Christmas Traditions

We've been busy lately enjoying the season with some of our favorite Christmas traditions.

Leaders in our church have encouraged us to do a weekly family night that we call Family Home Evening.  At our house we love to make "gingerbread" houses out of graham crackers so that's what we did the first family home evening after Jaron got back from Saba.

Not bad, eh?  From left to right is Grandpa's, Mom's, Alden's and Daddy and Eli's houses.

This week we also found time to go sledding.  The adventure didn't last very long.  It was cold and poor little Alden kept insisting to go by himself, which resulted in him losing his sled every time and sliding down on his belly instead (the hill was quite steep).  He got quite a scraped up belly but both boys had fun.  This is the perfect age to go sledding - you get to ride down and up the hill.

 Gracen and I waited in the warmish van.

 And, lastly, my favorite Christmas tradition is the advent calendar.  I patterned mine just like my mom's.  I used to love how the three strips of different colored fabric broke down the countdown into three "sections."  It was always exciting when we got past the "green" days and moved onto the "blue" days. :-)  It always frustrated me, though, that I couldn't quite fit my hands into my mom's so I made this one bigger and it ended up being ginormous.  Every night before I go to bed, I slide a few foil-wrapped chocolates or a candy cane or a Christmas trinket of some sort into the corresponding day's pocket.

One morning Alden brought the prize to Eli and said, "Look what Santa put in the calendar for us."  I told him that mommy filled the calendar every night, not Santa.  He told me, "You're not supposed to tell me that, mom."  I don't know what that means for the depth of Alden's belief in Santa, but I think he's still in on the charade - at least for a little while longer.  Boy, it seems like he barely started "getting" the whole Santa thing and the ruse may already be beginning to be over!

Gracen was kind enough to pose for me in front of the calendar. Long after I had gone to plug the SD card into my computer, she stood there saying "Chee!"  I can't believe how much personality is jammed into this tiny bundle of energy.  She adores her brothers and often gives them big hugs.  She has started calling Alden "Aldo."  She is one cuddly bunkin and I LOVE that.  She's a nurturer too - she's always hauling around a baby doll or a stuffed animal on her shoulder, patting it and saying "Shh, shh, shh."  What a sweetie she is.