I really wanted to focus on the Light the World campaign and do 25 acts of service for 25 days. I wanted it to be our main goal and focus of the season. Then Clayton got the stomach bug, 2 days later Zach was over the toilet, I ran out of sacrament meeting completely nauseous and was puking shortly after, Adam was sick later that night then Mariah missed two days of school ill. Benson managed to not catch it (and of all the kids to not throw up, I pick him!) but he did have a 3 week cold. Just when I thought we were all better, Clayton got a fever of 102 and Zach followed shortly thereafter. Christmas Eve was the last time someone was sick. We did manage to be healthy on Christmas day (blessing!) but the month of December was quite exhausting for me as a mom. I changed my focus from serving others to surviving, although not very well. Maybe next year we can be a better light! However, we did catch some simple opportunities between sick days and some with sick kids in tow.
December 1, for the Worldwide Day of Service, I volunteered to decorate Mariah's classroom door for her teacher when I heard no one else was willing to do it. WAY harder than I expected and a service I hope to not repeat.
Then we gathered up friends and headed to the park with garbage sacks to clean things up. Of course the kids were happy to be serving when they were promised a picnic and park play-date after a full bag.
As the month progressed, we served the best we could. We picked a newly single mother in our ward and dropped off a piece of nativity for several weeks. The kids love to "ding-dong ditch" and it's amazing we didn't get caught when it was Clayton's turn. That kid still doesn't know the definition of hurry.
We went to the stake nativity display once with a non member and once with an inactive friend. It's one of my favorite activities of December as well as a favorite of my friend who has called me two years in a row inviting herself. I was so proud of my missionary Mariah, too who took 8 invitations to the event to school for her friends and left my phone number on it as an "RVPS".
We attended Mariah's Christmas dance recital and Clayton snuck out with Adam to buy her flowers. He was so excited to give them to her after the show.
Mariah is starting to look more and more like a beautiful dancer than a toddler who has no idea what she's doing. Her confidence is building each time and the stage fright has faded.
A friend of mine "lit MY world" when she offered to give me a free class of sugar cookie decorating. After her 3 hour class I decided to try it out with my kids and give out the cookies to friends and neighbors. I learned a few lessons: 1) Don't invite anyone under the age of 7 if you want the cookies to look good enough to be given away.
2) Piping bags with kids = HUGE mess. 3) I need more red sprinkles.
4)Finding the right consistency for royal icing with out my friends help was a lot harder than I thought and my cookies looked no where near what I wanted them to but tasted awesome!
5) I need a lot more practice and possibly a lot more artistic ability but I'm going to keep trying!
My favorite activity this December to focus on the real meaning of Christmas is going to be a yearly tradition, maybe even with costumes next year :) We had a Shepherds Supper complete with chicken kabobs, hummus, pita bread, olives, cheese slices, cucmbers and other veges. We put lights on the ceiling fan and ate "under the stars" (it was raining outside) without silverware. While we ate we had a program from Luke 2 and other scripture versus and some related songs. LOVED IT!
Some of our other activities included Christmas lights at the Mesa temple, Phoenix Zoo, and Riparian Preserve. I had to take a picture of the lighted cacti. Only in Arizona!
And we needed a picture of the elephant for obvious reasons.
This year I decided to eliminate the frustration of gingerbread house decorating and focus on the fun part. I bought a re-usable, plastic house that won't fall over. Skip the building and get to the candy! When it was done I wanted a picture. Zach was SUPER grumpy that I was making him be in it. Made sense a few hours later why his mood was so sour when he was throwing up :/ Clay has epic bed head at 3:00 pm but like I said, survival.
We also did The 12 Days of Christ, donated a toy, had the missionaries over for dinner, invited those without family to our home, and listened to meaningful Christmas songs. We didn't follow the schedule worth beans but hope what we did do for others and our own family reflected our love for Jesus Christ and gratitude for His birth. Hopefully me kids learned to be a little kinder and give a little more. We love this season for the gratitude we feel in our hearts.