's room and put them under the tree.  Last year we started another new tradition of not putting the presents under the tree until Christmas Eve. We feel that it helps us to keep the focus off of the presents and more on the true meaing of Christmas--our Savior.

The older boys were so excited to see what kind of "trap" dad would come up with to let us know when they were sneaking up the stairs to see if Santa had come.  It was a another good trap that scared them (as well as dad & mom) with a loud BANG as things went crashing to the floor!  We made a deal that the boys would let us sleep until 7:30 and then it was present time!  Everyone was so excited to see what fun stuff they would get.  We were blessed with many neat and fun gifts.  After opening gifts we had Mountain Man breakfast (yet another tradition) and then got ready to go to church.  We enjoyed a very nice sacrament meeting focused on the true meaining of Christmas.  I have to say that I really love when Christmas falls on Sunday.  It is the best way for us to focus on why we celebrate Christmas.  The rest of Christmas day was spent loungng in our pjs, playing games, snacking on goodies, and enjoying being with our family (we were enjoying it so much that unfortunately there weren't any pictures taken).  It was truly a wonderful Christmas and we were very blessed with so much.

 

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!   

Traditions

One of the fun things about the holidays are the different traditions that each family has. When we had our first Christmas in our own home we asked the boys what traditions they wanted to do for Christmas Eve....they chose "build your own pizzas" (each indivdual puts the toppings of their choice on their pizza) for dinner, which I love because it is so simple and low-key. We have since added in italian sodas for the drink.After dinner we opened up our Christmas pajamas and put on our socks from G & G Yearsley then read the Christmas story. We also had to read our scripture for our scripture countdown to Christmas. Then we watched a short Chrismtas movie, set goodies out for Santa, and put the kids down for bed.

It was a nice, relaxing Christmas Eve full of tradition!

Holiday Rewind

It is hard to believe the holiday season has already come and gone...and now there is Easter stuff in the stores. Seriously?!!? I wanted to share some of the highlights from our holiday season. We had a wonderful Christmas and were so blessed.

. . . decorating the christmas tree

yummy goodies delivered to people in the ward . . .

. . . meeting the "big guy in Red"

traditions (making "build-your-own pizzas on Chritmas eve) . . .

christmas morning and the excitement of what Santa brought . . .

family get togethers . . .

dancing with the Wii and working up quite a sweat . . .

. . . fun with cousins

. . . spending New Year's Eve at the church playing dodge ball, glow-in-the dark frisbee and treasure hunt, and Sardines...

and many more wonderful memories!

I am grateful for the holiday season and the feelings that accompany it. I am grateful for the opportunity that we had to spend Christmas at home and then to be able to visit both of our families and have everyone there! I hope a wonderful holiday season was enjoyed by all!

2010 here we come!!