The Hamilton Family: Beginnings of Christmas

We survived the 5 1/2-turned-into-8 1/2-hour drive to Grandma's and back for Thanksgiving, and now we are definitely ready for CHRISTMAS!

Love, love, love Christmas! The best part: watching Jude get excited about lights and trees and nativities and all the other little things kids love. I know I sound like a broken record, but seriously, all those magical things you love become so much better when you watch your kid love them too.

Felt tree I made for Jude so he wouldn't touch the real one (didn't work)

Our cheap little artificial tree. One day we will be able to get a real one!

My new advent calendar I adore. Jude loves to get the candy everyday

Jude loves our little nativity. I have wanted to get this Little People nativity for our kids soooooo badddd. I would look on ebay almost every day to find a good deal (it was harder than expected) because the new one was ridiculously overpriced. And it doesn't even come with shepherds. I finally found a decent price and bought it, sans shepherds (we made the mechanic and farmer from his other sets the shepherds). Jude's favorite part? Taking the wisemen and riding them on the little people train or car garage. They're very new age wisemen, I guess.

PRESENTS! I LOVE buying presents! I'm kind of person who prefers to go shopping rather than buy online, even if it's cheaper online. I just love going out and physically getting it! It's just part of the fun! (Peter is the opposite...) This year, I've sadly had to cut down my present buying because you know, two kids at the mall is bananas. But thanks to my awesome neighbor I was able to go shopping without Jude and get some presents. Let's just say he's going to be ECSTATIC on Christmas morning...

I tried to take the kids to see Santa. I knew Jude would scream and be terrified, but I didn't think he would RUN AWAY. So, sadly, no over-priced Santa picture :(

Ready to go see Santa! Too bad he was terrifying

I love all the wonderful activities that pop up around the community this time of year. Unfortunately, there's always more events that I want to go to than we have time. But so far we've been to a few good ones.

First, we eagerly awaited the "holiday" train (it had one menorah and like 120347839274289374 Christmas lights, so it qualifies) at the local train station. I knew Jude would love this and his reaction did not disappoint. He literally screamed CHOO CHOO at the top of his lungs when it pulled up and ran around dancing to the Christmas music. When the train stopped, Santa, Frosty, elves, and several others came out to greet the kids. And give out mini candy canes. Seriously, Jude got like a ten candy canes and ate them all. But we loved every minute because it was too fun to watch our little boy be so overjoyed at a Caltrain covered in cheesy lights.

Next, we went to our stake's annual Christmas Creche exhibit. This is NOT your ordinary here's-some-nativities-in-the-gym creche. No, it's HUGE. They literally take over an entire church building and decorate every inch. Every. Inch. There are different themed rooms with creches of all shapes, sizes, mediums, and colors. They come from every country. There is even a kids room with crafts, dress-up, and a marionette show. It's INSANE and absolutely BEAUTIFUL. There are thousands of visitors every year. This year I got the chance to be a volunteer host at the exhibit. Basically, I walked around and talked to people and made sure no one touched the exhibits. It wasn't the most exciting, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to serve. When we took our kids later, Jude didn't last long without trying to grab everything (obviously), but what I did get to look at was amazing. Creches are something I really want to collect; so far I have ones from Africa, Ecuador, and Walmart (very exotic). Next year, I'm counting on one from Italy (looking at you, Elder Langlois).

Finally, we got to attend a local Baptist church's annual live nativity. This was also OH MY GOSH over the top amazing. They turned the entire parking lot into a life size Bethlehem, complete with 2,000 lbs of sand for flooring. There were Roman soldiers, innkeepers, market place, and of course, a stable. Basically, you watched the story of the nativity being played out with live actors. First, the Romans blew their trumpets and called for a census. Then, Mary and Joseph came on a real donkey looking for room. Finally, they came to the stable and performed a beautiful little show complete with music. Across the parking lot, shepherds saw an angel rise up over the hill and tell of Christ's birth and then came running to the stable. A caravan of wisemen on real camels with fire dancers then came to see the Child. It was absolutely FREEZING and Jude kept yelling "ah din" and started to cry whenever he saw a soldier, but we stuck it out and it was worth it. I was so incredibly moved by not only the beautiful music, but the powerful Spirit felt there. As we all stood watching the actors portray Christ's birth in that little manager, I could feel the Spirit very strongly. I thought about all these hundreds of people standing here, watching Christ's birth, and realized that this must have been what it was like when He really came to the earth. All the hosts of heaven must have stopped and watched in awe and reverence and rejoicing. Then all the crowd sang Silent Night and I lost it. I know Christ came to this earth as a tiny child and grew into the Man who would redeem us and give us everlasting life. God bless these church members who put on such a powerful production and bore such powerful testimony of our Savior.

In other news, it's FREEZING here, like everywhere else in the country (except Florida, apparently). It's been in the 40s all week and we've been cold! But it didn't stop us from going outside as much as possible. We just went a little more bundled up :)