Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! It is such a wonderful time of year full of anticipation, fun and lots of love shared with family and friends! Our family enjoyed celebrating the birth of our Savior.

And now as we head into the New Year my goal is start it out right... meaning to not make any goals I can't keep! For example: I am not going to say I will spend less time on Pinterest. I am totally obsessed and I like it! But what I would like to do is to live in thanksgiving daily. Elder Wirthlin gave a talk about it (it's awesome). Here is the link in case you would like to read it "Live in Thanksgiving Daily" . And because of Pinterest I found a great way to do so! I am going to make a small pocket notebook titled "365 days of being grateful" and right before bed I will jot something down i am grateful for that day. I hope it will painless and still effective. Wish me luck!

I wish you all a very Happy New Year! We are so blessed to have great families and friends in our lives. Our family is happy and healthy and I couldn't ask for more than that! May the New Year bring a large amount of hope, better health and a great deal of happiness to all your lives!

Christmas Traditions

Christmas for me is the Holiday of all Holiday's. And one of things I love most about it are the traditions. Looking back at my childhood, Christmas traditions are what makes up my most of my Christmas memories: Christmas lights on Christmas Eve, Eggs a la golden Rod for Breakfast, and making Cheese Balls(our family secret recipe), just to name a few.

Now with a family of my own we have a few traditions of our own. Two of the boys' favorites are pictured above. The "24 stories of Christmas" book is where we light a candle and read a scripture about the Savior and his birth and then we read a Christmas story. The other tradition is an advent calender. And instead of getting a treat everyday counting down to Christmas, they take off the magnet for the day and it has an activity to do. It is fun to see their excitement of finding out what we are going to do that day. Most of the things are simple like have cocoa and watch a Christmas movie. My hope is that my kids will feel the joy and happiness of the Christmas season as we draw closer as a family and to the Savior.

So I love hearing what other families do. What's your Christmas traditions?... I might want to adopt a few.

Enjoy the Season and Merry Christmas!