Christmas is by far my most
favorite time of the year! There are so many things that we do together
as a family that make it special to me.
We almost always decorate our
house for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. This year we had to make
a little change. Clayton needed to fly out to California for his Uncle
Clint's funeral the day after Thanksgiving so we started decorating the day
before. We turn on Christmas music and pull out all of our Christmas
boxes from storage. We then completely mess up our house trying to find a
place for everything. The kids love getting out all the decorations
(especially all the kid friendly nativities) and decorating the tree with their
special ornaments. I love the feeling of our house after all the
decorations are put up, the house is cleaned up, and the only lights on are
those from the Christmas tree.
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Festival of Trees
When I was younger, I was in my 5th/6th
grade choir and we would always perform at Christmas time at the Festival of
Trees. This is where my love for it
began. I love looking at all the trees
and feeling all the love that people have for others. As I have gotten older (and lost two babies)
I am not able to look at all the pictures of little babies with tubes or
stories of children struggling with illness without tearing up. I now have to avoid looking at some but I
still feel so much love as we look at the trees. One of Clayton’s favorite parts of the
festival is the scones that they sell. We
always stop and buy a few.
Child Family Christmas Party
Each year we have a Christmas
party with my dad’s side of the family.
This is such a fun time to catch up with all the cousins that we don’t
see as often as we used to. For as long
as I can remember we have acted out the nativity. It is so fun to now see our own kids as part
of this tradition. We also have a visit
from Santa’s Elf. Growing up my grandpa
(my dad’s dad) would dress up as Santa for our Christmas parties. Now that he is gone, my dad has accepted that
job. The kids all love getting a gift
from the big red bag, which is actually now two big red bags.
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| Is this not the cutest cow you have ever seen? |
Zoolights
We love the zoo! At Christmas time the zoo is decorated with
lights everywhere. We bundle up and meet
Grandma, Grandpa and our cousins there.
It is so fun to walk around and see all the lights and decorations and
spend time together as a family. This
year we were lucky that is wasn’t as cold as it normally is.
I guess we just love Christmas
lights. We try to make it to downtown
Salt Lake to see the lights on Temple Square.
We bundle up and walk through the temple grounds looking at all the
beautiful lights and nativities that depict our Savior’s birth. This year we were lucky enough to get tickets
to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Performance.
Their special guests this year was the Muppets and the guy who voices
Prince Hans in Frozen. Because of this,
children were allowed to attend. Our
kids loved it. It was so fun to watch
Ben’s face as he was watching the performance.
People around us kept looking at him because he was so cute and excited.
Letters to Santa and Reindeer
After our kids wrote letters to
Santa, we went to Thanksgiving Point to mail them. They had a special Santa mailbox there. We always go and see the reindeer there so we
decided to just mail our letters there too.
And we are so glad we did. There
is a sign by the mailbox that says to include your return address in case Santa
has a question with your letter. A few
days after mailing our letters, each kid got a personal letter from Santa in
the mail and mom and dad got the kids letters mailed back to us so that we
could save them. They were so happy to
get their letters. They reread them many
times.
Cookie Day
We always have a cookie day with
Grandma before Christmas so that the kids can make some cookies to leave for
Santa. My mom is so great to help all 6
grandchildren roll out the dough, cut the shapes, bake and decorate the
cookies. Her kitchen is covered in flour
by the end but she loves it.
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Desert Star
This is the one thing we do each
Christmas without our kids. My family
has been going to Desert Star (a musical dinner theatre) every Christmas for a
long time. We have a great time booing
and cheering along with the show.
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| A date night! |
Lego Christmas Village
This year a new tradition started
in our family. Clayton has always wanted
a Christmas village. Earlier this year,
he decided a Lego one would be the best because of the kids and his love of
Legos. He ordered all the past pieces
and we are now up to date with what is available and hope to add to our
collection every year. It was fun to see
how excited Ben and London were to help build and then play with the final
creations.
Christmas Sing
Another new tradition that
began this year was going to the school and watching Ben’s Christmas Sing. He was super excited to sing for us and he
was the cutest one there…in my opinion.
The kids saw this kit at the store
and wanted to build a gingerbread house.
We bought it and the kids and Dad did a great job at building it.
We were lucky this year because
Clayton’s sister Helen had her store grand opening and had Santa visit. Our kids are a little nervous around Santa
(and all new people) but they both did a great job…as long as dad was right
there with them. This Santa was great
too. He took time to really talk with
each kid.
This Christmas season was
amazing. I love all the things that we
do to celebrate!
(Christmas Eve and
Christmas Day posts will be coming soon.)
