A December to Remember......

..... I wish!!!





This December was crazy!! With finals the 12th and 13th of the month (Monday, Tuesday) and being busy with school stuff up until Finals were over, it left us (me) with just under 2 weeks to get Christmas ready! Luckily we were able to get our tree, house lights and other decorations up the weekend of Thanksgiving so that was one thing we didn't have to worry about the few weeks leading up to Christmas! We are so lucky that Braxton is still to young to understand or to know what to "expect" during the Christmas season! I had great intentions of doing all the fun holiday traditional stuff - making sugar cookies, going to temple square to see lights, sitting on Santa's lap, going to Festival of trees, going on a family drive to look at lights on houses, movie night with pop corn and hot chocolate, etc. I'm very sad to say that we didn't get to any of those things. We really need to be better next year about making sure we do some of those fun family things. Brax will finally be to an age where he will start to remember and hopefully appreciate the fun times!

I did get our 2 Christmas movies out which Brax just LOVED!! We watched them both at least once a day - "Ginch" aka How the Grinch Stole Christmas with Jim Carry and "Train" aka The Polar express. It was fun to watch him learn fun Christmas words while watching the movies and seeing the excitement in his eyes when we would turn them on.

My Grandpa gave us his train last year for around our tree and Braxton thought that was the coolest thing. He would giggle so hard when we would turn it on and it would peek around the tree!

The Lamberts gave Braxton a Little Peoples nativity set in October while he was in Disneyland. We set it up for him on our end table so he could reach it. He loved playing with it and carrying the people and animals around.

Nate and I went to see the Forgotten Carols with my family the beginning of December. While growing up my family went to see the Forgotten Carols for quite a few years in a row. My Junior and Senior year of High School my Choir group was able to be the choir in the program for a couple of the shows each year. I have only been once since I graduated so it was fun to go back and see it again. I brought back many fun memories and he has made some changes in his show from when my family went last making it a little more exciting - not knowing exactly what was going to happen.

Despite our crazy December we have a couple of fun memories and were able to get a few family holiday traditions in - Christmas movies, nativities, Forgotten Carols, Christmas trains and family and ward Christmas parties.

Thankful Thanksgiving wrap-up

So, my Thankful Thanksgiving posts didn't make it as far along as I had hoped! It's amazing how quickly the last month and a half have gone! I'm hoping next year I can keep up with it a little better. However, despite my lack of Thankful Thanksgiving day's I did have things to be thankful for.......

-snow tires and a garage to park in

-a very patient child who was able and willing most of the time to entertain himself on those test days full of cramming!

-an amazing mom, dad, sister, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, grandma's and neighbors who have been our saving grace with Braxton during this last semester of school! For their scheduled day's" for watching Braxton and still picking up a few more on those really crazy weeks. For being willing to drop everything at the last second when a sitter fell through or something else came up!

-the GREATEST husband in the world! I could not have made it through the last 4 months without him.

-the gospel. For the peace it brings and for all of the blessings that me and my family receive every day! I couldn't have gotten through this 1st semester of school without my Savior - his help and blessings!

-the jobs that Nate and I both have. During these difficult economic times it has been so nice to know that Nate and I both have jobs that are able to provide for our family and the stage we are at in our life.

-Braxton!! He was definitely sent to our family for a reason! He has been such a blessing in our lives. He has taught us so much. He is so happy and easy going (most of the time). He is just SO fun!

There are so many more things running through my head but we'll leave it at that for now. Just know that I am so very grateful for all of the many, many blessings that we are blessed with daily - the little things as much as the big ones! Thank you to all of you who have been a part of those blessings!