We are having a beautiful December here. The weather has been mild and strange...lots of foggy mornings and afternoons sunny enough for driveway basketball. We've started winter basketball and Christmas song practicing and lighting balsam candles. We've been keeping up a lot of the old traditions and starting some new ones. As always, things feel very busy as Pete prepares for his final boards in February and works so hard at the practice and at church. I took on a few extra projects at work that made me grateful I had started our family christmas preparations so early this year.
I love christmas time because the Spirit is so strongly present. Each night as we spend time as a family reading our Christmas stories and eating treats, the Holy Ghost strongly testifies of the reality f the birth of this little baby that changed the whole world for all of us, this gift from a loving God to all His children. I hope the seeds of faith are being planted in my childrens' hearts as well.
We had a great FHE at the beginning of the month where we talked about Jesus' gift to us and we each chose a gift we could give Baby Jesus. I chose the gift of patience (AKA not yelling), spence chose the gift of obedience, McKay chose the gift of kindness, and Ry chose the gift of not reading her brothers. We have all tried hard to remember and remind each other of our Gifts to Jesus and it has made for a much happier feeling in our home.
We have found some meaningful service opportunities and gift giving and have (for much of the time) experienced a lovely feeling of Christmas.
All in all, it's been a less frantic, more love-filled, fun-filled, more Christ-centered Christmas for us all.
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More details of the season to come, for now here's a picture of Ry and I before the Oklahoma City Ballet Nutcracker.
