Christmas is rad

I LoVe this holiday.  Caroling with the Morgensens, Christmas Eve Dinner with the Lintons, treats to and from neighbors (which means something sweet for this pregnant lady to eat EVERY DAY), Daddy sent my favorite fudge (WITHOUT walnuts, just the way I like it) all the way from Vegas, gifts to and from family and friends, pure excitement from purely delightful little people...what's not to love?!

 The writing on the fudge from my dad says: 

"Why would you want fudge with no walnuts?  Enjoy.  I guess.  Love, yer Daddy (me too)" :)

 Mary and Joseph   *sigh*   I love these two.

 My son never poses normal...I dig it

 Camila Linton...6 days younger than Everett and absolutely adorable.  She and Ev were shepherds.

 Our dear friends, the Kents, came a-caroling

This is Karli.  She was in Young Womens when I was a leader.  Now she's married and expecting a babe just 10 days after me.  Notice a discrepancy in belly size?  I sure do!  Oh well.  She's beautiful and I am so excited for her!

 Presenting Santa's treats in their Christmas jammies from Mrs. Clause and her elves (well, the main attraction in this picture is the carrots for the reindeer)

Writing letters to Mr. Clause

I recorded this (below) on Facebook about Max's Christmas letter:


I loved Max's note to Santa that he left with the milk and cookies. I was the scribe and he wanted me to write, "I love you, Santa, SO much." But then he said that he wanted to say something else but didn't want to make Santa feel bad. I asked him what it was and he leaned over with his hand cupped around his mouth to whisper in my ear, "But I love my Mom and Dad more." I told him that would probably make Santa happy to hear that he loves his mom and dad, so we put it in the letter followed by (I hope that doesn't make you feel bad)

Then he said, "Santa, I don't want any presents for Christmas, I just want to learn about Jesus. (pause) Wellll....I do want SOME presents. Thank you for all the things you do." :) 

 Waiting on the stairs to see what Santa brought

One of my favorite family traditions during this beautiful season?  Filling the manger.  At the beginning of December we have a Family Home Evening where we talk about Christmas wish lists and what the kids want from Santa, then we talk about what we are celebrating (Jesus' birth) and we write what we think Jesus would put on His "wish list" for us to do during this season.  As we do those things (often they were secret acts of kindness...I had my bed lumpily made by a certain 3 and 5-year-old several times) then we place a piece of straw in the manger, with the goal of filling the manger so that it is nice and soft with our good deeds for Baby Jesus on His birth day.  And this year Ty made us a pretty awesome manger.  He's handy like that.

It was a very fun Christmas.  I'm already excited for next year!