Sunday, January 08, 2012

December...in a Single Post

It's so late to be posting this. I told myself to just forget it and move on to 2012...but I can't. December was crazy. It was fast. But it was fun. And I don't want to forget all the fun things we did. Here are some highlights:

I created an activity advent for the boys this year. And one of our first activities was to write letters to Santa.



Then there was the decorating. We almost didn't put up the Christmas tree since we were leaving for the holidays. But I'm so glad we did. I wish we had Christmas lights up all year long. They're so magical.



We also decorated a gingerbread house...made of real homemade gingerbread! This was so much fun that I think we'll make a haunted one for Halloween as well.



On the last day of school Owen had a Polar Express Party. We watched the class sing and dance and share their highlights of 2011. Owen's favorites were his "best friend Luke" and his "crazy brother Gavin". The whole party was so much fun.



Owen's teacher is seriously amazing. She had read the Polar Express book to the class earlier in December, and they knew the story well. They all wore their pajamas and had hot chocolate with marshmallows. But the best part of all was watching the kids get a special delivery from the North Pole. They were SO excited to receive their very own Polar Express ticket. They were to place the ticket under their pillow on Christmas Eve and if the train came to their house that night, they would use their ticket to ride. So fun! This picture almost captures the joyous moment perfectly.



And the fun continued as we traveled to Utah to spend the holiday with family. We took the boys to see the lights on Temple Square and made it extra fun by riding the light rail there and back. Truly a highlight for the boys, who kept asking if we could ride it again.



Then on Christmas Eve we had a special family dinner. Mark's mom prepared a wonderful Christmas message using lights to tell the story of Christ. And we ended it by lighting Sky Lanterns and sending them off into the night sky. I think we should do this every year!



Owen made the final Christmas Eve preparations and then we were off to bed.



Here are the boys on Christmas day...in their Sunday best.



We had such a good time staying at Grandma's and Grandpa's house and visiting with our cousins. We also squeezed in a visit with our good friends...and made our kids take a picture together. Because, after all, they will be lifelong friends too.



There were a lot of highlights in December. But my very favorite happened one Sunday afternoon, a couple weeks before Christmas. Owen was in the next room looking through a holiday book about the nativity story. On the last page you press a button to turn on bright lights around the baby Jesus and play the tune Silent Night. After looking through this book Owen came into the room crying. Mark asked him what was wrong. And he replied that the book made him cry. He said he just had a good feeling while reading it, and they were happy tears.

I know he felt the Christmas Spirit--the true meaning of Christmas. I hope he always remembers that feeling. And I hope I can too as I step into 2012.

8 comments:

Kathryn said...

your story made me cry, too. :)

Brenda Hodson said...

Those are wonderful treasured memories!

Angela said...

wow, what a great Christmas you had. Thanks for sharing! Do those Christmas lanterns have a flame in them? I wonder what happens when they land?

Britanny said...

Sounds like the same Silent Night book Roxie has and adores! She cried at the live nativity we went to when they played that song too. Doesn't it just melt your heart?!?!

Kimba said...

only sad we didn't get together more! it just made us all hungry for more solomon time. :) hopefully soon, cabe will need to go back! like, real soon.

so glad you had a good trip! and holy crap, hope it was better going home than it was coming here. you win the prize for that one!

Abby said...

flip. now I'M crying. i love you and i love your boys, bridge!

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