The reason for the season

The life size nativity scene at Temple Square

Tonight after our annual family Christmas Eve party we went to Temple Square to see the lights. We like to go every year on Christmas Eve, usually we have it all to ourselves. This year it was a bit more crowded than normal. We walked around and took our time seeing all the beautiful lights, the kids loved it. (Pictures coming soon...) When we were nearly ready to go home we went and watched the Nativity presentation. It was beautiful, and such a great reminder of the reason for Christmas-- I'm glad we got to see it on Christmas Eve!

May you all have a wonderful Christmas, and remember the reason for the season!

Tab Choir Concert

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert with my sisters and brother-in-law. My Dad sings in the choir so we are lucky enough to be able to get tickets to many of their performances.

We had left a little later than we had wanted because I had been running a bit behind schedule. Once we got to Salt Lake the traffic was horrible and we searched and searched for a place to park that was near the Conference Center. We finally found a residential street a few blocks away that had some space so we quickly parked and hurried down the hill to get to the concert. We were worried that we wouldn't all be able to sit together since we were a bit later than we had hoped. We got in the back of one of the many lines and thankfully it moved quickly and after having our bags searched and going through a metal detector we were ready to go find our seats. We had no problem finding a place to sit together and we finally were able to relax and prepare ourselves for the concert.

The Conference Center had been beautifully decorated for Christmas and we knew that we would enjoy the concert.

We had great seats!

The concert was wonderful and it really made me begin to feel the Christmas spirit.

Afterwards we headed over to Temple Square to look at the lights, and wait for the traffic to die down a bit. It was beautiful!



We attempted to get a photo of ourselves, which didn't turn out as well as we had hoped, so luckily someone passing by offered to take a picture of us all together.

It was a wonderful night, and it was so fun spending time with my family!

And here's the Cinnamon Bear

When I was a kid my Dad worked at the radio station, KBYU to be exact. Every night my mom would turn on the radio and we would listen to my Dad as he announced pieces and spoke to the general public on the radio.
At Christmas the radio station would play a clip of The Cinnamon Bear each night. What's the Cinnamon Bear? It's a radio drama from 1937. I have fond memories of listening to it on the radio each year counting down the days to Christmas. We knew exactly what time it would be coming on so we'd be sure to be in our jammies and we'd go cuddle up on the couch and watch the glow of the Christmas tree while we listened.
This year I found it on YouTube, so you can hear it too! Here it is, all in order:

Go Flash!

My blog has been extremely neglected lately. I have been working non-stop on getting hundreds of holiday orders out and I finally finished last night!

So I will try to catch up with some happenings from the past few weeks.

A few weeks ago the kids got tickets to a Utah Flash game at school.

They really wanted to go.

We found some classmates at the game.

And everyone loved it.

Go Flash!

Mother Letters

Have you all heard about The Mother Letter Project?

Here's the story, straight from the blog:

Christmas day of 2007 came and went. It was the typical American Christmas—gizmos, gadgets, whatnots, and an oversized helping of turkey. Two days and a transatlantic flight later I was standing in a small other-continental village regretfully pondering my extra helping of Christmas turkey and materialism. I decided that things would be different in 2008.
This year, my wife and our extended families have decided to give a Christmas present to that little village. We want to spread our wealth, meager as it may be. We have decided to create presents for each other and donate the difference to our friends in the village. And here is where you come in.

I am creating my wife’s Christmas present-the Mother Letter Project. Simply stated, I am collecting a series of “open letters” from mothers, to mothers. Share your stories—no matter how raw or difficult. Share you concerns—no matter how foolish they may seem. Share your wisdom—no matter how you came by it. Share your mother story. The only request? Start the letter “Dear Mother” and sign it. I will compile all of the letters in a Christmas book for my wife. If you share a letter here or by email (motherletter@gmail.com) before Christmas, you'll get your own copy of the letters.

This sounds like such a wonderful idea, I'm trying to get my Mother Letter finished. Want your own copy? Join us!

