Light The World

    Christmas was wonderful this year, we spent it at home in Arizona. We missed the snow again, it feels somehow less warm and cozy without it but we got our share of rain in its stead. Christmas eve was filled with our traditional homemade chili and bread bowls and we exchanged sister gifts. And the boys exchanged brother-in-law gifts. But when we got home, the magic started as we explained to Liam again what all this was about. We discussed the scripture story of Christ birth and talked about just how special and different his birthday is. I'm not sure how much he absorbed about the story or how much he understands the way it correlates with the meaning of Christmas but I know he knows a lot more about who Jesus is and what he did here on earth and that's enough for me. The Light the World initiative was awesome and reminded me to find every day examples of Christlike attributes throughout the month and the spirit of Christmas was stronger than even.

   Something I LOVED about liams age this year was the way he interprets everything. Stockings were silly socks, nutcrackers were Christmas robots, and Santa is a very nice fancy grandpa. Plus, he's 2 so a gift goes a long way. We got a few simple gifts and he was content with each for a hour or so before wanting to even touch his next package. Matix Loved plying with everyone and his first Christmas was a success by my standards. he ate a good amount of wrapping paper and laid under the tree looking up at the lights in between wrapping paper meals. My parents came to my ward at 10 to hear me sing, I felt to honored to be asked to sing this beautiful peice called "On a Still and Starry Night" with violin accompaniment, it was lovely and I'm so glad to have that gorgeous son in my pino bench now.
   We went over to grandmas to get spoiled a little more and spend the afternoon watching our kids play with their new toys.

   We got to talk to Sister Guttery at the MTC for a pathetic 30 minutes. We needed about 90 more but she sounded well, a little home sick, but happy and healthy. She such an incredible example and I'm just so grateful my boys get to learn from her letters and testimony.
    We went home for naps and spent the evening relaxing, listening to Christmas music and thinking about how incredible our year has been. We have seen a rainbow of colorful ups, downs and in between. We're so grateful for the gospel perspective that kept us smiling, or at least hopeful in the hard times and humble in our prosperity.
  

    Some of our favorite Activitys from this December included...

-Going to see Santa (4 times)
-Seeing the singing trees in my parents neighborhood (Liams all time favorite thing)
-Zoolights(first time this year, we'll be doing it again for sure)
-Temple lights, never gets old
-Making salsa and delivering it to our friends
-Strattons School Christmas Concert
-Hansel Phelps Christmas Party
-Visiting Christmas Tree "Farms"
-Spontaneous bon fires in the back yard
-Driving around "deckout Neighborhoods" looking at lights!

We LOVED our December. still missing our snow, especially on Christmas morning but loved being able to take Liam outside with his new bike in 70 degree weather.

New years was highly uneventful as both our kiddos were sick but we went and had a "Night picnic" so make it seem like the kids were staying up late! we went home and had a quiet night listening to distant fireworks and watching a movie together and getting fever down in hopes of being well in time to spend s few days with dad before he had to go back to work. 

We missed out on a lot of our plans with two sick kiddos for pretty much the whole week after Christmas but just being with each other was vacation enough from our daily grind.