Christmas 2013

I know this is chronologically out of order, but it's the best we're gonna get this year.
A smattering of Christmas:

Gingerbread houses made with the last of the Halloween candy


Our tree came with a story this year:-).  The last four years we've been using an enormous fake tree that Aaron got on Craig's List.  This year, Aaron realized what the rest of us noticed the first year he got it-it's too big!  So he sold it back to Craig's list and bought a pre-lit normal sized one at Home Depot.  But after we got it up and decorated (an effort filled production with 10 too eager to be helpful hands) he decided he didn't like it.  The lights were not LED so they cost more to leave on, and the branches were a little skimpy for his tastes.  So we un-decorated it and agreed we'd get a real tree at Costco for this year and then he could get a good price on a fake one he liked after Christmas.  The only thing I really care about regarding a Christmas tree is that it be up as long as possible during the Christmas season.  So I think we came to a good compromise once we understood each others desires.

Jane's class made these tree hats and wore them while they sang Christmas songs at a little classroom program one day.  It was hard to stop giggling because they were just so BIG on their cute little kindergarten heads!  She also made this snowman board that is exactly how tall she is this year, so she'll be able to see how much she's grown each Christmas.


Christmas day this year came both with wanted and unwanted visitors.  One reason why we will always remember this year with fondness is because it was the first time we've had Grandma and Grandpa Smyth with us.  The next 18 months will be joyous because they are here to serve a mission at the Washington DC temple just up the road!
We enjoyed a relaxed morning (none of our kids have ever been super early risers on Christmas and I'm SO thankful) opening gifts and eating too much.  We had a Nerf war with the family guns that Santa left and watched Grandma cry while opening her gift from the extended family which was a picture of her Dad's barn from the farm where she grew up.  

After lunch Jane started not feeling well and ended up sick with the stomach bug, but it didn't keep her down too long.  By dinner time she was running around again and begging for crackers and gingerale.  Luckily no one else had any symptoms of the intruding sickness until we were at a pizza buffet three days later.  Adam was too busy climbing under the table to eat his food, which wasn't entirely un-normal but we learned a short while later when he lost his breakfast in the arcade room that the rest of us weren't going to be spared.  So we came home and quarantined him to our room and I sat with his sick little self for the next 4 (extremely LONG) hours while he threw up over, and over, and over....  Adam is not a very big boy, so I was worried when his version seemed so much more violent and drawn out than Jane's.  Porter also got it that night and then everyone was healthy for Sunday evening luckily  (Andrew's baptism) but then I was the next victim on Monday and Aaron a week later. Yuck!

Daddy gave me a window replacement (opened and installed Christmas Day) for the kitchen window over the sink.  The original had broken seals and so it was always blurry and he knows it's my favorite view when I'm doing dishes or busy in the kitchen.  Thank you thoughtful Daddy!

Another thing that made this year special resulted from a few great talks on missionary work.  A brother in our ward spoke about missionary work needing to make us feel uncomfortable and if we weren't then we probably weren't doing enough of it. It was an unconventional talk, but definitely something I needed to hear.  And then after reading Pres. Eyring's home teaching message for December, I knew there were several people we needed to reach out t.  So we wrote testimonies in four Book of Mormons to give away. No one has relinquished their friendship with us yet, so we'll keep hoping and praying that these seeds will someday grow and that we can live with more faith and less fear in sharing the Gospel.  Every year the season goes too fast!  Thank goodness we have the Gospel and can feel close to the Savior all year long as we try to remember Him and be a little more like Him.