christmastime.

Christmastime has arrived at the C House.

I opened our giant bin of decorations, picked out a few of my favorite things, and put everything else back in the bin. Every year I feel a bit overwhelmed by all the stuff all over the place, so this year it was all about simplifying. And I have to say, I like the look of it.

Last year, our 6-foot tree died on us. We are real tree people, but since we are gone every Christmas, we settle for fake. This year, we were faced with a dilemma. We wanted a tree, but we'll be leaving quite a ways before Christmas, so we didn't want to get a real one. And we didn't want to spend a lot of money on a big fake one, since next year we are thinking we'll have our first Christmas at home, necessitating a real tree. Not to mention that we have two crawlers. The answer? A little 4-footer set up on a table. When we first pulled it out of the box and I saw it was barely taller than Carly, my heart sank. But we put it up on the table and added extra lights and Carly's eyes grew wide and she said "Its so beautiful!" I turned the room lights off to show her the glow of the Christmas lights. I turned them back on and we went to feed the babies, and when I looked back out, Carly had turned the room lights back off. Chris turned the light on to get something and left it on, then when we looked back again, she had once again turned the lights off, laying on the couch in the glow of our Christmas tree. That's when I decided our 4-footer isn't so bad, after all.

I was much too sick to go to church today, so I stayed home with the babies and spent a lot of the time making a scripture advent. I have seen them around, but never found one that fit our family, or that stressed what I wanted it to. So I decided to make my own. Twenty-five scripture passages are not as easy to whip up as one might think. I decided to make our 25 days all about getting to know Christ. Carly knows "Jesus loves me," but how much more does she know about Him? My scriptures include His miracles, His characteristics, and His mission, as well as the story and prophecies concerning His birth. Every passage I chose, I made a note of what we could teach Carly about Jesus that day, catering it right to her level of understanding and needs. Not to mention, each day has only a few verses! That is about the max of what we get through every night, with these wild things. I am excited to see how it goes. It was actually a wonderful experience, making one that fit our family and my desires for my children. I highly recommend it.

Tonight we used our new Little People nativity to tell the story of Christ's birth, and really explain to Carly why we celebrate Christmas. She was a little hyper, and I felt like it wasn't getting through. But after the story, she said "again!" And when we asked her why we celebrate Christmas, she knew the answer. Christmas is such a fun thing with kids: Santa and presents and lights and crafts and treats and traditions. And I want all of that Christmas magic in my home. But I want my children to cherish the story of a Savior being born in Bethlehem so long ago, as it is their mother's very favorite story in all of scripture.

[Christmas loot from grandma!]

We have two very insane weeks coming up before we leave for our Christmas trip, so I am trying to enjoy this season despite the high levels of stress and absence of my husband that is heading our way. I traditionally skip town during practicals/finals weeks, but it didn't work out for us to do that this semester. Hopefully we will find the joy in these weeks, since, as they say, Christmas comes but once a year.

You know that reindeer bum just made you smile.

Happy happy December.