Christmas 2019

This year I didn't do 12 Days of Christmas like I have for the last ten years.  Since we didn't have children at home during the lead-up to Christmas, there wasn't a good reason to continue.  Perhaps in the future, I will figure out a new way to do it for our family.  Because it was just Matt and I, Christmas festivities were kept at a minimum.  Our good friend, Scott Eckern, who used to be Matt's bishopric counselor and who is currently the producer for many Church performances and General Conference, gave us two tickets to attend the Tabernacle Choir's Christmas program.  Neither one of us had ever been to this before.  It was so fun to see it and feel the Spirit of Christmas through the music, dance, and narration.  Before the performance, we had dinner at City Creek with hoards of people and were able to walk through Temple Square and enjoy the lights.  

I love beautiful winter mornings.  Look how serene the temple looks in this gorgeous light!  And here I am wearing the same shade of blue as the morning sky.

I made several kinds of cookies to freeze in preparation for Christmas.  I made "Dark Secrets" (dark chocolate hidden inside) from the Food Nanny cookbooks, as well as her gingerbread cookies and peanut butter Kisses cookies.

Matt put up the Christmas tree and while he was at work, I decorated it and the rest of the house.  It was a little bit lonely doing it all by myself, but I enjoyed putting out each decoration and ornament and thought about each memory that goes along with it.  

I almost didn't buy my annual Christmas book because no children would be around to enjoy it. But then I thought that I would enjoy it, so I am worth carrying on the tradition.  I decided that I needed another book for tiny hands, so I picked this board book that tells the Nativity story.  Piper will love it when she's around for Christmas in years to come and hopefully other little ones that come into the family in the future.  Our traditional ornament this year that I bought for each of us is a glittery nest with three golden eggs in it (found at Pottery Barn).  It's to help our children to remember that they are always welcome to visit our nest at any time.  And one of my other purchases this year are some vintage-inspired mugs also from Pottery Barn.  I couldn't resist the tiny Santa shot mugs.  How cute are those for tiny hands who just want a small sip of hot chocolate?!

Megan and Josh came on Christmas Eve afternoon, and we played a fun game of Ticket to Ride.  Megan won!  Snacks were eaten, and a movie was watched on our new tv in the basement while I enjoyed cooking our Christmas Eve dinner.  I made homemade Kamut breadsticks, broccoli cheese soup, and raspberry pretzel jello dessert.  I also prepped our HoneyBaked ham and hot wassail to drink.  Nobody but me drank it this year, so maybe I won't make as much next year.  

We did our annual sock hunt (we have gone back and forth between pajamas and socks but I think it will stay with socks because of sizing).  We loved sharing this tradition with Megan as she has never done this before.  I actually bought the girls' socks last January during an after Christmas sale.  Josh was dating Megan at the time, and I had a feeling they would get married and that I should buy her a pair too.  It worked out just as I thought!  The boys' socks were from Stance and the girls' socks were from Woven Pear.  I sent socks to London for Chelsea, Spencer, and Piper.  I was so happy they took a picture of their feet for me!

Matt and I decided to finally get our home videos digitized.  We paid LegacyBox to do it.  Super easy but not super cheap.  I did get a good discount, but it still cost $$.  Totally worth every penny!  When we got the thumb drive back, Matt put the video clips on his computer and edited out the garbage that was on some of the old VHS tapes.  He also figured out how to transfer other videos from our old computer to his laptop so he could add those on to the home movie.  We knew that Emma would appreciate it the most, and we were right.  She loved it.  A lot of it she had never seen before.  My siblings and I got the same LegacyBox deal for our parents for Christmas.  I wrote a poem for them and put in inside the empty box.  They loved this gift!  I need to now help my parents gather up all that they want digitized and send it off.  

Christmas morning was really nice.  I noticed, before even getting out of bed, that Chelsea and Spencer had sent us video and pics of their Christmas Eve and morning.  So the first thing we got to do was watch Piper open up some presents and then play with some of her new toys.  A perfect way to start my Christmas.  We got her a baby doll, a little toy car, a fuzzy llama sweater and some tights with a bear on the bum.  We met up with the kids downstairs, and we watched the new nativity movie that the Church made this year.  It brought the Spirit of Christ into our home as we were about to start opening the gifts we had for each other.  Chelsea FaceTimed with us and we got to wish them a merry Christmas.  After gifts, we made pancakes and sausage for breakfast.  We intended to take our annual family Christmas morning picture before Matt had to go to work at 10:00 am, but we forgot.  So when I remembered, the four of us remaining took a quick selfie in front of the tree.  Josh and Megan had to leave for Logan soon after so they could attend her family's Christmas meal at 1:00.  When Matt got home from work at 3:00, we went to our annual Christmas Day movie.  We saw Cats (Broadway musical turned movie).  We didn't like it.  Too weird.  Christmas 2019 was different because we were mostly empty nesters and a few traditions modified or went away.  But it was also the same because of keeping some traditions alive, having family home for even just a short time, and of course because of our Savior and His love we feel each and every year at this time.