A Little Christmas Spirit

I've been thinking about Christmas a lot lately. I'm the Primary Music Leader (I love love love my calling, BTW) and we've been learning "Stars Were Gleaming" for the past few weeks--we're singing at the Branch Social next week. The past few years, I've been a Bah Humbugger. I had one really bad Christmas, so I haven't had the Christmas Spirit for a while. I mean, obviously, I do love the actual meaning of Christmas (my favorite thing is the First Presidency Devotional), but I haven't enjoyed the traditions as much as I used to. But this year, I'm starting to get it back. I think Charlie has brought it back for me. We've been putting up decorations and he just points and smiles at them. Obviously, he doesn't understand it all, but he knows something is different.

This is a Christmas card and envelope I made for my visiting teaching people. I designed it on Photoshop. I used two vintage images from these books John's mom got me a few years ago. I combined the images and used this quote from A Christmas Carol: "It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself." I'm really happy with it. Now, I've got the scrappin' itch back. I have a ton of pictures I'm dying to scrap. Maybe I can get John to give me a day to myself so I can get some stuff done . . . )hint, hint, Dear . . . )

You guys from up North and out West are just going to laugh at this. It never snows here this early, so a little snow on December 1st was really cool. It's just enough to get me in the mood for Christmas. I didn't think it was enough to play in . . . until my niece came over. She made a snow angel and a snowman on the deck. Morgan and Paul (her dad) literally had to scrape every last flake of snow to make it happen, but it was impressive just the same. I didn't play any . . . I just walked around in the snow. I love that cold, sinking feeling under my feet. I can't wait until we get a really good snow. The last time we had one of those, I was pregnant so I didn't get to play.

This is Charlie's first taste of snow. This was a tradition I was unaware of, but my sister insisted. At first he didn't like it . . . then he finished the whole thing. He really liked it . . . it probably helped that he's working on a killer molar right now.

John was a little jealous of the snow since he's in New Orleans on business this week. Well, I was jealous because he's been eating at fancy-schmancy restaurants all week! See, originally Charlie and I were going to come along. But, there were too many problems. First of all, the hotel his work booked for him was not kid friendly. It also doesn't help that Charlie is in a phase where he loves to scream for no reason. Secondly, John only had the rental car for so many days. We would have to take the eight hour trip all at once. Yeah, right. Finally, I didn't know how I would work out my food situation. I really can't eat out. I've got to prepare my own food because of my IBS, so that wouldn't work either. Sad, but oh, well. The week is half over, and John will be home soon. The sooner the better!

Finally, I've got to share these two pictures. I'm thinking I need to update the blog "logo" and here are two candidates. I think they both perfectly express the idea that Charlie is definitely in charge. The one where he is maniacally grinning was taken yesterday. I caught him pulling wipes one by one from the wipe box and he thought it was extremely funny. The other one was the other week. I came into the room and he was just like that: laying on a pillow, shirt half up, watching "Yo Gabba Gabba."

By the way, "Yo Gabba Gabba" happens to be the coolest kids' show ever. It's like "Sesame Street" meets Breakin' meets Colico Vision meets Teletubbies meets Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It's like the acid trip I'll never have! Any show that has Biz Markie teaching kids how to beatbox is okay by me. If you haven't had the pleasure of watching "Yo Gabba Gabba," here's a taste. And we can't have a discussion about "Yo Gabba Gabba" without mentioning poor Nathaniel, who's killer dance stylings on the show have made him an internet star. I bet his mom is regretting letting him on the show . . .