Friday, December 11, 2015

Christmas in November!

The first gift of Christmas! Isn't Kent sweet? He got us new glasses so that we would have enough cups for everyone in my family who was coming for Thanksgiving. =o] 

We got Christmas Oreos and the kids couldn't have been more excited! The special treats of Christmas have begun.

We love the library for so many reasons! But the way the different branches celebrate all the holidays all year long is just so much fun to see!

The kids each have a tree in their rooms. We love it!! Here is little Jenna carefully placing each ornament. She was so particular about it and so careful. It was precious!

Caleb decorated his by himself too. And when I reminded him that the tree is actually for Seth too since they share a room, he took of some of the ornaments so that Seth could hang them up. What a kind brother!

Natalie has been looking forward to having her tree in "Samantha's room" in her room for months! 
She was so happy to be decorating her own tree. She LOVES traditions. 

This Little People Nativity Set was one of the best Christmas purchases I have ever made. 

Mickey Mouse Christmas bowls and hats at breakfast!!

Christmas pajamas!!



The first book we opened for our unwrapping a Christmas book each day tradition was The Best Christmas Pageant EVER. I love that book! (Caleb was covering his eyes to avoid the flash. Smart kid.)

For our Family Home Evening activity the Monday after Thanksgiving we decorated the treeS. Yes we have two now. How can I stop Santa? I gave up. He does the things that are important to him, and I focus on the things that are important to me. It works perfectly actually. I am so grateful that Christmas is Kent's hobby! Anyway, one is in the family room and one is in the living room. The one in the living room is for all our trip ornaments, and the one in the family room is for homemade and other ornaments. Anyway, we had to sort everything and it was super fun to tell all the stories of how and where we got each ornament. 


Seth would carefully hang something on the tree and then run back to the table shouting "I want to help!" over and over until someone handed him another one. 




The trip tree!

I didn't get any action shots of decorating this tree, but here it is- the family tree!

I love this decoration that we got at Disneyland years ago. If any of the kids ever ask me if Santa is real, or ask me questions about Santa that I would have to lie/make something up to answer them, I take them over to this little statue. I say something like: Christmas is about Jesus. Santa isn't real like Jesus is real. Santa is real like Mickey Mouse is real. We can watch movies about them and read books about them and even meet them, but they aren't going to come to the Celestial Kingdom with us. Santa is a super fun tradition and we will always have that tradition in our family, but Christmas isn't about Santa, it is really about Jesus because He is real and we are celebrating Him. 

From fb:
Jenna taught Family Home Evening tonight. If you would like a heartwarming glimpse into the start of our Christmas season, try to imagine her little voice saying this to start her lesson: "This is about a Christ-centered Christmas. Jesus is the reason we have Christmas. Santa is the character that comes to give us presents in the night and I am VERY EXCITED about that, BUT that's not what Christmas is really about. It's about Jesus." This was not prompted, because she said she didn't need my help to get ready. She never ceases to amaze me! She then read this Christmas book, earnestly explaining each picture, and then showed us all the "most important people" in the story using our little people nativity set. Kent asked her to close with her testimony so she said: "I know baby Jesus came to the earth so we could celebrate Christmas. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." She was smiling from ear to ear as she hopped back up on the couch next to me. All of us were. We LOVE Christmas time!!!

She is such a goof! Really though, I hope we can steer her in the right direction because this girl marches to the beat of her own drum! As you can see when she is good she is very good, but when she is bad she is horrid...just like the nursery rhyme. I love her. I hope I can be the mom she needs!!

Here is Caleb playing with the nativity set. Actually, he has enjoyed the lego set more frequently, but since Jenna was using it for her lesson he helped arrange the pieces. 

We are soaking up every moment of this special season that we look forward to all year! Hooray for Christmastime!!

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