December 2010: Traditions

Mom's thoughts:
December: another crazy busy month for us filled with more than we had time or energy to do, as well as more sickness than I care to remember (which a number of times caused us to rearrange schedules and realign priorities as well).  Amidst all that I also had to learn my limits and found myself early on in the month picking and choosing which traditions and activities we’d include in our Christmas celebrations and which ones we’d do without this time around. It’s always a challenge to find a healthy balance of all the activities that vie for our attention that we could be a part of with what we should be doing…not much different than the rest of the year I guess.

Since we packed so many adventures into December, I think I'd better break-up my recap of the month into a couple different posts starting with the many traditions we observe throughout December.

This is now a tradition
December 2009 another mom and I worked together to surprise M's 3rd grade teacher with a framed photo of his class.  Since it worked so well last year, this December we surprised all four 4th grade teachers with a picture of their classes.  Just like last year, this year each teacher received a framed 8x10 of their homeroom posing nicely.  Here is a composite of all four classes:

~Happy~

We also gave each teacher a handmade greeting card with a 4x6 photo on the front cover.  The pics on their cards were pictures of their homeroom being goofy.  The inside of the card read: "We may not have it all together, but together we have it all", along with a sentiment of "Thanks for all you do!" : ) 

~Silly~

We surprised the teachers one morning during the last week of school before the Christmas Break and each one was touched by the gift.  One of the teachers would be moving away at the end of December (due to an unexpected military reassignment for her husband), so this was extra special to her.  Looks like we may be doing this as the Christmas gift for teachers from here on out.

Christmas movies:
With J-rod being gone lots in December due to his crazy work schedule or being at the church to conduct tithing settlement, one of the traditions the kids and I had fun enjoying on our own was watching many a favorite Christmas movie plus a few new ones. The Christmas season just doesn’t seem complete at our house if we don’t watch Home Alone or The Polar Express, and now it looks like the boys would like to add Elf to that list as well.

One of my all-time favorite Christmas movies is White Christmas but since it's an older movie and a musical, getting my family to watch it with me is always a challenge.  Watching White Christmas holds sweet memories for me of watching it with my dad growing up.  This year I got to watch it with my sweet sister A so that was extra special for me--"Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters"!!

Another new tradition?
Our ward Christmas activity this year was a “Polar Express” Breakfast complete with lots of hot chocolate and everyone wearing their jammies.  The fact that this activity was held in the morning delighted many ward members as it freed up what otherwise would have been another crazy/busy evening and a number of requests were made that this become a yearly tradition. Time will tell.

L-R:

M asked Santa for the book The Encyclopedia of Immaturity.

C-sta was NOT okay with sitting on Santa's lap!

Li'l J asked Santa for a skate board.

Decorating
We love to decorate for Christmas!

~Our Snowmen Collection~

From our table tops and shelves, to our trees.  No that is not a typo, I did say "trees" as in more than one.  It now takes four trees to hold all of the tree ornaments we've accumulated over the years (inherited, bought, made, and have received as gifts).  Each year the kids take turns putting on the "first" ornament on each tree.

We set up our big "Blue and White" tree in the family room in front our front window.  This is the tree under which presents are left and the one we sit by when opening presents on Christmas morning.  Our "main" tree is also the one where all of our blue and white ornaments go.  This year it was M's turn to put the first ornament on the main tree.  He chose an ornament of the Christ child he made a few years back.  After M placed his chosen ornament, Li'l J put up a blue flip-flop we got during a S family reunion in Kauai, HI when I was pregnant with Li'l J.

~Our main tree~

Since M put the first ornament on our main tree, Li'l J put the first ornament on our secondary tree that we place in our loft.  Li'l J chose a glass ball that looks like a basketball as the first ornament for this tree: "because I love sports!"  C-sta put a bright pink glass ball on the tree as the second ornament--her favorite color.

~The loft tree~

This tree holds all of our colorful ornaments that have come to us over the years from all over, far and wide.

