Christmas Time Busy-ness

We have been so busy in so many good ways.  I've been trying my very best to look at the unswept floors and wrinkly clean laundry with an awareness that I can't continue on with normal life in addition to doing all the fun things we enjoy fitting in at this time of year.  Sacrificing a disciplined routine for fun memories isn't effortless but almost always pays off.  I even remember to pull out the camera to capture a moment every now and then.

We filled out our Christmas book collection with several classics and a few new ones so that we could read one story a night before bed with them this month of December.  One night last week J read The Polar Express at storytime and I sat for at least two minutes completely amazed that he is no longer content to sit back and listen to the stories--he wants to be the voice!  Each night after we read a Christmas picture book, we read the real Christmas story found in Luke 2 to the kids, and they are memorizing bits and phrases as we go without any extra drilling--repetition is such a wonderful teacher.

Last night was our ward Christmas party.  J was a valiant (and apparently a travel-weary) wise man and A held up reminder signs for a great rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas that I hope I don't forget.  (A is in the striped sweater in the bottom left corner.)

Not pictured are Dan and I who played a duet (Dan on banjo and me on the guitar) of "I Saw Three Ships" and "Silent Night".  It didn't go at all like we practiced it.  I'm pretty sure I hit two chords correctly out of the sixty or so I had to hit.  Someday we'll try it again in front of people and hopefully our hands won't shake as terribly (because it's really hard to fret an instrument when you're trembling), but I was really grateful that it gave us proper motivation to practice together.  I hope we keep that up.

One day last week we joined a couple other moms and their kids and, in addition to sharing meal ideas and a lot of laughter about our follies in disciplining children (which is always an important part of mom networking), we made candy houses with grahams and candy.  This activity is so developmentally appropriate for three and four year olds.  I've never seen them glue pieces of paper on with the same attention as they adhered the candy to graham crackers with frosting.

Note to self:  My friend Becky had the genius idea to have the kids add the candy to the walls and roofs first and then let them sit for a bit before assembling the houses.  It worked so much better.