My Favorite Traditions

I love Thanksgiving and Christmas for many reasons but my favorite things have to do with traditions with my family, specifically my mom. Before I get into our Christmas traditions I want to say that Thanksgiving at home was a success. We had some great friends come over and the food was delicious. I could go on forever about how grateful I am for the different things in my life but I'll keep it short and simple. I have been so blessed to be born into a good family that raised me with the knowledge of the true and restored gospel. I am also extremely grateful for the people in my life. I have the best family and friends anyone could dream for. Matt is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me and we are blessed to have two beautiful girls that make our lives better every day. Matt and I love life and are grateful for the good times and the hard times along the way. We are most blessed by the relationships we have developed over the years. I have so many friends that I hold close to my heart and I look forward to talking to them on the phone since most of them still live in Utah (or currently Spain).
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Here is the only picture I have from Thanksgiving. Audrey, Sienna, and Brooklyn devouring a plate of jello at the kids' table.

Moving onto traditions... one of my favorite traditions at Christmas time is reading a Christmas related story. I don't have a picture of this but I probably will later in the month. What happens is every year one of our gifts from my mom and dad is a different Christmas book. In the cover of the book my mom has typed out a paragraph or two about everyone in our family including the family pets. We read what my mom has written and then we read the story as a family. It is a fun reminder of different things we experienced from the previous year. It usually brings out a lot of laughs and a few tears.

Don't worry, Sienna was supposed to open these presents early. She is opening a package sent from my mom. Every year my mom sews all of us kids and grand kids Christmas pillowcases. Matt loves the ones she made 2 years ago so much that he keeps them on our bed year round. Sienna opened the present and said, "WOW!" She loves them too.
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These are the beautiful pillow cases for this year.

My mom also paints us new Christmas ornaments every year. We have hundreds of dollars worth of ornaments from Hallmark (also from my mom from over the years) but these are my favorite because they are so personal.

Sienna holding her "baby's 1st year" ornament. Matt kept telling Sienna not to touch the ornaments because they were mommy's special ornaments, so Sienna walked around saying, "mommy's specials." She got to hold, "Sienna's special" for awhile which made her happy.
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I also love the tradition of stockings. I think they are so cute and fun.
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Christmas came early here. We are completely done Christmas shopping. That feels so nice figuring it isn't even December yet. When I say done, I mean done. The only thing we may still purchase is a couple of small gifts for each other. Most of these gifts are from our parents and even though after today she may not deserve it, about 80% of them are for Sienna.
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Getting out my mom's Nativity Scene is one of my favorite things about Christmas time. It means so much to me to have something so personal from my mom to keep forever. She is such a talented artist and it took her over 3 years to finish this because she painted about 15 sets for different people. Our stake is using this in their Nativity display this week. I am torn about my decision to let them borrow it because it is irreplaceable to me but I can't wait to see it set up at the stake center along with over 1,000 others for everyone to come and see. Christmas is such a special time of year and as much as I love the look of presents under the tree, Christmas is about the Savior. That is another reason I love this Nativity so much, what a beautiful reminder of what Christmas is really about.