Christmas at our house

 Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

It's been so great spending time together and having time off. We just got back from a visit to Vernal for a few days to see my family. Our December Daily album for 2012 is finished! It was tough keeping up this year with everything going on but we did it!

 

little pieces of Christmas

Don't you just LOVE this time of year?! It gets a little stressful here and there but once the kids are out of school on Friday, we'll be able to focus more on the good stuff. These are just little pieces of December at our house

We made some homemade ornaments for the tree (I have to include the never-ending pile of laundry sitting on our couch in the background)
The sock countdown to Christmas. This is one of the kids favorite traditions that we started last year.

a gift from my parents (one of my favorite things)

I love all the ornaments that we've received and made over the years. The Chicago Bulls one is from 1997, our first Christmas
I never get tired of the ornaments the kids make...they make me happy
My mom sent this one to me this year. I've collected Wonder Woman stuff for a long time. As a child, I idolized her and honestly thought that I had super powers. I'll leave that story for another day...
No tree is complete without Hank Aaron. Grandma gave this to me. I spent many nights as a kid watching baseball with her so this one is special to me. I'm looking forward to seeing her over the holidays...I miss her like crazy

my favorite basketball player of all time (sometimes I look at this and think, 'I have Larry Bird in short shorts on my Christmas tree, have I lost it?')


my sweet little momma made these one year
last but not least, the good ol' star on top. Aaron and I bought this star the first Christmas we were married. We were poor college students that decided to splurge on a Christmas tree and some decorations at Kmart. The glitter is worn off and a light doesn't work on one side but I just couldn't part with it.

Christmas and traditions

One of our Christmas traditions is that we buy a Christmas book each year. I have the kids write their names and the year in the book. We enjoy reading these books throughout the month and I've also shared many of them for lessons at church during December.

The kids and I chose this one at Deseret Book:




This book is beautiful and it has little quotes and stories that go along with different themes. I found this quote from Linda and Richard Eyre in this book that I wanted to share with you.


"Traditions offer opportunites to create memories, share love, and build strong bonds between family members. They will not only help your family life be more peaceful and rewarding, they will also give your children memories they can draw on no matter where they go or who they grow up to be."

Hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season and creating lots of traditions with your families!