Merry Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas to all! We love this time to reflect on the Savior and our Heavenly Father's love. 

Esther has taken to using my iPad and watching the Mormon Channel. Her favorite is this Christmas Mormon Message that I'll share with you. 

We recently moved from our "barn" into a real house.  Apart from having a place for both my kids to sleep uninterrupted, and a ceiling tall enough for Chris to stand up tall, and enough windows to know whether the sun is out or not, the BEST part of the house has been getting it all decorated for Christmas. 

It was our first year getting a Christmas tree and Washington is definitely the right place for that.

Here I am with Sam at the little tree farm where we could choose any tree to cut for $20. Not a bad deal.

The winning tree and a very blurry photograph. 

The tree skirt.

The stockings, nativity, and advent wreath

The cute little lady in last year's dress that finally fits. Guess who loves Christmas?!

Esther LOVES Christmas music. Her favorite songs are: Jingle Bells, Rudolph, Frosty, and Santa Clause is Coming to Town, and Mister Grinch.  She loves opening up a new Christmas book each day.  She is a bit worried Santa is going to eat her (not sure why).

Happy Saint Nicklaus Day!

On the night of December 5th we set our shoes out for Saint Nicklaus to come a "check on us" to make sure we're being good before Christmas.  Esther was worried he wouldn't leave a present because we forgot to leave carrots for the reindeer, but the next morning we found a new hot chocolate maker on our doorstep along with some other surprises in our shoes.  After that, Esther kept asking if we could set our shoes out for Santa. Clever.