December Happenings

A few days before Christmas we took the kids to see the lights at the Temple. This is one of my favorite December activities. It took us a solid ½ hour to get the kids all bundled up. (Can I just say how thankful I am it doesn't get that cold here - I just would hate to go through this ordeal every time we left the house!) By the time we finally got in the car Chuck wasn’t sure the outing was going to be worth all the effort.

But it was really fun to hear the kids talk about all the homes that were decorated on the way and when we got to the Temple Isaac kept saying, “Wow, lights!”. It was a little chilly outside, but we managed to watch the nativity and then went inside to look around and warm up.

We walked through the Reflections of Christ display which was really amazing. Samuel was very interested in the pictures and would ask me about each one. When we got to the pictures of Christ being taken by the Roman soldiers he said, “Why is Jesus covered with blood?”. I was trying not to shed tears as I told Samuel about this picture and the next one with Jesus on the cross. The pictures were so beautiful and the spirit was very strong, at least for Samuel and I. Chuck was trying to keep track of Bella and Isaac and Isaac was busy playing peek-a-boo with a Young Women’s Group right behind us.

One of the sweetest things was when we were looking at the statue of Christ in the lobby and there was a whole group of people listening to a Sister Missionary Isaac walked up to the statue and loudly said, "Jesus".



Making Gingerbread Cookies

This is the first year that I have made gingerbread cookies and I didn't make them from scratch I just bought the packet - I'm all about the easy route when it comes to cooking! The kids had a lot of fun cutting out the cookies. At times they were fighting over who had what color of cookie cutter – there was a boy and girl gingerbread cutter. Their favorite part was eating the gingerbread dough. After Isaac went down for a nap we decorated the cookies.

They were yummy!