Christmas times 3

The last couple weeks have been super exciting.  We celebrated Christmas, and then we celebrated Christmas again, and then we celebrated Christmas again.  That is a LOT of Christmas.  Here are some pictures of our celebrations and other stuff. I can’t believe we didn’t take a single picture of the actual Christmas day at the Watson’s. We’ll have to steal some pics from the Watson siblings some time. 

First we celebrated Christmas with my family one week early. We always draw parts for the Nativity and then act them out. I was the donkey this year and I think my dear Watson was a Shepherd. We also did the famous chimes, ate a LOT and played some really fun games. Sarah was in town so that was a special treat. 

You can see some of the nieces and nephews in their Nativity costumes.  

We celebrated our own family Christmas one day early. I wanted us to be able to open our presents as a family and kind of start some of our own traditions. For our Christmas Eve we had Christmas shaped pancakes which we ate by candlelight. 

Me looking at my presents!!

On the real Christmas Eve we went to lunch with the Watson's and on our way we saw Santa on a motorcycle. 

You can see my dear Watson's hand as he waves to Santa.

On Christmas Eve we went to my grandparents party in bountiful.  We also slept over at the Watson's and enjoyed watching some of the grandkids and siblings open presents on Christmas morning. We visited my family for an hour or so and then back to the Watson's to open more presents, play games, have a talent show and Eat EAt EAT! All of our Christmases were great!

Our Tree!

I love Christmas. I love decorating and setting up a Christmas Tree, putting lights on the house, candy canes, making sugar cookies and having Christmas smells for my Scentsy warmer. I love celebrating Christmas traditions and finding and giving gifts to my family members.

This year I’m spending my first Christmas married. I’m excited to set my own family traditions and enjoy them with my dear Watson. I really wanted to go to the dollar store to buy some Christmas decorations, and I wanted to buy a cheap tree from WalMart so that it could really feel like Christmas for both of us. I was really excited about it until we moved and then started spending a lot of money on things for our house (namely, a Washer and Dryer).  So I decided that I could wait for a tree and decorations until next year. I had a few dinky decorations, and acquired a couple awesome decorations- so I just did my best with what I had. Our presents were wrapped and put in the corner of our living room beneath our stockings which hung on the curtain rod.  It was cute and would do. I meant to buy a tiny tree to set on top of one of the presents but I never got around to it. 

Saturday night we stayed at my parent’s house pretty late hanging out with my family (we celebrated the Porter family Christmas Eve traditions this weekend while my sister was in town from New Mexico).  When we got  back to our apartment I noticed the living room was glowing a little bit. I wondered why the 2 strands of Christmas lights I put on our deck were glowing so brightly—in fact, I didn’t even think we turned them on?  I immediately went into the living room to see about the glow.  And there it was. The most beautiful Christmas tree I have ever seen.  It was glowing brightly with its multi-color pre-strung lights; small round ornaments hung from the branches and a beautiful white garland was wound throughout the entire tree. A Santa hat graced the tree as the tree topper.  Our presents were gently arranged at the foot of the tree and 4 chocolate candies led the way to the note. Merry Christmas, love Jenny. (My best friend who lives in Athens—Georgia, not Greece).

I just knelt at the bottom of the tree and tried to stare at its wonder through my tears.  I turned the lights off again and my dear Watson joined me on the couch where I cried some more as I continued to soak in our glowing tree and everything it meant to me.  

This is OUR first Christmas Tree. It embodies so much of what Christmas means to me and what I hope it will mean to my new family. Traditions, family, and love. Having a Christmas tree meant so much more to me than I was willing to admit.

Jenny is the most charitable person I’ve ever met. For her, charity just comes naturally. She doesn’t care about price, or how hard it might be. She is truly an example to me of the Savior. He knew the price He would have to pay and the personal sacrifice He would have to make to give us all the gift of eternal life and exaltation, but He just did it anyway because He loves us.  After this experience I feel like my focus has been re-centered on the true meaning of Christmas. Thank you Jenny!

Our Tree!

Yes, we saw David.

This is a picture the firemen pulled from the Provo Tabernacle that burned down. Isn't it cool that everything but Christ is burned?

Nephews

This was my conversation with my nephew Porter yesterday:

(I called Betsy and asked to talk to Porter to wish him a Happy Birthday. Porter comes on the phone and immediately says: )

Porter: Happy Birthday

Me: Hey! That’s what I was going to say!  How are you?

Porter: 5

Me: I know you’re 5, but how is your birthday going?

Porter: Grreat! (he said it just like Betsy would)

Me: What did you get?

Porter: A pirate costume and a movie and a puzzle.

Me: Cool! What movie did you get?

Porter: Um…Cat in the Hat, and I got a puzzle.

Me: Awesome! And are you….

Porter: I can’t say anything very long, so bye!

Apparently he was doing his puzzle when I called and was a little distracted. AND, Betsy told me he didn’t get a Cat in the Hat movie--not sure where that came from. He is hilarious and super cute.

My other nephew Jes got baptized on Saturday. We celebrated his birthday afterward and you should have seen him open presents.  He LOVED everything! He said thank you even before he opened each gift and was just literally in heaven.  One gift in particular he kept saying "I can't believe it!" in utter amazement.  My thought the next day was that he doesn't realize it yet and probably won't for a lot of years, but the greatest gift he got that day was the gift of the Holy Ghost. Learn more about the Holy Ghost HERE.

Coming soon: I'll tell you all about my new favorite things (no, I will NOT be giving all my readers my new favorite things, I'm not Oprah).