A Month of Sundays

Each Sunday this month we've opened a present after church - something for all of us to do together to make our day a little more special and bring some Christmas spirit to our Sunday afternoons.

Week 1

Our special gift for the day was this movie:

It was cute, clean, and very Christmasy. I didn't know it when I bought it, but it was filmed at Heritage Park where we volunteer during the summer. We all sat up and shouted at once when we recognized the house where we give tours and the places that the kids play. The film was inspired by a true story and I would say I found it inspiring. 

Week 2

What's in these bags? If I told you now it would ruin someone else's Christmas surprise so you'll have to wait and see...

But when we were finished with what was inside we made "Christmas Pizza" shaped like gingerbread men and candy canes.

While we ate, we watched the  Christmas Devotional presented by the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This annual broadcast is one of my favorite Christmas events. Messages of Christ and His gospel are shared and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs. It sets the tone for the whole season. If you missed it you can watch it by clicking the link above.

Week 3
Did you have an advent calendar like this when you were little? I did, and me and my siblings took turns taking the little felt ornament out of it's pocket and snapping it onto the tree to count down for Christmas. So...

when I saw this kit to make something similar I snatched it up to be our special gift of the week.

 The kids put together all 25 ornaments and I started stitching the main piece.

Too bad I didn't see this the for the first week of December or we might've finished it in time to really use it. For now we're hanging the ornaments on our Christmas tree until until the rest of the sewing is finished, and then we'll have this advent calendar to keep and be a count-down tradition for us every year from now on.


Week 4
And here we are on the last Sunday before Christmas. After a beautiful church service full of music and testimony this morning, we snuggled down at home and opened our last Sunday gift;  a Gingerbread Village kit. We like to do gingerbread houses every year and this kit gave them each their own little house to decorate. There were five in the box, but Gabe broke his into pieces and ate it while he decorated the extra one. (A word of advice; these kits tend to run a little short on frosting and candy. We use some of our own Christmas candy and make up a batch of Royal icing to add to it.)

 The girls worked intently on the details of their houses. Madeleine did some fondant work, Beth made a little penguin to live in hers and Mary hung icicles from her roof. It's our own little North pole.

Then we popped popcorn and watched "A Christmas Carol" and now we're headed off to bed. I'm grateful for special days like these to share with my children in anticipation of Christmas. I hope this month is something they'll remember all year long.

Christmas Garden

I love to Garden. Love it. Sometimes when I can't sleep at night I imagine I'm planting a garden and plan out everything I would plant and where I would put it.  Then I can't sleep because I'm too excited  about gardening. Herbs, vegetables, fruit, flowers, it doesn't matter - I like them all. If  there was enough time in the day or enough dirt in my yard I would plant them all.

It will be months before I can grow vegetables to bring to the dinner table, but thanks to some great gifts from thoughtful friends I have a Christmas garden growing right on my table. These pretty plants are keeping me company while the world outside is frozen white.  Thanks to them I'm growing some Christmas cheer!

Shoe Day

The Army took my family to Germany twice; once before I was born and again when I was in High School. In Germany Christmas is a really big deal and it is beautiful! Christmas markets, Christmas decorations, Christmas foods... Because of the opportunity we had to live there, I grew up celebrating some German traditions at Christmas time, even though we have no German heritage, and I've passed them on to my kids.

One of our favorite traditions is "Shoe Day,"other wise known as St. Nicholas Day. Every year on the night of December 5 we leave our shoes in front of the door and when we wake up they are filled with treats and small gifts.

This year instead of filling our shoes, St. Nicholas opted to swap them for some cozy slippers and filled them with candy and cocoa mix.  It was perfect timing since it has been snowy with freezing temperatures lately, but thanks to St. Nicholas our feet have been warm and snug in our slippers while we sip cocoa by the fire.

