We love our Christmas traditions. The kids are getting old enough to remember them from year to year, which makes it more meaningful. We have some favorite Christ-centered traditions that help us to remember that He is the gift, as well as some Santa oriented ones to enjoy the magic of Christmas with little ones.
One of my favorites is finding a live nativity. We used to go to the Provo City live nativity at the Tabernacle, but after it burned we have had to find replacements. This year we found our favorite by far, the Stone Gate "Night in Bethlehem." One of the young women in our ward invited us to come see her perform as a snake charmer on her oboe, and we're so glad we did!
Missy the snake charmer.
Ella petting a real chicken.
Ty and Ella giving donations to the beggar by the well.
The kids tried rolling dough at the village bakery.
Our family dressed as Bethlehem-ites at the local milliner shop.
The girls loved learning to weave rugs.
Also not pictured were stops at the carpenter shop, toy shop (our kids really remember that Jesus played with wood blocks and driedels and rag dolls), basket weavers shop, and we made clay lanterns with little glow lights.
After the shops, the villagers gathered us around and led us into the next room where they had the live nativity. It was a sweet depiction of the holy family with a real tiny baby.
Afterward they let us go up for a closer look, and he was a she. Tyler keeps talking about the baby Jesus with a pink binki. It was a moving and memorable night for all of us.
A new favorite tradition is the kid tree we put in our playroom. The kid ornaments were taking over my downstairs tree, so I got a mini tree just for them (pretty soon we'll need a big one upstairs too at the rate they're collecting!). When I first went to college my mom gave me this felt tree skirt from my own childhood "kid tree," so it brings back good memories. My mom had bubble lights but I couldn't find any so we settled on large colored ones. The kids loved having a slumber party around it last weekend.
Of course we had to send our letters to Santa!
Many years ago a good friend gave us handmade Nativity puppets, and they always get good use during December!
We tried using the coffee table as a stage, but the kids are getting too big to hide behind it!
The couch worked much better. Cute little people!
Last Saturday I was making my daily smoothie (I took a challenge to drink a quart a day in December) and my old plastic blender started pouring out the bottom. I was about to give up and toss it all when Mike saved the day!!!
He got this little beauty out of his trunk... Marry Christmas to me! I've been talking about it for awhile now and Mike picked it up at Costco last week.
For dinner I made their recipe of raw tortilla soup. It was heavenly.
Also last Saturday we went on our annual tree hunt. Jake had a shirt (from cousins) just for the occasion!
We went to our usual Happy Valley trees and the search began for the perfect one.
As you can see it was much warmer this year than in the past... the girls didn't want to wear their coats and instead used them to collect the little wood discs they cut off the bottom of trees. They have big ideas to make something with them.
We spent the rest of the day working on decorating it. I strung the lights while the kids watched the Grinch and Daddy watched the BYU ball game.
Then we all gathered around and put on the ornaments. We got out the Christmas train to the great excitement of the kids, especially Jake! I love having it in our main living room this year (since the front room has a couch now) because I gaze at it all day long. There is nothing like a real Christmas tree!
On Sunday we went to Grandma Osmond's for our traditional Christmas music night.
Mike played five hymns on the trumpet, accompanied by his mom.
Maddie sight read Silent Night, a new song in the Christmas book Grandma gave her recently.
Ella played Deck the Halls by ear (after much nervousness)! It's fun to have contributors to the musical talent in our family!
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