Memories

Memories from the Christmas Season 2009 (in no particular order):

1. Our advent calendar. I bought a cheap advent calendar from the grocery store that has 24 doors with chocolates behind them. I slipped a piece of paper behind each door with a small Christmas activity. Some of the activities included; going to see a particular house with lots of lights, eating a candy cane, making gingerbread houses, watching a Christmas movie, reading a story about Jesus and lots of other activities. This picture was taken when our activity was "drink hot chocolate with a candy cane in it" MMMMMMM
2. Making Gingerbread houses. Landon, Izzy and I, my sister-in-law and her kids, my mother-in-law and my mom all got together and made graham cracker houses. I made this frosting with egg whites and powdered sugar and when it dried it is like cement. So, all of us, armed with loads of candy, made us some "SWEET" houses. My camera battery DIED so I had to take a picture after the fact.
3. Remembering what Christmas is all about. This year, our family had a HUGE project on our hands. We were completely remodeling an entire house. This took up all our time and a lot of our money so we simplified Christmas quite a bit. I did not do neighbor gifts or friend gifts (sorry neighbors and friends!) and our kids didn't get as many gifts as usual. We decided one main gift, another small one and a stocking. There was hardly any stress getting ready for Christmas day this year and it helped me concentrate on something far more important; the birth of the Savior.

4. Christmas Eve. We got together with Travis' family and ate lots of food, played the chimes, read Christmas stories, opened gifts and had a great time.

5. Christmas Day. We opened gifts together as our little family then had a visit from my mother and father-in-law. Then we went to my parents house and had some delicious soup in a bread bowl and enjoyed a quiet afternoon playing with the kids and chatting. Then we headed to Duane and Jeanene's for more gift opening and food.

6. The look on LT's face when he saw he got his very own HUMMER!! He just stared at it and couldn't beleive what he was seeing was REAL!

7. One of the best Christmas gifts ever....a completely remodeled house!!!

8. Seeing all the cousins on my side of the family piled around Santa's lap!
9. Having a new baby have her first Christmas.
10. Seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child again. LT was very much into the excitement of the season this year. It was fun to talk to him about the true meaning of Christmas, discuss Santa and watch him view his personalized video from him. It's fun to watch him amaze over the lights and decorations and get excited over decorating the tree.

11. Singing in a ward choir. I took the opportunity to join my ward choir this year, just to give it a try. I love to sing and I love Christmas music. I enjoyed myself far more than I thought I would. Have you ever gotten chills when you heard a really pretty part of a song that a choir sung? Well, I get that all the time, but it was magnified twenty times when I was actually IN the choir. The choir performed well. I could actually see people that had been touched in the congregation and that made me excited that something I took part in actually touched somebody. I even had the opportunity to sing a duet. We sang "Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel" and it was SO fun and a neat experience. I would totally do that again.

I hope that all of you had a Merry Christmas and I hope that you made many memories too! Hope you all have a happy 2010!