Thanks to both sets of our parents Carver and I were able to have a pretty decent Christmas set-up. There something about a tree, even if it's a small one that adds to the holiday spirit. My parents let us take a little three foot pop-up tree to put in our living room. What they didn't tell us was that it had been out in the shed for a few years probably and was now being inhabited by a family of flies. As we began trying to shape and peel back branches of the tree these decently sized black bugs began to fly out at us. After a minor freak out I realized they were just flies, but that meant that they were now roaming freely about our apartment. We had to take a brief hiatus from Christmas decorating and go on a fly killing spree. With Carver and his rubber band and I with my dish towel, we danced around to Christmas music swatting flies and reclaiming ownership of our home. Eventually we resumed our festivities and fluffed up the tree. But on going to plug it in we found that a wasps nest had been constructed on the cord. Another quick freak out and a trip outside with a hammer and we were once again back on track with the Christmas decorations. Thankfully, setting up our nativity scene was much less exciting. Carver's parents gave us this beautiful nativity scene and it was fun being able to set up all the different pieces and think about what the real meaning of Christmas is. I'm thankful for our parents who helped make our first Christmas setup something to be proud of.
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Later in the month I introduced Carver to gingerbread houses, Schwab style. Every Christmas Eve our family makes gingerbread houses as part of the evening festivities. Really they are graham cracker houses and part of the tradition is stuffing your face with candy while some of it makes it onto your house. I wouldn't be home with my family for Christmas this year so we decided to do it early with some of our friends. This was my first year making the sugar glue and frosting without mommy around. But we only burned one batch and the frosting only dripped off the houses a little bit. I'm grateful for family traditions and being able to share them with others. Plus I got to see Carver's architectural skills in action. He made an outhouse complete with a gummy bear pooping out a piece of chocolate. I see a bright future here.
Tons and tons of candy of course
Carver and his outhouse
Our other holiday activities included lights and hot chocolate at the Riverwoods, Red Robin dinner and the movie Frozen (Carver has been asking me if I want to build a snowman for a few weeks now), and a double date to the Desert Star Playhouse. We saw the play Miracle on 42nd Street and it was pretty entertaining. The best part was outside the theater Carver and I got to channel our inner thespians.
The best part of the month was spent up at the cabin. I'm kicking myself now for not having any good pictures to show, especially since my hubby got me an awesome new camera for Christmas. I'll blame that on the fact that it's so nice I don't know how to use it yet. But pictures wouldn't do it justice anyways, it was a great Christmas. While I am very attached to my own family traditions, it was really fun to see the different things that Carver's family does at Christmas time. We made tons of appetizers for Christmas Eve, got to help in setting up Christmas for all the little kids, ice fished, went sledding and tubing, snow shoeing, relaxing and reading, there was just endless amounts of fun and relaxation and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I am so grateful for the Christmas season. I love all the traditions and holiday activities that are associated with it. But mostly I am thankful for a chance to celebrate the birth of our Savior. I don't spend nearly enough time thinking about His life and what His sacrifice has done for me in my life. It's nice to have a month set aside to focus on Him and how His birth affects us. I love my Savior and am so grateful for His influence in my life.
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