THE NATIVITY
There are two reasons this is my favorite....first and most important having a nativity displayed in our home reminds us what Christmas is really about and, gives us many opportunities to teach our little ones. I love the spirit that Christmas gives off helping us to be more like our Savior.
The second reason I love my nativity is because since we have been married Chris' parents has given us one piece of the nativity each year, this year is the first year to have the complete nativity up and I love it!!!!
DECORATIONS
I love Decorating for Christmas! There have been many times Chris has mentioned that Christmas has thrown up in our house and each year it gets worse.
This year the Mantle is by far my favorite !
This year the Mantle is by far my favorite !
OUR CHRISTMAS TREE ORNAMENTS
Most of the ornaments on the tree are special in one way or another. There are many from Chris' Grandparents that he was given each year starting from his first Christmas. Now that tradition is slowly filling up our tree with our kiddos yearly ornaments. Other ornament on our tree are silver bells that were on my family tree when I was growing up and other home made ornaments from our first Christmas together six years ago in Iowa. They all have a memory that is special to us in some way or another. This year the temple ornament in the picture above has special meaning to me. My Grandma Cowan gave that ornament to us for our first Christmas being married because it was the temple we were married and sealed in. With her passing this summer it will forever remind me of her and how lucky we are to be an eternal family.
SPENDING TIME AS A FAMILY
(spending Christmas Eve with members of our ward family caroling at a care center)
What a great time to spend together as a family. Although we missed our families back in Utah We have been able to make some of our own traditions as our little family and have been taken in by some of our ward family who invited us to spend Christmas Eve with them this year.
CHRISTMAS MORNING!!!
What a great time to spend together as a family. Although we missed our families back in Utah We have been able to make some of our own traditions as our little family and have been taken in by some of our ward family who invited us to spend Christmas Eve with them this year.
CHRISTMAS MORNING!!!
(Ty and Lucy with their Santa gifts )
(Miss Annie loved the wrapping paper)
Who doesn't love Christmas morning? Our Christmas morning started off with Ty entering our room with excitement at 2AM telling us that Santa came! We told him that it was still too early to wake the girls up and he needed to go back to bed I could hear how excited he was and knew there was no chance he was going back to sleep now. We told Ty that he could go sleep by the Christmas tree and wait until it was time to get up. I thought that might work but I could hear him walking around so I decided to go lay on the couch with him. It took until 4am before he fell asleep again. That morning was one of those days where I was so glad I was up to see and feel the excitement of Christmas morning of our little man. And made me just as excited for him and the girls. When he finally woke up again we told him it was okay to wake Lucy up and the fun start. Ty and Lucy both got bikes but they weren't as excited as Santa thought they would be...in fact we got more of a reaction from the oranges in the stocking! If only we would have known Santa could have saved some money and bought a few more oranges. Either way we had a great morning spent together as a family reflecting on the birth of our Savior.
