Christmas Holidays

As my children have gotten older, I have been thinking about how to capture the true meaning of Christmas. Garrett has been very concerned with all the things "he is going to get for Christmas." I have been reading and talking to friends to see what they do to instill compassion and service in their children during the holiday season. I have come up with some ideas and will continue to research ideas through the year so I can have a plan for next year. Please leave your ideas as comments.

We did do several new things this holiday season. First, the boys put the tree because Garrett was too excited to wait for mommy to come home from school. Daddy, Julius, Sean, Garrett, and Noah had the tree put up before I came home. Above you can see the tree behind Garrett. Garrett also played hockey too. Also, every time we went grocery shopping, we had to buy candy canes to put on the tree. I think we put about 30 candy canes on the tree.

Next, we also went on a hay ride at Jackson Rancheria. In hindsight, we probably will not necessarily make this a family holiday tradition because we waited in line for 1 hour for a 15 minute ride. It was fun, nonetheless. Garrett and Noah saw Santa Clause, ate Christmas cookies, and drank hot chocolate. Mrs. Dalton had over 1 million lights strung along the road that leads to her house. It was very amazing to see. It took a crew of 8 men, working 8 hours a day, over a month to put them all up. Could you imagine untangling that many lights? Not mention what you would have to go through to fix strains that had burned-out bulbs. I would not have the patience and probably would just buy new ones. Notice that I no longer have braces (although the green retainers do show through)!


We also built a gingerbread house. That was quite an experience, and we had the kit. It took many hours so I could not imagine how long one made from scratch would take. I am also not a very good cake decorator so putting on the icing was a challenge to me. It was far from perfect, but Garrett had such a good time putting it together it was worth doing (even though I had a sinus infection!). Please enjoy the grand finale of our gingerbread house adventure in the video posted below.

I also wanted to learn to bake more holiday treats. My children could help, and we could bring plates of goodies to our friends and neighbors. I was a little ambitious for my first time. I failed to cook Almond Rocha twice. I undercooked one batch and overcooked the other. I think if I did it a third time, I would probably be able to do it. I am hopeful this is true, however, we will not know for sure until I try it. maybe next year will do better!

I think next year we will also build the manger for baby Jesus. I will find a manager and a baby Jesus we can put on the dining room table. Baby Jesus will arrive on Christmas Eve night. Our job is to make sure that there is enough straw in the manger for him to sleep warmly. After doing something nice for someone, you can put some straw on the manger. This activity will hopefully help my children learn the value of service.