Christmas Festivities 2013

This was our very first Christmas with just our family. We decided not to make the trip down to Phoenix for Christmas this year, and though we missed our families, I wouldn't trade the amazing and magical Christmas-season we had together (without a road trip) for anything! I don't think we will ever travel for Christmas again.

This was my second year planning a handmade advent calendar for our family, and after a few tweaks from the method I attempted last year, it was huge success! I don't have a single picture of the manila envelope system I used, but you can see part of it pretty well in our nativity video further down. I created an envelope for each day of the month of December leading up to Christmas day.

Essentially, I created a "Christmas bucket list" for our family and broke it up into several categories, which included: Scriptures about the life of Christ (with a picture, for our family scripture study each night), service activities, Christmas symbols (the basis of our December school- all symbols of Christ- used to help enforce the true meaning of Christmas with our children with LOTS of fun activities and crafts to go with each!), special Christmas treats and also family activities (ward Christmas party, Christmas Express, temple lights, etc.). I usually try to plan most of our month ahead of time and print each category on a specific color of paper (family activities: yellow, service: red, and so on), cut them into strips and place the strips into the envelopes for the day that we will do that activity.

Each morning after breakfast and getting ready, the girls and I would gather in the living room and open the envelope for that day and see what activities we had in store. This has to be, by far, the best way there is to celebrate the Christmas season together as a family. It makes it so special, magical and spiritual. We always had something fun (usually several things!) to do every single day, and it was almost always centered around our Savior, Jesus Christ, which is just the way I like it!

I, by no means, captured even a tenth of what we did together in pictures, but to save time (and some blogging catch-up sanity!), I uploaded all of them into one post. A Willman Family Christmas dump! First up:

Salt Lake Temple Lights:

One of my all-time favorite Christmas time traditions (though much, much more pleasant in Phoenix!) is going to see the temple lights. It is such a perfect teaching opportunity for our family. We celebrate both the birth and life of Christ at Christmas time- the pinnacle of His earthly experience being the atonement. Our ultimate goal in life is to make it to the temple- where eternal family units are established- which is only possible through the atonement of Christ. Making a special trip to see the temple at Christmas time is such a neat opportunity for us to teach our children about the importance of the temple and relying on Christ's atonement.

As we made our way onto temple square we heard/saw this man playing Christmas carols, hymns and primary songs by request on the bagpipes, no less! It sure was a fun addition to our evening.

As we perused the grounds and enjoyed the atmosphere, Kyle discovered the panoramic setting on our camera and was able to capture beautiful pictures:

Kyle always loves to get a couple artistic shots of the temple. How can you resist when working with such a beautiful and majestic subject?

Our family in front of the temple (minus a much needed flash):

Next up, was our

Christmas Light Express:

We did bedtime, as usual, and the girls were surprised with their official tickets to our Christmas Express on their pillows. Only way to do it. Best reactions ever. We threw on shoes and jackets and jumped in the van.

We drove around downtown Provo looking at all of the beautiful light displays and talked about why Christmas lights are used to celebrate Christmas (well, at least the original reason for them!). Yes, they are fun and beautiful, but they help us remember our Savior because He was the light of the world, and as we follow Him, we can become lights to others, as well! What a wonderful way to help remember the life of Jesus Christ during Christmas time.

Our Express took a pit stop to refuel with hot cocoa and donuts and warm-up by an outdoor bonfire at a shopping center not too far from our home.

It was so much fun, and Waits quickly figured out how much he loved hot cocoa and wanted lots more. Immediately. And was very vocal about it!

We were completely and so, so, so pleasantly surprised to find out that the shopping center had a free horse-drawn sleigh ride. Umm, did I mention it was FREE?? And we had no idea it was going to be there. It was such a fun bonus to an already magical family night, and was well worth the 15 minute line in the freezing cold that we waited in for our turn. The girls (and Kyle and I) absolutely loved it. This will be on our Christmas Express route next year, for sure!

Christmas Eve:

The Museum of Art on campus at BYU had a special Carl Bloch exhibit, titled Sacred Gifts, which featured original Carl Bloch paintings depicting the life and ministry of Christ. Though the exhibit was running for around 6 months, we thought it would be a special Christmas treat for our family, and I was able to make a reservation to see it on Christmas Eve morning. How perfect was that? We are always looking for ways to make the entire Christmas season, but especially Christmas Eve and Day, spiritual and reverent and focused on the birth and life of Christ. To be honest, it was a pretty short-lived experience for our family. Four children aged 5 and under in an art museum where you need to be quiet, calm, and you are not allowed to touch anything? It lasted about 15 minutes. Though, fifteen  minutes very well spent. We left with our spirits lifted, and our hearts in the right place. Kyle and I especially appreciated it, and hope to head back for a date night before the exhibit is over so we can spend a little more time really appreciating all of the beautiful and amazing art.

That night, we had our very first ever Shepherd's Meal: We ate lamb (among other things that I can't remember) and talked about how the shepherds were out in the fields when the angel came to them to announce the birth of Jesus Christ. This tradition is definitely a keeper. Then, before bedtime, we acted out the nativity together as a family as we listened to Luke 2. Minnette was Mary, Waits was Joseph (the cutest Joseph there ever was!), Kyle was their donkey, a baby doll represented the baby Jesus,  Aurelle was the angel, and Mommy was a shepherd. A perfect Christmas Eve family activity!

Christmas Eve bedtime meant our second to last Christmas scripture while wearing new Christmas PJ's from Grandma and Grandpa Murphy and opening and reading new bed-time stories from the Greene Family.

And this is what you get when you ask grandparents to-please-send-only-one-present-for-each-child:

I think grandparents get pretty excited at Christmas time... Only the stockings are from us!

Kyle really wanted to get the kids each a stocking this year, and that is what they opened first on Christmas morning. Kyle knew how to keep me happy: nothing but healthy treats in these stockings! 

And this picture of Waits on Christmas morning just cracks me up:

Remember that pile of presents around our tree? It took a better part of the day for everyone to open everything. Throughout the morning we were able to do a web call with both sets of grandparents to help share the joy of the day with them.

Christmas is, without a doubt, my all-time favorite time of the year, and this year definitely did not disappoint. In fact, it exceeded all of my expectations and I hope to have a repeat every single year.