*Catch up post.....be warned this post is picture heavy! *
Despite the cold and snow, December has to be one of my favorite months of the year! I love all the stuff that comes with the holidays. Spending time with family, baking, sweets, shopping, decorating, and the list goes on and on. This December I was on a quest to help take the commercialism out of the holidays for my family and try to focus more on giving and spending time together. Our church was hosting a weekly scrapbooking night, so I took advantage of those nights to get away and construct my 25 days of Christmas bunting. Each pocket contained one activity. This activity could be to do something for someone else or it could be something for our family to do together. The kids would take turns pulling the ticket each evening. A few examples of items were: Go see Christmas lights, make Christmas candy, bake Christmas cookies, delivery candy anonymously, donate coats/hats/gloves to the needy, go Christmas caroling.
Despite the cold and snow, December has to be one of my favorite months of the year! I love all the stuff that comes with the holidays. Spending time with family, baking, sweets, shopping, decorating, and the list goes on and on. This December I was on a quest to help take the commercialism out of the holidays for my family and try to focus more on giving and spending time together. Our church was hosting a weekly scrapbooking night, so I took advantage of those nights to get away and construct my 25 days of Christmas bunting. Each pocket contained one activity. This activity could be to do something for someone else or it could be something for our family to do together. The kids would take turns pulling the ticket each evening. A few examples of items were: Go see Christmas lights, make Christmas candy, bake Christmas cookies, delivery candy anonymously, donate coats/hats/gloves to the needy, go Christmas caroling.
This helped set the tone for our holidays. It helped us all put things into perspective and I think truly begin to enjoy it more. My husband was a little reluctant to do something every single day (and yes there were a few days we just couldn't fit it in). I think in the end he would tell you that he was less of a Bah Hum Bug this year because of it!
This year Gauge was the only one who had a Christmas program.
For whatever reason our local Elementary School doesn't include 1st graders in their holiday program (sad face). Even more sad was the fact that Gracie didn't get to go to Gauge's program because she had the Chicken Pox! Crazy huh? She had the vaccine.....but apparently she was one of the exceptions that can still contact a mild case. We were so thankful for her older cousin Jenna who stayed home with her.
We are very blessed to have both of our parents living in the same town. This means we divide up our holiday visits. We usually visit his parents a week prior to Christmas
and my parents on Christmas Eve.
This year our family was one of the Advent families to light candles and read scripture during the Christmas Eve service. I couldn't pass up this opportunity to get matching outfits for us!
We generally don't get home until late on Christmas Eve. This sometimes proves to be a challenge for poor Gauge to stay awake long enough to put out cookies for Santa but he managed to stay awake (barely).
Our kids had a wonderful Christmas morning filled with all kinds of goodies.
The highlights were brand new bikes. We had such an uncommonly mild winter this year that the kids got to ride their new bikes on Christmas morning. That's pretty unheard of!
What a blessed Christmas we had with all of our loved ones!!!
