December 2012

The beginning of December is a busy time for Heber and Midway; we have the Nativities to visit, the Gingerbread House Exhibit to visit, and the Swiss Christmas to visit.  Last year we went to the Gingerbread House Exhibit and had a wonderful time, I must say we missed it a lot this year.  List year we chose to go to the Nativities; it was beautiful and a great way to set the tone for a Christmas season.

 There were so many different, beautiful nativities, but I definitely liked the olive wood nativities the best.

 We had a lot of fun, dressing up for the different parts of the nativity. :)

 Oh how I love my precious little boy!

 Brandon had his preschool Christmas program and Grant and I were able to go watch it.  Brandon gave me a preview of the program earlier that morning and he was darling, apparently he did all his performing at home because when it was time for the program he didn't participate very well!  Following the program Brandon continued to perform for me at home during the month, he even taught Grant one of the darling songs, Santa Claus is Coming, will forever be a favorite Christmas memory for me because of the way they both sing and dance to that song. :) 

 Decorating the tree was a very fun family activity, everyone got involved and this year I didn't care if the ornaments were placed where I thought they should be and I didn't care if all the ornament were continually moved to one general area, I was just so happy that it was a family activity.

Our neighbor and good friend, Spencer, who is now 14 years old, spent one of his Sunday afternoons constructing a train track that went from the floor of his living room, through the Christmas tree, onto the window sill and back down through the tree.  We were all impressed, and had a great time watching the battery powered train drive through the tree. :)

 Our ward Christmas party was as always a lot of fun, I just love spending time with my ward family!  A man in our ward, just a little older than Jared, bought a Santa suit and has loved being Santa for our ward parties and he does a great job.  He and his wife are now Brandon's primary teacher and he loves them, even though he does not know that he is also Santa. :)

 The one draw back to our Santa is that he has not learned the "rules" of being Santa to not promise certain gifts.  Brandon for the longest time didn't know what he wanted for Christmas, after all he has everything, or so it would seem.  I was fine with him not caring about what he wanted and didn't push it, but a week before his visit with Santa after being asked by so many for so long, he finally came up with what he thought would be a great gift, he loves whales, so that was an obvious choice and he has heard about how wonderful remote control toys are, so naturally he wanted a remote control whale.  What's a mother (I mean Santa) to do?  Jared and I looked on line to see if there was anything that might work and surprise there were a few options, but nothing that we wanted in our home and nothing that Brandon would really love.  So after much agonizing we decided not to give him the remote control whale, even though Santa assured Brandon his elves would get right on it. :)  I worried all season and was especially worried when everything was laid out Christmas Eve, but my worry was for nothing.  Come Christmas morning Brandon was so happy with what he did get that he never thought to look for or wonder where his remote control whale was, he didn't even notice the nice letter tucked in the branches of the Christmas tree from Santa explaining why there was no remote control whale.  What a relief!

 Grant is still not so sure about Santa. :)

 One of Annabelles favorite hiding spots during Christmas was right under the tree, can't say I blame her, looks cozy to me. :)

 One of the nights in December we let the boys have a "sleep over" the loved it and did remarkably well.  They are so ready to be sharing a room, and so are we, we just need to bunk beds and mattresses, and the money to get them. :)