It's Beginning to Look a lot like.....

CHRISTMAS!!!
We ordered this awesome nativity this year. Perfect for the kids. Since they love to play with all the nativities we have set up.
Here is a better view of the tree skirt that Randy made. Isn't it AWESOME?

We love reading Christmas stories and putting them out under our tree. Probably one of my favorite ones is "A Christmas Dress for Ellen."

Each year we add an ornament to our tree that represents our year. I made this one for Randy and I to represent that we bought our first home this year.

This one I made for Katie Marie to represent how she loves to dress up. She also was a ballerina for Halloween and loves pretty princess things. I still have yet to make one for Belinda.

Here is our tree. LOVE it!!!

I made Belinda's stocking this year. You can't really tell, but the candy cane fabric is all sparkly. I love the ribbon around it. I also hand embroidered her name onto the top. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Here are all of the stockings hung up.

We have a tradition to do unmatching stockings and that the mom makes them for the kids. Randy's mom made his stocking and my mom made my stocking.

I made each of the girls stockings.

Some of our favorite Christmas traditions include:

• Every night in December we read a scripture, sing a Christmas song, and read a Christmas story, by candlelight.
• Adding a new ornament to the tree.
• On Christmas Eve we each give a gift to Jesus (like a new years resolution).
• On Christmas Eve we always reenact the nativity.
• During December we make Gingerbread houses and cookies.
• We eat lots of oranges, eggnog (mostly Randy), and pomegranites.
• We want to start the tradition of eating a fondue dinner.
• We don't celebrate the Santa thing, but we enjoy exchanging gifts with one another on Christmas morning. I think the way we'll do that is on Christmas morning the youngest will get to choose a gift that they have given someone and give it to them to open, instead of having the youngest open a present first. That way it will be about "giving" presents instead of "getting" presents. We'll each take turns giving a present to someone to open.
• We enjoy doing elaborate stockings with fun items included in them. We like to stuff them to full capacity.
• We don't do a lot of presents under the tree. It kind of depends on the year, but never more than 3 presents each from us (more if you include grandparents and sibling presents). This represents the 3 gifts the wisemen brought to the baby Jesus.

On a side note: Even though we've told Katie Marie the truth about the Santa thing, she still knows he exists, because she's sat on his lap and he's given her candy canes. She says, "Santa is real, but he doesn't bring us presents, right?" Okay Katie Marie! We had a conversation about what Christmas is all about the other night. I asked her what it was all about and she said, "the presents, the tree, etc." We talked about the reason we give presents and about what the star on the top of the tree represents (the star of Bethlehem). Now when I ask her what Christmas is all about she says, "giving presents to Jesus." We love Christmas and we are super excited about the spirit that we feel this time of year.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem and came to earth to atone for our sins. He lived a perfect life and gave up his life for us willingly. He lives again. He has given us the greatest gift that any of us could possibly wish for, a chance to repent and return to live with our Heavenly Father again. He loves each of us. Christmas is a wonderful time to celebrate Him and His life. May each of you have a very Merry Christmas!!!