The Holidays, Part I

I've never been one to have my Christmas shopping finished before Christmas Eve, but Jake inspired me when he had his finished like the first week of November. Mine is all done, and it is amazing how much less stress I feel this year! I'm also less stressed than last year because I haven't had to deal with the family history picture fiasco (I won't go into that here, but if you really care, which you probably don't, you can see the post I wrote on it last year).

With all of the extra time we've had, and with our new resolution to spread our activities out over a wide variety of people (our own little family, friends, extended family, ward), we've had a great season so far. As my cousin, Crystal, says, every day is magical during the holidays. Every event is more special, because of the lights, the sounds, the smells, the food, the people, the feelings.

For my own record, I'm going to write what we've done and with whom, since I feel that so far we've been successful at our goals.  Unlike years past, I feel like we've been able to do many things without feeling like we're cramming things in or doing any of them out of obligation.

So far we've been busy:

• Decorating the tree and putting up lights outside--nothing puts me more in the Christmas spirit than this!
• The North Pole Express with Aubrey and Quinn Shelton
• Festival of Trees at the South Towne Expo Center with my dear friend, Sonja Nelson
• Making gingerbread cake with Jake and Grant, then taking some to the sisters I visit teach
• Caroling with our friends, the Caziers and the Nielsens, giving us a chance to do a small holiday service for members of our ward (we sang and took treats, but it was fun to watch people start to smile when they saw us)
• Spanish Fork Lights with the Frandsen clan
• Building a snowman (and sadly watching him melt until he was small, small, small)
• Listening to all of our Christmas favorites on cd, radio, and on Pandora
• Making good use of the Scentsy and all of the holiday scents we got at Walmart--Jake says that studies show our sense of smell to be the one that is associated to memory most strongly. I agree!
• Working on a puzzle of the Temple Square lights with Jake--after Grant goes to bed, we pull it out, turn on a Christmas movie or music, and sit in front of the tree.
• Christmas movies of all kinds, but we particularly like the Rankin and Bass shows around here (like the old Rudolph, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Frosty, etc.). Oh, and Grant loves The Polar Express.
• Attending our ward Christmas party where I got to sing with Deanne Moses during the Primary Nativity.
• Attending a live nativity with Grandma Frandsen and Aubrey.
• Giving my piano students Christmas songs and preparing for a Christmas recital.
• Helping Jake compile a book of all of the personal histories his grandma has about her ancestors--seriously, family history makes Christmas extra-special!
• Watching the First Presidency Devotional
• Peppermint ice cream, hot chocolate, soft peppermint candy sticks
• Paper chains
• Practicing for a few Sunday Christmas musical numbers
• Helping out my brother, Austin, who needed an accompanist to play "Oh Holy Night" that he and his buddies sang for a stake fireside
• Reading Christmas stories, singing carols, and taking time each night to read scriptures and faith-promoting stories about Christmas
• Teaching Grant about the Nativity Story and Jesus through pictures, movies, songs, acting it out, and playing with the cloth Nativity set from Grandma Julie. This alone has helped bring Christ more into my Christmas!

Like I said, some of these are big, but a lot of them are the little things that add up to make quite a special holiday season.

It really is the most wonderful time of the year!!!