12 days of Christmas

The days leading up to Christmas quickly fly by. I always want to incorporate new and fun traditions, but my intentions are always replaced with good old tradition and since I really don't like feeling overwhelmed, its ok with me. I do want to do the "random acts of kindness" next year but keep everything else the same. My very favorite as always is the opening a wrapped Christmas book and reading it by the tree every night in December. Jer's favorite is watching Christmas movies every night. Its funny which traditions the kids remember most...Kosty wrote in his journal at school that his very favorite Christmas tradition was eating reindeer pancakes. We had only done it once the following year, but now its sticking with us for sure. Brayden's favorite is sprinkling reindeer food on the grass & everything about Christmas eve.

Kosty insisted on "footie" jammies at the store and I giggled to myself every night when he wore them, that loooong little body! Kosty had such a sweet 'Christmas spirit' this year. He was the first and last one to hang ornaments on the tree, and then immediately he ran into his room and made us each a Christmas gift/card with a piece of Halloween candy taped inside and put them under the tree. One night after we read our Christmas book, he started begging for us to open one of his gifts to us. He said, "Please! I just really want to see the joy on your face." 

The boys got asked to be in the nativity for our ward Christmas party. Kosty was a wise man and Brayden was Joseph. They were so cute, and Kosty LOVED his crown and gold box. He was a ham. Another tradition we love is the hay ride our friends do every year. The kids sing and look at the lights and go back for hot chocolate and cookies. 

This year I decided I was totally DONE with all my Christmas decor and wanted to get rid of it all. The kids insist on the 'usual' decor so I just didn't pull out a few items from the box, and if they didn't ask where said items were, then in the box they stayed. I decided I only wanted a tree, a nativity, and a cute advent calendar. And I didn't even own the last two. So I went out and searched high and low for those two, who knew they would be so hard to find! I am so happy I finally found a good nativity, it warmed my heart many times as I saw the boys sit down & set up the figures over and over again, usually they always ended up positioning them all in a circle around baby Jesus. The advent calendar was a fail, sold out everywhere, so I settled with a cardboard $3 (chocolates and a scripture for each day) option and you would've thought I spent much more with how much the boys hugged and thanked me for it. They crack me up with their sweet gratitude for the most simple (and inexpensive) things ever! Love this about them.