Tradition!

One of my favorite memories growing up was making spudnuts at Christmas time for neighbor gifts.  I hadn’t got anything made for our neighbors yet this year, so I called my mom and asked her if she would be interested in coming and making spudnuts with me.  I was excited when she agreed.  Lennard took Ben and went to Lethbridge for a ‘guys’ day out and Emma ‘helped’ us make the spudnuts.

 

Mom already had the dough ready to go when she got here so we got it rolled out and the donuts cut out.  While we waited for them to rise we took a trip to Extra Foods for a few things.  Emma loved having us to herself.

 

I love seeing three generations continuing on the tradition.  It makes me thankful for all the wonderful women in my family that I look up to and hope that I can someday be as amazing as they are.  Each of the spudnuts were cut out with my grandma’s old cutter.  It made me feel like she was there with us. 

The finished product… ready to be delivered!  YUM!

Letters from Santa

The kids were thrilled when daddy brought the mail in and there were letters from Santa for them!  They weren’t that interested in the actual letters, but they were SO excited for the candy cane that came with them!

Melt My Heart

The kids were playing in the living room while I was doing laundry when I heard Ben say, “Emma is Mary and that is Baby Jesus.” I came out of the living room and found them like this.  My heart melted!  I ran and grabbed my camera and managed to capture the moment.  I feel so blessed to have such wonderful kids. 

Gingerbread House

The kids were ‘slightly’ excited when we pulled out all the candy to decorate a gingerbread house tonight.  I’m sure half the candy went in their mouths instead of the house… but that’s all part of the fun!  They got very involved this year and wanted as much candy as possible on the house.  It didn’t matter what it looked like, they just wanted LOTS of candy on it!

I attempted to get a picture with me in it… it’s not the greatest, but it’s proof that I was actually there!

The final product!  The second they declared it done, they wanted to eat it!  I managed to get them to wait, but guess what they ended up having for breakfast!

Snuggle Time

I love seeing Emma and Ben playing together.  They are so funny together.  Today I found them like this… with all the pillows piled on Emma for her ‘blanket’ and Ben hanging out having his snack.  They stayed like this for quite a while too!

Nativity

Our ward is in charge of the Nativity this year and so we decided to go watch it for Family Home Evening.  We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful night.  The wind wasn’t blowing (miracle!) and it was about 5° above zero.  We got front row seats.  The kids were quite intrigued with the live animals they used, although I got a little worried when the cow attempted to break out of his pen!  Thankfully, the shepherds arrived just in time and were able to secure the fence a bit more.  They did a beautiful job and it was the perfect way to spend the evening together.

I didn’t bring my camera, so when I found these on Facebook I ‘borrowed’ them so that you can see what it was like!

Earlier in the evening we went and watched some skaters in their Christmas program.  The kids were excited to see them skate and Ben enthusiastically called out to each of them to “Go Faster!”.  Emma clapped and cheered, ‘Bravo’, for each number.  It was fun for us to spend the whole evening together doing different things around Town.

Becky’s Baptism

We got the chance to attend my niece’s baptism today and I was privileged to give a talk about baptism at it.  Becky is the first of my nieces and nephews that I got to see as a newborn.  Before that I was either on my mission (Brendan) or living in New Brunswick!  Most of them were about 6 months or older before I got to meet them, but we had moved to Strathmore a few months before Becky was born, so I got to head to Edmonton and be there to see her as a brand new baby.  It was exciting to be there and so she is one of the few birthdays that I remember!  (Sorry everyone else!)  It was a very nice baptism and I loved being able to visit for a bit afterwards at the lunch my sister put on for everyone. 

We had planned to do some Christmas shopping afterwards, but I was a bit worried about how it would work with having the kids with us.  Thankfully, mom and dad still had to do some shopping, so I ended up tagging along with them while Lennard took the kids home!  I got everything else I needed on my list… as well as a few extras!  I am so excited to see the kids expressions on Christmas morning!  It was a great way to spend the afternoon and I had fun being able to hang out with my parents!