Another element of German Christmas that I love is our wooden German pyramid. Some people say these wooden pyramids are the predecessor to the Christmas tree. It has a few different levels and on each level stand little figurines that depict the nativity. It spins, powered by the heat of several candles. Tonight we set it up and sang Christmas carols as we watched it go around and, as my daughter said, "it was quite a lovely evening."

I love the different traditions that bring us closer as a family while we celebrate Christ's birth. What are some of the traditions that your family shares, and where do they come from? All the many different traditions from many different places  can remind us of the same truth; that Christ is the Savior of us all. Spending time together and showing love for each other helps us feel His love and brings His spirit into our hearts and homes. What a wonderful reason to celebrate!

Frohe Weihnachten!

I Am Grateful for Doing Dishes

Being Thanksgiving everybody is talking about things they are grateful for. Today after lunch it occurred to me that one of the things I am grateful for is something I don't even like very much. Doing dishes. Dishes and I have never gotten along very well.  Repeitive, messy, and NEVER ENDING, I can think of any number of other things I would rather do, even in the realm of housework, than wash dishes. So why be grateful for it? Well, for one thing having a sink full of dirty dishes means you just had a full meal and that is truly something to be grateful for. But that's not it. Another reason might be a sink full of dirty dishes means you HAVE dishes - and a sink to put them in - and running water to wash them with. All things to to be grateful for, and I am, but that's not it either. Nope, this gratitude comes from a lesson that was long in the learning but hopefully not short in forgetting. 

About eight years ago my body started breaking down and I didn't know why. Small things became hard things and hard things kept getting harder. The harder things got, the less worthwhile doing them seemed to be. I left the grocery cart full of groceries in the aisle and went home empty handed because I was too tired to finish the shopping. I put my wet hair in a pony tail because the hair dryer was too heavy to hold up that long. I avoided leaving the house because the car seats seemed too hard to buckle and the diaper bag felt too heavy to carry. I remember standing at the sink trying to do dishes and stopping every few minutes to lay down because it hurt too much to stand that long. So I stopped cooking, and I stopped cleaning up. Somewhere in there I stopped smiling. I stopped playing with my children and started lying to them, pretending that giving them extra minutes of TV time was a "treat" when really it was a ruse so I could go lay in bed with the lights off and the blinds closed. Extra minutes turned to hours and while I lay there, leaving them unattended, I started lying to myself, telling myself that they didn't notice, that they didn't miss me, that they didn't need me anyway. Inflammation, fatigue, dizziness, blurred vision, left-sided weakness, and muscle spasms crept in and made themselves at home while my home went unkept and my children unattended and left me in the middle of it feeling frustrated, embarrassed, confused, and very, very sad. 

I don't know what I would've done without my husband. The thought of him helped me rally every day and the sight of him coming home in the evening lifted my heavy heart. I am inexpressibly grateful for him. With his help and support, I sought medical attention in all kinds of places which led to tests for brain tumors and Multiple Sclerosis and lots of late nights wondering "why?" and "what if?" Those tests came back negative (thank goodness) and then life became a carousel of physical therapy appointments and a roller coaster of health practioners for the next seven years. During that time we were blessed to find wonderful nannies who helped me do what I couldn't on my own and had a positive impact in my children's lives. I am grateful for their support and influence. Meanwhile my children were angels who walked beside me and helped me bring my smile back. I am grateful for their examples of forgiveness and unconditional love. 

Now here I am, in my kitchen, standing at the sink, washing the dishes. Earlier I shopped for our groceries and cooked our meal. Later I'll pick the kids up from school and help them with their homework. I am stronger. I am healthier. I am happier. I have seen miracles that brought me to this point.  And I. Am. Grateful. I am grateful that I didn't have a brain tumor. I am grateful that I don't have MS. I am grateful that I have a husband who saw me through heavy hearted times and loves me more for it. I am grateful for beautiful children that fill my soul with pervading love at the sound of their laugh and the sight of them sleeping. I am grateful that I can take care of them. I am grateful that my life is full of everyday normal things and that I am here to embrace it. I am grateful for doing dishes.