Not sold online, or in the store

I was talking with a friend last week and she was telling me that she had been to several different stores looking for things for her kids. A lot of the stores are limited in toys, sizes of clothing, and generally everything after the Christmas rush.
I started thinking about how little I have actually been in any stores during this holiday shopping season. Things have been crazy busy and I've done a lot of shopping online. Disposing of lots of boxes seems much easier than having to fight all of the crowds in the actual stores! I've just about finished most of my Christmas shopping but I'm still not sure what to get for Derek. He'll get some clothes of course, but probably not anything that he really wants.
I decided to search a little for a cordless drill. He brought one home from work several months ago to put something together and it is probably something that he wouldn't mind owning.
I typed "cordless drill" into the search area at Walmart.com and found this:

Interestingly enough it is not sold online...

or in the store.

I guess they like taunting us with things they don't acually sell??

Silhouette ornaments

I saw these cute ornaments over at the Shabby Nest today.

Aren't they cute?! I think I may need to try making them sometime soon...

Family Tree

Jenifer posted this cute geneology tree from Red Envelope. It's on sale, but still not cheap. I really love it! But I don't think I'll be spending a ton of money on this anytime soon.

I just saw this handmade tree at We are THAT Family. It's not quite the same, but I bet it's a lot cheaper, and still very cute.

Now I just have to find the time to do it!

Christmas Symbols

My cousin Ashley gave the Relief Society lesson in church today. (She did a great job!)

For part of her lesson she told us the meanings behind some of the Christmas symbols. I had forgotten many of these.

*Candy cane - made by a Christian confectioner as a reminder of the Shepherd’s staff. They were red and white - red for the blood shed by Jesus Christ, white for His purity.


*The Wreath - God is the Alpha and Omega. He is everlasting. His kingdom knows no beginning and no end. (Revelation 1:8)


*The Lights - "Jesus, the Light of the world." (John 8:12)

"The Lord shall be thy everlasting light." (Isaiah 60:20)

"The Lord is my light and my salvation." (Psalm 27:1)


*The Holly - crown of thorns (see red & green below)


*The Star - marks the place where the Christ Child lay. (Matthew 2:10)

*Christmas Tree- Symbol of the Jesse Tree. Jesse was the father of King David. He had 8 sons and 2 daughters. It is from his lineage that the Christ Child receives his earthly ancestry.” (Isaiah 11:1-2)

Symbolizes life. The tree was Christianized in the 4th century during the reign of Emperor Constantine. The pagan celebration of the Saturnalia was replaced with Christmas on Dec. 25th. ("Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" - Romans 12:21)

- All nature rejoices at the birth of the Savior

- The Lord is like "an evergreen tree" Hosea 14:8


*Santa Claus - Eastern European name for Saint Nicholas. He tossed pouches with gold coins through the windows of needy people in his town. He was Orthodox Christian Archbishop of Myra in Asia Minor in the 3rd Century. Patron Saint of secret giving, of children, and of travelers by sea. His Feast Day is celebrated on December 6th.
But in reality, it is Jesus who gives all good gifts and we must be careful to give credit to whom credit is due. Too many children have become hysterical when they find out that their parents bolding lied to them about Santa Claus. If you lie to them about Santa, they may also wonder what else about Christmas is also a lie.
*Angels - proclaim the birth of the Savior. (Luke 2:10)


*CHRISTMAS COLORS

Red - Christ's blood shed for our sin. (John 19:34)

Green - We have eternal life in Christ. (John 3:16-17)

White - The purity of Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Gold - The Kingship and Royalty of Christ (Isaiah 9:6-7)

Name that movie

I like to have a selection of movies ready to go for when I'm working on jewelry. It makes it more fun. Today I watched one of my favorites, see if you can guess which one.

"There's something wrong with this yogurt."

"It's not yogurt, it's mayonaise."

"Oh right..." and continues to eat it.



Can you guess which movie it was?

Merry Christmas clip

Check out this cute Merry Christmas video from Melancholy Smile, it's so cute!
(Just click on the title below.)


Wishing You a Merry 'Vintage' Christmas! from Jared Foster on Vimeo.

Muffin tin advent

A few weeks ago Jenifer had a post about an advent calendar. It was made from a muffin tin and was so cute! And today Tip Junkie had one on her blog too.
I do not consider myself to be very crafty, so I ordered this cool kit from a great little Etsy shop. It arrived and sat for a few days before we did anything with it. Finally on Monday night we decided that if we actually wanted to use it for its intended purpose then we needed to hurry up and make it. We started right before bedtime, too bad we didn't start earlier-- the kids didn't want to stop!

Didn't it turn out cute?