All things Christmas....

We love this time of year, who doesn't?  This is a look at the past week and all it had to offer.  Tumsy is definitely "all things Christmas" because she looks like a Candy Cane in bed with her Daddy.   I put her in bed to snuggle with him, because he can't really hold her the way he would like to with his broken collar bone.

We have had a great week ringing in a few of many Christmas traditions that we uphold in our family.

This is Summer's glow baby.  She loves this little glow worm dolly.

Last Sunday evening for our FHE we watched the Christmas Devotional given by the First Presidency.  After that we started in on one of our Christmas traditions.  The children gather all of the Christmas books we have and we wrap them individually.  We place them under the tree and after scriptures one of the children pick a present to unwrap and we read that Christmas story they've picked.   For December we do this in place of a "family novel."

Through the years we've collected quite a few Christmas stories.  This is a fun tradition.

Carefully wrapping.

Daddy is helping Georgia.

Georgia puts one of her finished products under the tree.

Here we are reading the first book picked.  It's titled, "Santa Calls."  This is in the top five of my favorite Christmas stories.  It's great.  It's about these three Texan children that get taken on a wild Christmas adventure.  A must read for your family.  We get it every year at the Library.  Just remember to read with a "Texan Drawl" during the appropriate parts.  :)

Next evening is Monday and our dear friends, the Stepans, invited us over to hold FHE with them.  They were doing their annual Ginger Bread house and we had to decorate our Ginger Bread men for our neighbors so it worked out great.

Gwyneth really enjoyed icing the Ginger Bread Boys.

If you are wondering if that Ginger Bread has a Toblerone for a face, you guessed correctly.  My kids love this chocolate so they thought our neighbors would too, no less as the face....

Kent was in charge of the Hot Chocolate and Apple Cider, as there was a choice.

Thanks Kent.

The Stepans.  From the left: Kent, Bishop Matt Stepan, Sammy (underneath Matt), Jeff, Joe, their mom, Wendy and the newest addition of pink, Brooklyn Stepan.  If you can't see her very well, it's okay because she looks just like the rest of them

Matt gave us a lesson and asked me to talk about the service I had planned for our family to do for this week.......

Every year I try to find something our children can do that's hands on service.  Last year a friend of ours was able to book an appointment for our children to play piano and read Christmas books in a rest home.  I loved it so much, they were so well received it was touching.

This year I thought we would do a "week of service."  Last week the children baked everyday after they finished school.  They built up a supply of mostly ginger bread cookies and chocolate chip cookies.

They stuffed our old stockings (that were left over after the new ones were made) with their baked goods, granola bars, apples, dollar gloves and a scarf.  We picked some scarves from our own stash as we have an over abundance of them, especially for being in California.

Here Georgia is grouping up cookies.

Gwyneth is stuffing her stocking.

We chose to give our stockings to the people that sit at the Goodwill trucks and take peoples used items. We chose this because the Goodwill makes it a priority to hire people with medical problems, and mental disabilities such as mild forms of Autism.  I'm grateful for these types of foundations that make it possible for these people to find self worth and meaning in life through a job.   Plus we drop off our "things" often enough that we have a good re-pore with two of the five trucks we handed stockings out to.

Tuesday we took goodies to our neighbors.  This is actually our second trip out (below).  We had to come back and put a few more bags together because as we were walking around we forgot a few.

Wednesday was my favorite day of service.  We chose to go the Costco/Trader Joe's parking lot and help people load their cars with their groceries.  The two boys, Kalen and Reece got into their Scout shirts and paired up, while Gwyneth and I were a pair.  I left the little ones at Mom's.

I told the children to focus on "elderly" people, that might have a little more trouble with heavy items.  It was so fun.  It was a little awkward at first but then we got into a real groove where I felt like we were able to help a lot of people.  When the boys asked to help, nobody ever told them "no."  We were there for a couple of hours and during this whole time only two people said "no" to Gwyneth and I.

After we came home, Gwyneth asked me why those two people said "no" to our help.  I gave her various reasons.  But, I also explained that we knew a little better what Christ felt on his mission here on the earth. Because, Christ offered the greatest help of all and so many people said,"no" to his help.

Today, we were going to the Carlton Plaza, a facility for older folks and medically assisted people.  We decided to delay this until next week so we can do service with the Stepans.  The children will play the piano and sing.

We've had a great week.   I love seeing the children with a little extra skip in their step because they are doing what they know is most important during the Christmas season.