Nativity

All throughout the month of December I kept feeling prompted to have a neighborhood nativity.  None of my neighborhood friends are members (except for Krista who just got baptized in April) - but they are all Christian.  I wanted my kids to participate in a nativity and I wanted to bring the spirit into our neighborhood Christmas celebrations.  I was unsure about how it was going to go and thought I might be in over my head.  I kept talking myself out of it - but the Spirit was persistent.  So I sent out an email to see who was interested and I got 3 families who wanted their kids to participate.  I spent the next few weeks gathering costumes.  I really wanted to find a stable - but was unable.  I didn't' want to make it this year, in case it didn't go well.  But it was awesome, so now I want to make it a tradition, so next year I am going to make a stable.  

I had all the kids come to my house about a half hour before the performance to get their costumes on and practice.  It was pretty chaotic - but so fun.  It was so magical to watch the children transform into angels, shepherds, and wise men.  

Brock is a wise man

We put halos on all the angels

Euan was the cutest little shepherd 

Megan was Mary.  

Finn was Joseph.

Some Angels.

Madison, Zoe, and Zelda

Zelda and Euan are brother and sister.

Aiden was another wise man.

Ava was the cutest angel.

See Noah?  He is quite unhappy.  Before the nativity he agreed to be an angel.  All my kids know the whole scripture from Luke 2 - where the angel says: "hear not for behold.... Lying in a manger".  Noah loves dramatic stuff so I thought he would say it best so I asked him to be the angel that spoke to the shepherds.  He agreed.  Then once we all got dressed he noticed he was the only boy angel - I felt sad.  He didn't throw a fit or anything - I could just tell he was sad and embarrassed.  So I let him off the hook and Madison stepped in at the last minute and gave the scripture.  She was awesome!!  And Noah ended up being a great Wise man and took his role VERY seriously.

Some pictures of the cast.

Then we went out to practice.  It was dark and cold.  I took out our cars and shone our lights onto the play.

This is the rehearsal - you can see me telling the kids what to do.  Ha

I made a makeshift stable with ladders and a bed sheet.

Our wise men coming from the east.

Our angels got cold and put on coats.

Jason was our narrator

My friend Rebecca agreed to sing "O Holy Night".  It was beautiful.  It really brought the spirit in and was so magical.

Afterwards we all went back to our house for hot chocolate.  I am so glad that we did it - and am already planning next year!

Christmas Card

This was going to be our Christmas card.

Instead of a newsletter I was simply going to put 

"All that you need to know about our family is summed up in these pictures."

I thought it was pretty cute.  But it would only fit in a 5x7 and I only had 4x6 envelopes and I am way too cheap to go buy new envelopes when I already had enough 4x6 envelopes.  

So I went with this card instead.  It is the first year Jason and I appeared on a Christmas card.

Our newsletter said this:

Herbert's top 10 facts

11.       Brock - 8 (3rd), Noah - 7(2nd), Megan - 5 (K), Madison 4 (pre-K)

22.       Finished our backyard - Grass, sandbox, play set, tree swing

33.       Brock got baptized in May.

44.       Jason is now the Principal Facilitator and over all national licensing at Fidelity.  His job is everything he hoped it would be .

55.       Jamie opened a preschool in our basement and is loving it.

66.       This year Brock played soccer, basketball, and football.  Noah played soccer and Chess club.  Megan is loving Kindergarten and getting ready for soccer in the spring.  Madison started dance.

77.       We introduced our neighbor to the gospel and she was baptized in April.  This has been an amazing blessing to our family - afterwards we got called as Ward Missionaries.

88.       Our favorite things are:  hiking, bike riding, reading The Chronicles of Narnia, and family movie nights.

99.       Fun fact: Jason and Jamie still have flip phones, we have 1 tv and 1 computer, and just got wireless internet a few months ago - although we don't use it.  We love our low-tech lifestyle.

110.   We are loving Colorado

Seeing Santa

Our library has a night where families can sign up and come see Santa.  This year it was a Monday night and I thought that would be a great Family Home Evening activity.  Apparently I was wrong.  While seeing Santa was fun the kids rejected the idea that it was an appropriate family home evening - and felt like they got the short end of the stick.  They wanted a REAL family home evening.  Live and learn.

But they did enjoy seeing Santa

Christmas Cookies

We decided to make sugar cookies to leave for Santa this year.  One night we rolled out and baked the cookies - then the next day we frosted them. 

The kids are getting pretty independent with cutting out their cookies.  It was awesome!

I decided to add frosting bags as options to decorate this year.

It added a new level of decorating and also helped boost some much needed fine motor skills.

One of our pans.

Afterwards we watched the Grinch who Stole Christmas and went to bed.

Ginger Bread Houses

We make "gingerbread" houses almost every year.  This year we had a family in our ward host a decorating night.  It was a lot of fun - and great to not have the mess in my house!  Win, win!

 The final products!

Brock made a garage!