The December Holiday Season

December is a wonderful time of year. So many of our family traditions center on this time of year.

We worked on putting out our Christmas decorations the week of Thanksgiving. The kids had the entire week off of school, so we had plenty of time. We started assembling our artificial tree (we claimed it last year in NC at a RS swap exchange), but quickly had the mishap of a broken stand. It took us a few days to find a good deal on a replacement stand, but the tree was up in all it's glory during the first week of December. This year I put on the lights and ribbon, and the kids handled all of the ornaments.

December 13th was our annual Polar Express Pajama Party. This year we invited the Beck and Olsen families to join in the fun. We began the evening with some sidewalk chalk (it was a warm day), then moved inside to make bell necklaces and decorate train tickets. We watched the movie, ate homemade pizza, then finished off the night with hot chocolate. 

For Family Home Evening on December 16th we decorated our mini Christmas trees--ice cream cones covered in green frosting and ornamented with red and green M&Ms and marshmallows and coconut for snow. (I set my limits at candy trees, gingerbread houses are out of my comfort zone.)

December 21st we held the winter piano recital. I have a cute group of 4 girls for piano students this year. Each student prepared well and did a great job this year. 

 Anwyn worked on some difficult arrangements and performed her songs well: Canon in D, Angels We Have Heard on High, and Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

That evening we went to see the holiday lights at the duck pond at the hospital. The weather was perfect this year.

A new activity for us this year was going caroling. As part of a ward activity we were given three homes to sing to and deliver cookies. The kids thought it was great fun and begged to do more. We sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "Angels We Have Heard on High" because Zach and Lily can sing the "gloria" parts really well.

Other activities this month included attending our Stake Festival of the Nativity. The cultural hall at the church was decorated with many beautiful nativity sets (on loan from stake members). There were children's activities and refreshments. As part of Jared's high council calling over the stake music, he put together a music program for 7 hours on Saturday and 2 hours on Sunday (which meant he was at the festival for all of those hours). I helped by putting together a Primary Chorus--we only had 10 singers, but we sang Primary Christmas songs and it turned out fine. The music on Sunday evening was especially nice. All together this was such a great event. 

We attended a party for the member's of Jared's lab at UF. We had dinner at the Blue Gill restaurant. Dr. Price has a daughter in between the ages of our girls, and the children do a gift exchange, which makes it a fun event for the whole family.

We made some gifts for family and friends (our favorite peppermint pretzel kisses) as well as decorated gingerbread cookies. 

And we fit in time to watch our favorite holiday movies, in addition to the Polar Express: Mr. Krueggar's Christmas, Elf, White Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, and some Christmas broadcasts from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

We also enjoyed watching the First Presidency Christmas devotional for FHE on December 9th. This quote from President Monson really struck me:

"May we give as the Savior gave. To give of oneself is a holy gift. We give as a remembrance of all the Savior has given. May we also give gifts that have eternal value, along with our gifts that eventually break or are forgotten. How much better the world would be if we all gave gifts of understanding and compassion, of service and friendship, of kindness and gentleness.

"As the Christmas season envelops us with all its glory, may we, as did the Wise Men, seek a bright, particular star to guide us in our celebration of the Savior’s birth. May we all make the journey to Bethlehem in spirit, taking with us a tender, caring heart as our gift to the Savior" (source).