Christmas traditions

We have lots of Christmas traditions in our home and we enjoy participating in them every year. We did these things as children and my memories of them are so wonderful, that I wanted to pass them onto our children. They seem to enjoy them as well, and I hope someday they will pass them onto their own children.

Every year we reenact the Nativity, complete with King Herod, angels, wisemen, shepherds, animals, Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. I remember as a child always wanting to be Mary, and I guess that just goes to show how much I always wanted to be a mother. Aleece asked to be Mary this year and I was happy to pass along the torch, if you will! Even as silly as we all get on Christmas Eve reenacting the Savior's birth, the Spirit is always strong and I am always so grateful for the opportunity we have to remember what is most important over the holiday season.

Mary and Joseph

Shephard and Angel

Shepherd, Wiseman and Baby Jesus

Wiseman and Mary

Wiseman and Angel

Wisemen

King Herod

Angels

More angels

Baby Jesus in his swaddling clothes (and Santa suit!)

We also have a talent show and we dress up and act out the 12 Days of Christmas. This always proves to be a good time! Another fun tradition is opening our Christmas pajamas, putting them on, hanging up our stockings over the fireplace before we go to bed and laying out milk and cookies for Santa, with a special note of course! Although in my later adolescent years I do believe Santa Claus preferred Diet Coke! :)

1st Christmas!!!

Acting out the 12 Days of Christmas (hence the Partridge in a Pear Tree hat Katchie is wearing, the Lords a Leaping shirt Jeff is styling, the swans a swimming goggles Grampy has on, the five golden rings Krispy Kreme hat Lennon is sporting, and the colander/drum Eric used for the drummers drumming---it's all about creativity people!!!)

And of course you can't forget the geese a laying (Mary), the maids a milking (Lainey and I), the ladies dancing (Aleece)! We also had the others, but I don't think they are visible in these pics!

It's always so fun to celebrate the holidays with family and we had such a fabulous time. The only downfall was that the time we got to spend together was not near long enough! Thanks for a wonderful holiday celebration our cute family!

12 Days of Christmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me........

12 inch snow drifts

11 busy adults

10 degrees below

9 sugary sweets

8 zillion presents

7 days of fun

6 frozen cars

5 crazy dogs

4 Christmas trees

3 cute kids

(2) Santa and his wife

and one Swiss serving missionary!

80 degrees of separation......

And that is without the wind chill! We left Memphis on Friday at about 2pm and the temperature was a lovely 69 degrees. When we pulled into Granny and Grampy's at about 5 :30 pm Saturday the temp was a frigid -10 degrees. Mind you, if you factor in the wind chill, it has been about -30 to -40 degrees! We are so happy to be here in Marshall with family and are so glad we made it through the blizzard conditions safely! I'll try and get some pictures from the drive posted soon. The wind was blowing like mad, it was snowing, and the roads were icy. Lucky for us, our children are amazing travelers, and that made it that much easier on us! We ventured out to church today for the Christmas program, which Val and I got to perform in, and other than that I think we will probably board ourselves up in the house and avoid going outside at all costs! We are so excited to spend Christmas with our awesome family and can't wait to see what the coming weeks bring!

Christmas spirit!

We had our ward Christmas program this past Sunday and so we decided to dress the kids up in their cute Christmas attire. A big thank you to Granny, Grampy and Mary, who all contributed to their cute outfits! We got some cute pictures, and hope to get some more this week!

On Sunday evening we went to look at Christmas lights, one in particular. Here is a short video of that home--they definitely go all out for Christmas! I wonder what their electrical bill looks like! :)

Ward Christmas party

We had our ward Christmas party tonight. We got to enjoy some yummy cookies and hot chocolate, visit with Santa, sing Christmas carols and visit with all of our wonderful ward family! Here are a few of the highlights....

Daddy and Lainey playing in the gym!

Leecy T being silly!

Lennon with Santa, thinking, who the heck is this?

What the girls turned into once they actually saw Santa!

What we eventually got them to do....

treats will entice them to do almost anything! However this was the closest they got to him! :)

Singing Christmas carols!

Seriously, the cutest Santa EVER!

could he be any cuter?

I think not! Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas!

Jingle Bells

We were watching Charlie Brown's Christmas this week and had just finished watching the scene where Schroeder plays Jingle Bells for Lucy. This is one of Lainey's favorite Christmas songs and just a few short minutes after watching that scene this is what I came across!

What do you think? Not only does she look like her Daddy, it looks like she may inherit his piano playing talent as well! :)

Dick and Jane

Sorry it took so long for me to post this video of Aleece reading! This is from a couple of weeks ago--she is reading a Dick and Jane book (obviously!). She has already come a long ways---she is asking if she is spelling things correctly and really sounding things out well! We are so proud of her!

Mr. Lennon

Lennon is rolling over like crazy and learning to sit up all by himself! I can't believe he is almost five months old! He loves to play in his Excersaucer from Granny and Grampy and he is definitely a textures person! He has this super soft blanket made of this plush green material and he loves to be cuddled with it! Lennon has the sweetest smile and I love the look of adoration on his face when he looks at his big sisters! He has us all wrapped around his little finger and we all love it! We love having him in our family and we love him so much! It's hard to believe the year 2008 is almost over! At the beginning of the year I was just on the beginning of my 3rd pregnancy journey and now here I am at the end of the year with my three beautiful babies! How lucky can one mom get!?

Cute little Lainey bug

Lainey bug has always loved music and is usually found singing wherever she is! She has picked up on the Christmas songs so quickly and I often catch her singing "Jingle Bells", "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", and "Deck the Halls". The other day she probably had us play "Deck the Halls" about 20 times in a row in the car! She kept telling me yesterday, "Sing it mommy! Fa la la! Sing it!" She is mostly talking in full sentences now and I am amazed at how much she knows! I love to hear her say prayers and I love that something else she has learned to say is, "I need you Mommy/Daddy! I need you!" I hope she always feels this way! She is such a sweetheart and we love her so much!

Sweet Leecy T

We were quizzing Aleece over dinner tonight on her Articles of Faith. Guess how many she can recite from memory! Come on, just guess! 6! At only 4 years old she has about half of the Articles of Faith memorized. She is so articulate when she recites them and I love seeing her testimony of the gospel grow every day! I love that she is learning so much in preschool! She is so smart and I love that she teaches Lainey so much of what she knows and learns. She is such a good big sister and we love her so much! We are so glad she is a part of our family!