Christmas Perspective

I truly enjoyed Christmas this year. Not only was it the first Christmas where Michael started to understand things, but I gained a new perspective. Many things affected my new outlook on how to do Christmas.

First, there was my brother, in Arizona, whose wife had to unexpectedly go to the hospital during a home birth, and he was unable to find a single ward member, willing to sacrifice some of their Christmas time to help take care of his kids while he took care of his new born baby and wife in the hospital. Luckily my mother was able to fly out to help. But that got me thinking…. Isn’t the reason for Christmas to celebrate Christ’s birth and to do so by serving others during this season? Isn’t the scripture “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”

Second, I have heard other’s question the role of Santa in their Christmas and how he relates to the gospel teachings. Now Kent and I both being the youngest never had the Santa thing played up for us, and we found out at a relatively young age. So I decided to tell Michael that there is a wonderful man who gets all the children ONE gift on Christmas to celebrate Christ’s birth, and that we all do the same, by giving gifts to others we are doing what Christ has asked of us, serving and showing our loves to those around us. But I don’t think I will really play up Santa all that much. Instead we emphasized daily that Christmas was Christ’s birthday and to celebrate Christ’s birth. So it was funny when family members would ask Michael are you excited about Santa? He really didn’t have an answer. They also asked what he had asked Santa for Christmas, this too he didn’t have an answer. I never told him that he could pick what he wanted. I just told him that Santa would give him one present. When relatives asked Michael what day was coming up, he would say “Birthday!” I’m sure this confused everyone, but this made me happy. Michael was not thinking about getting lots of presents and about what he wanted. He was thinking about Christ’s birthday. Sure there will come a time where he will focus on what he wants, I think that most young kids go through that phase, but if I can hold that off and teach him that it is not about getting but giving from the beginning I think that he will learn the message of Christmas.

With the focus on Christ and service I thought “what did I want my children to remember about the Christmas’s of their childhood?’ Did I want them to remember a frantic mother trying to bake too many things, to make everything so perfect, that she is unhappy, and therefore the kids are unhappy? (I have done this in the past and it was not fun!) Or do I want them to remember a happy mom, who especially during this time, spent time with them, and took the time to teach them what Christmas is about. Now don’t get me wrong, I think taking cookies to neighbors is wonderful, but I have already done that 2 times this year and so it was one I was willing to let slide at Christmas time. I also wanted to do lots of fun activities, like make gingerbread houses, snowflakes, etc. But why do too much when just a little will do? So I limited our Christmas activities. There was a Christmas tree made of Michaels hand prints. We played in the snow and Michael built his first snowman. Michael made a Christmas present for mom, dad, and Emma. And every evening we read a different Christmas book, sang a Christmas song, read a scripture about Christ’s birth, learned about a person in the nativity, and pondered on what we would give Jesus this year for Christmas.

So Christmas day the kids each got three gifts this year; one from Santa, one from mom and dad, and one from their sibling. Christmas morning since there were not a lot of gifts to be opened, we took our time. Each took a turn opening and then we would get the gift out and let the child play with it a few minutes and then move on. I loved it! It made Christmas last a lot longer and it was nice to see each gift loved and played with. To end our gift opening we said a prayer of thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father.

Then a fun simple breakfast of pull apart cinnamon bread, eggs and sausage. The rest of the day was fun with the kids, phone calls to family, and a dinner with Kent’s family. Maybe it was just my perspective and focuses this year, maybe it was because I was not stressed out about everything being perfect, but this Christmas was the best I have had in a while.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! What a blessing to celebrate Christ’s birth and teach the message of giving and serving to my children. Thanks to those who helped me see the meaning of Christmas this year and helped me better focus my Christmas traditions.

Michael's first snowman

Michael's handprint Christmas tree

What hansome guys I have in my life!

Playing after Christmas morning

Christmas Time

The first week of December we started our family traditions of decorating for Christmas. Michael and I decorated the house while Kent was at work. But when he got home he got to put up the fake tree (when growing up I said I would always have a real tree, but the hassle and money became a factor. We have had our fake tree for 5 years now and I love it). As Kent put up the tree Michael and I baked sugar cookies. Then all got to decorate the tree and when everything was done we got to frost and eat the yummy sugar cookies. I have loved doing our traditions this year now that Michael is old enough to understand and enjoy them. We have my button advent calendar I made years ago, but now I realize how perfect it is for Michael, he has to work on his fine motor skills to get the buttons through and he is learning to go left to right and down to start at the left again. What good planning and I didn’t even know it. Also, this is the first Christmas in 2 years that we have not had to have a gate around the tree. Michael is old enough to know not to play with the ornaments and Emma can’t reach them yet. We are having a blast preparing for Christmas this year. What traditions are you starting with your children? We wish you a very happy holiday season!





Emma decided to be a Christmas present and go under the tree

We got snow here! Then it turned to ice and we have had TONS of wind. So much ice and wind that church was canceled on sunday.

My, How They Have Grown!

So sorry that I haven’t blogged in a while. Life has been busy, with the holidays and all. Plus I have started to learn a new skill, knitting. It is fun and I am having a blast with it. So here are a few pictures of the little ones. They seem to be growing so much. Michael is talking a lot more, and most people can understand him now (not just me). He also has a wonderful memory. The other day we were getting ready to go visit my Aunt Loa Jean and as I told Michael were we were going, he said “and visit Aunt Jennifer, London, Jacob, and Joseph!” this is because the last time we went to see Aunt Loa Jean my brother and his family was all there too. He was sad that he didn’t get to see his cousins that day. Then another time we were driving and a UPS truck passed us. He pointed and said “PS Truck!” I think maybe I told him it was a UPS truck once, I can’t believe he remembered it’s name. I know I’m bias, but he sure is a smart one.

Emma is growing tons too. She has yet to learn crawling, but has mastered the art of rolling. If she sees something she wants she will get there by rolling to it. She has gotten into my knitting stuff a couple of times, so I have learned to put it up high now. She has also started to babble. It is so cute to hear the “bababababa” and Michael loves to say “bababa” right back to her. She loves it and they both have a blast babbling and giggling together.


Here she is finding my knitting!


Had to take a picture with the bib!

Thanksgiving

The day before Thanksgiving Michael and I spend the day coloring thanksgiving pages and finger painting. He made handprint turkeys that we made into Thanksgiving cards for both grandparents. Then we had our little family Thanksgiving meal complete with cranberry scones. YUM! For dessert we had corna copias (made from ice cream cones) filled with candy. We took turns going around the table and saying what we were thankful for and each thing we said we got to eat a piece of candy. It was fun to start our own traditions now that Michael will start to remember them. And it was good to start teaching Michael what Thanksgiving is all about.

Thanksgiving day we spent with Kent’s family (only one sibling was not there, they live in another state). His sister’s house was a full one. But everyone had a blast together. This year I was finally able to let Michael lose and let him chase after all his cousins and play along with them. Emma loves being held, so everyone took their turn holding her. My older nieces commented on how they love holding Emma because she never cries when they hold her, compared to their other baby cousins. Needless to say Emma was held most of the time. Kent got to hang out with the guys chatting, and I got to play games with the teenagers. We played apples to apples and signs (everyone passes secret signs and the person in the middle has to figure out who has the sign). It was a blast. When we finally left to go home around 9pm both kids were tired and feel asleep during the 3 min. ride home.

So what did you do for Thanksgiving? What traditions do you do? How do you teach your children about the meaning of Thanksgiving?