Ornaments representative of who we are-- 

1. S for our family name.

2. J is for J-rod (from my mom).

3. Z is for Zippy (from my mom).

4. T-shirt with a design M drew at school in 2009.

5a. J-rod's 1st Christmas ornament.

5b. Red and white crocheted ornament 

made by J-rod's mom, J.

6. An apple for the teacher (from my mom).

7. A soccer ball for our boys (from my mom).

8. A clothes pin reindeer 

J-rod made in elementary school.

9. One for my frog collection (from my mom).

10. A train for the boys' collection (from my mom).

11. A grand piano (from my mom).

12. Also given to me by my mom 

because I love to wrap presents!

13. A "quilted" ornament I made for Li'l J's first Christmas.

14a. Cat-in-the cradle ornament 

J-rod made as a Cub Scout.

14b. A crocheted Santa made by J-rod's mom, J.

15. An ornament I made when M was a baby.

Ornaments gathered from our travels and places we've lived-- 

1. Tin Sun and Moon 

Bought when I student taught in Mexico.

2. From our years in UT.

3. From our years in NY.

4-5. From one of our favorite cities to visit: NYC.

(A re-purposed key chain)

6. The Crayola Factory in Easton, PA.

7. The Grand Canyon

8. Disneyland

(Also a re-purposed key chain)

Ornaments we've received as gifts--

1. A puzzle wreath made by the bishop's wife

from the first ward we lived in when newly married.

2. St. Nick given to me by a wonderful roommate at BYU, E.

3. A German woodsman given to us by my mom.

4. A paper angel made by a beautiful neighbor 

while I was a student at BYU. 

It's outlined with tiny pinpricks.

5. Our family depicted as reindeer's, pre C-sta.

It was given to us by J-rod's awesome 

brother D and his wonderful wife M!

Now that C-sta has joined us, 

I think it's time we had one made that includes her. : )

6. Hand-stitched heart made by a

wonderful lady I used to visit teach 

when we lived in NY.

Trees No. 2 and 3 are two skinny-mini little trees we put on our stair landing this year.  M decorated one of the trees with all the ornaments he has made at school, church, or home over his life; the second tree was decorated by Li'l J and C-sta with their handmade ornaments.

~The kids trees~

1. M's tree

2-4. Ornaments M has made out of recycled items.

2. Angel 2009

3. Drum 2011

4. Bottle cap Snowman 2010

5. Li'l J's orange and cloves 2011

6. Li'l J's Santa and M's Double-sided Red Light-saber 2011

7. Li'l J's Snowman 2011

8. Li'l J's Snowflake (see his CUTE face?)

9. Li'l J's tree

Other favorite traditions we did include this year: FHE at the Temple to take in the beautiful Christmas lights and a date night for J-rod and I to see The Forgotten Carols and reminisce about the night we got engaged.

We also attended an Interfaith Nativity display of over 300 nativities. Our stake and two neighboring stakes began hosting this activity our first year here. It takes place over the first weekend of December.  The displays are available for viewing beginning Thursday night.   Throughout the weekend musical groups of various faiths and from all over the area perform while people freely walk about viewing the many beautiful displays.  The festivities are concluded on Sunday night with the broadcast of the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.  I love going to this activity to see all the different displays and interpretations of the night our Savior was born! Our stake hosted it last year, and we had a few of our own family nativities displayed for it.

I didn't get any pictures when we went this year, but here are some from last year.

~2009 Nativity Displays~

It's always so fun to see all the different types of nativities, especially the ones from different parts of the world. One of my favorite unique ones came from Alaska: a miniature igloo with the family depicted as Eskimos.

A few Christmas' back J-rod's parents gave us this book and a jar of our own to fill:

~I highly recommend it!~

Now we have adopted this as one of our own traditions.  Year-round we fill our "Christmas Jar" with our pocket change.  Come December we use the accumulated "savings" to buy a gift for someone off the Angel Tree at the kids school, or as we did this year, off the Angel Tree our ward sponsored.  Our boys have lots of fun going shopping for Angel Tree gifts!  We love this tradition!