Traditions of Christmas

On a bummer note, Brandon and Zachary and I came down with a cold bug right around Thanksgiving... preventing us from traveling to Idaho Falls on Black Friday for one of my favorite occasions, Gingerbread Decorating at Grandma Moore's

On a positive note, the 6 gingerbread houses that I had prepared for my favorite occasion did not go to waste. We headed to my mom's house, armed with loads of candy from the dollar store, to decorate said houses.

Kimball was so proud of his creation

Nice touch there Brandon with the tongue:)

On the Sunday after Christmas, we decided it would be a good time to pull our decorations out and set them up. Zach didn't like that idea though, so I wasn't enjoying the evening until he was happily fed and comfortably sleeping in his crib for the night. At that point everything was all set up, and we decided it was time to slow down and remember the real reason for Christmas. We turned all the lights off, turned the tree's Christmas lights on and sat down in front of our tree as we sang "Away in a Manger" with the kids and talked about why we celebrate Christmas. It was a beautiful family moment, and hopefully we can keep our focus off the glitter and tinsel of Christmas and center our thoughts and hearts on our Savior.

My favorite tree decorations are the ornaments that are centered in Christ. We have a nativity carved out of wood, a beautiful ornament, as well as an ornament with the new star and a scripture printed on it. Another ornament we have says "His Greatest Gift" and it has a painting of the Hand of God holding the Christ child. Perhaps my favorite of these is a mirror, which we place at the top, that is to remind us that we should be living in such a way as to have His image in our countenance.

With all the traditions that we have at Christmas time, with all the hustle and bustle, I hope that I can, with my husband, focus our family on our Savior and celebrating His birth, life, and atonement.