A Little Bit of Holiday Cheer...Finally!

Well, we're all moved into our (temporary) house. We stuck most of our stuff down in the basement & only unpacked essentials. I'm glad to be somewhat settled for a little bit, & I'm glad we were able to get settled so early in the month because now we might actually be able to have a little bit of a Christmas season after all! We decided to pull out some (but not all) of our Christmas decorations. We didn't put up much (I just packed up a million boxes, the last thing I want to do right now is unpack them all), but it's enough to give us some holiday cheer around here. We put up the tree on Monday night...

Don't you just LOVE the curtains in our front room??? They came with house at no extra charge...can you believe it? :) I would love to take them down, but there aren't any blinds in this window...so, to spare my neighbors from seeing WAAAAAAAAAAAAY more of us than they would like, I will leave them up.

Anyway, back to the tree...I have to share a couple funny stories that happened as we were putting ornaments on the tree. As the boys would put an ornament on, they would say, "I'm going to put up this reindeer!" or "I'm going to put up this star!" Well, we were surprised to hear Aiden say one time, "I'm going to put up this picture of this woman!" All of us were a little puzzled & didn't remember having an ornament of a picture of a woman. Connor glanced over at the ornament that Aiden was hanging on the tree...then he rolled his eyes and said, "That's not a picture of a woman Aiden...that's a picture of Jesus!" We BUSTED UP laughing! HILARIOUS!!!

Next, Connor was hanging up a long nail that is tied to a red ribbon. My friend, Amanda, gave them out as neighbor gifts a few years back. I asked him if he knew why we had an ornament of a nail. He told me he didn't know. I said, "Well...I'll give you a clue. It's to remind us of someone who did something very special for us!" He then got really excited and said, "Oh! I know! It's to remind us of DAD because he is always working with nails to build stuff for us!!!" Oy Vey! I promise I am trying to teach these kids about the gospel! Apparanently, it's going in one ear & out the other though. Sigh...

Here's a picture of the finished product the next day...

Cohen has been "undecorating" it ever since...and by "undecorating" I mean "breaking every ornament he can get his hands on!" Good times!

I also wanted to put up my garland on the porch railing outside, but this house's porch is a lot longer than our last one, so I realized it wasn't going to work. We decided to put it up the banister as you go upstairs & I think it turned out super cute...

We also hung our stockings by the chimney with care. Yes, I realize that we have five people in our family & only four stockings. Oh well...

And, I also put out a few other little decorations too, but not a whole lot. So, there's our decorations for this very unusual Christmas season.

Also, to add to the holiday cheer, our Relief Society Activities Committee (the committee formerly known as Enrichment) put on our annual Christmas activity last night. It was a good night. I don't have any pictures because I forgot, sorry. Our theme was "Christmas Around the World." We ate dinner & had a few girls who had lived in other countries share Christmas traditions from other places. After dinner, we did a service project. Our Bishop asked our Relief Society about a month ago to make him some quilts that he could give out to people in need in our area. We asked the girls to donate whatever fabric, batting, yarn, thread, etc. that they felt they could, and boy did they come through! We ended up with enough stuff to make 18 quilts! So, after dinner, the girls tied the quilts and chatted with one another. It was a simple, but nice Christmas activity. I'm really glad we did a service project as part of the activity because...isn't that what this season is really about??? I think it turned out great!

And, I'm a little relieved to report that last night's activity will be the LAST ONE that I am in charge of!!! They called a new girl to take my place this past Sunday & I will be released this upcoming Sunday! I don't know if this is bad to say, but I'm actually really excited about it! Sorry...It's just such a big calling & frankly, I'm TIRED! I've done it for two years now & I think it's about time to pass the torch on to someone else! I'm really excited to just be able to show up to an activity for once, instead of spending hours upon hours planning it, working on it, setting it all up, making sure everything is going smoothly, & cleaning up afterwards. It's going to be great! I will miss working with my committee though! I love those girls!!! They have been such a great help & many of them have become some of my best friends! I will miss our almost daily phone calls & emails! You girls are A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

So, with my calling release, essentials unpacked & a few decorations up, I'm ready to sit back & enjoy the holiday season...right after I design Christmas cards, write a Christmas newsletter, mail them all out, make neighbor gifts, buy a few last minute presents & wrap all presents that have already been bought. Good grief! Maybe I won't be sitting down & enjoying it much after all! --Lindsay