The Reason of the Season

Sometimes I feel that I get a little lost in all the commercial aspects of Christmas. This year I tried really hard to remember or Savior and his birth. I did really well until Christmas Day. I had expectations that Mariska would want to open presents and would have fum doing it but it took us hours to get her to open her presents and then we ended up opening the last ones for her. I couldn't believe how I felt about that. I know she is only two, and now I look at it at laugh, but that day I had a hard time with it. I was moody all day and it wasn't until we had Friends and family for dinner that I really started to feel the way I thought I should feel on Christmas Day. Then as I was putting Mariska to bed and we were saying prayers I realized that I didn't really remember my savior on the day that I should remember him the most. Mariska knows who he is and it is such a neat experience to see your child point and say Jesus when ever she sees a picture of him. I don't do this very often but it is important to me. I am truly grateful for my savior. I love him with all my heart and I know I would not be were I am today without him. I look forward to being with him someday and am so glad that he and my Heavenly Father are there to pick me up in my times of struggle and need. I want you to know that I have a testimony of our Savior and his Gospel. I am grateful to family and friends who are there for us and who love us. I love you all and I hope the rest of the holiday season treats you well.

OH Christmas Tree Part 2

To me Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday with Christmas at a very close second. I love the whole holiday season. We wait until after Christmas to decorate and we leave the decorations up until the new year. I was going to leave the tree up until new years but we decided to start potty training. Yesterday Mariska was in her big girl pants and was over by the tree looking at the balls when I heard the faint splashing sound of liquid hitting the floor. I looked and sure enough She had emptied her bladder right next to the tree. I have my village under the tree and some of the "snow" got dropped on. All of our Christmas Decorations were put away last night.

Gingerbread Disaster

Every year John's family gets together before Christmas and the Grand kids build gingerbread houses. This is actually the first year we have done it because Mariska was too little before. I have never built a ginger bread house (at least I don't remember ever doing it.) So here we are TA DA!!!!!!!!!!! My very first attempt at a gingerbread house. I will display this proudly in my kitchen for all to see. I thought I would just blame in on Mariska but she didn't help with the building she just ate the candy. I have no one to blame but myself.

OH Christmas Tree!

A tradition that my family has is collecting pieces for a Christmas Village. My Grandma on my dad's side started it and all of her kids have one and I decided to start one when I got married. Ever time we go somewhere we look for a piece to add to our village. The other tradition that goes along with this is that the village is displayed under the tree. This is the first year that my village is big enough to go under the tree. I thought long and hard about whether to do this or not because of little two year old hands but I decided that we would give it a try and if it became too big a problem we could move it. It has been up since Thanksgiving weekend and so far so good. Mariska is more interested in the balls on the tree than she is in the village. She likes to look at it and I have only had to tell her twice to not touch.