'Tis the Season For . . .

Christmas parties,

making gingerbread houses,

and cookies,

and reflecting on Santa Claus.

After attending our church Christmas party a couple of weeks ago, which featured an appearance by Santa Claus, all the kids were talking about who it was that was "dressed up" like Santa.  G. Diddy came home and asked me "Mom, is Santa real."  Being a cautious mother I answered with a question (He is only 7), "What do you think?"  His answer, "Yes, but you'll tell me when I get older if he's not,  so I know if I need to buy my kids presents or not, right?"  Luckily my back was to him at the time because I had to try hard to stifle my laughter at his too cute answer.  That answer so beautifully captures the innocence and belief of children, and I have been enjoying it over and over for the past couple of weeks.

Ringing in the Season

This weekend was a busy, but festive one for our family.  Thursday, H. Man, I. Mac, their Grandma and I rode the train down to Salt Lake to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert.

It was 10 degrees outside when we arrived downtown and the walk to the Conference Center was quite cold and miserable.  The performance was well worth it though.

The guest singer for the evening was Natalie Cole, and the guest narrator was David McCullough.  They both did a fabulous job.

The boys favorite part of the performance though was the Chrismas Around the World number.  They performed six different Christmas songs from around the world with dancers in costumes from those countries, and then at the finale they pulled a giant Christmas Tree out of the floor with a huge cable.  It really was breathtaking.

 

My favorite number was an organ solo of Good King Winceslas performed by Richard Elliot.  He started out with a slow, classic rendition of the song, and then on the second verse he began to weave it together with selections from the Nutcracker Suite.  It was amazing.  I am hoping that a video of it comes out on U-Tube soon so I can see his hands and feet up close.  It didn't seem possible for one man to produce so much sound at once.

The evening was truly magical.  Music is one of my favorite parts of the Christmas Season.  Nothing seems to capture the spirit and magic of this time of year like music can.  It was a great way to hasten the Christmas spirit for each of us.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were each filled with activities and celebrations as well, but I will have to post more on those events later,  as we are off to do more celebrating today.  I love this time of year!

What I've been up to lately . . .

I was realizing today that it has been a month and a half since my last post.  I used to apologize when I went a while without posting.  I have now come to terms with the fact that I am an inconsistent blogger, and I'm okay with that.

One of the things that consumed all of my free time last month was the fact that I got it into my head to make our family Christmas Stockings this year.  Now this may not seem like much of a feet to those of you who are blessed with the gift of "craftiness".  However, my crafting resume consists of . . . well, nothing.  I have attempted a few craft projects that were sponsored at church activities, but they always turned out as complete failures, so I never saved a single thing.  I have never sewn anything, unless you count tying quilts, which I have done a few times (with help).  I am just not blessed with this gift, nor do I usually have a desire to be (which may account for some of my deficiency in the area).  So why then was I possessed with the bug to make Christmas Stockings this year; 7 of them?

For one thing, our old stockings got ruined by a flood in our basement 2 summers ago, and for another we needed a new stocking for Little C. and for the new baby that is on the way.  I tried to find stockings last year, but have you ever tried to find 6 (now 7) stockings that match, but have a different design on each one?  I decided last year that it couldn't be done.  At least not in a price range I could stomach.

When I was little my mom made my brothers and I stockings with personalized felt designs on them.  I always loved my stocking and thought it would be neat if I could do the same thing for my kids, but I never got up the gumption to try it until this year.  I guess the old saying is true, necessity is the mother of invention.  I scoured the internet and found several different stocking designs that I liked and thought that I could possibly recreate (mind you, none of these came with patterns).  I then had my kids pick their favorite.  Next, I traced the designs off the computer.  Then I begged the help of my mother, who luckily is a gifted seamstress (unluckily she didn't pass any of it on to me).  We headed to JoAnn's to try to find the right materials to make them all come together.  After several hours of work, here are the fruits of my labors . . .

     

It was actually kind of fun bringing my ideas to fruition.  There were some set backs, and none of them turned out as perfect as they were in my mind, but I made them with my own two hands, so I feel a sense of accomplishment in that.  The baby's stocking is all cut out and ready to assemble, but I ran out of steam, and my back couldn't stand hunching over the kitchen table any longer, so it will have to wait for next year.  I realize they are not professional looking, but the kids sure were excited when we hung up their stockings this year, and hopefully they will be for years to come . . .