The first part of Christmas

The first part of Christmas is where you try to go and do as much Christmas-y stuff as you can handle and still stay sane. I do it because I love seeing the looks on my kids' faces as they experience the music, beauty and Spirit of the holiday season. 

A friend of ours snapped these photos, but they never made their way onto Christmas cards. Next year. I cut the girls' hair shortly after these were taken. 

 This one's going on the wall. 

We visited a Creche Exhibit in a nearby stake. It was the same weekend as the annual Christmas Devotional by the First Presidency, and my grand plan was to attend the devotional at this particular stake center, and then tour the exhibit. Due to major technical difficulties, the members in the stake center could not get the sound to work right on the broadcast, and it sounded terrible. The kids were bored, so we left the chapel early. I was bummed, but there's always next year. 

 This one's from where Ben served his mission. 

We have a copper relief from Chile that hangs in our bedroom, so this one was of interest to us. 

 Jilly loved this one, of course. 

 This nativity was constructed completely from soda cans by a man in South Africa, where no recycling exists for the cans because they are made form steel. So he found another way to reuse the cans. It was one of the largest nativities, and many of the animals were ones you'd find on the savanna - crocodiles, giraffes, lions, etc. There were so many nativities from all over the world, we didn't even see them all. 

 All the girls really wanted to do was dress up. Gordon wanted to be a cowboy, and that was it. When he discovered they didn't have any cowboy gear, he sulked for a while. He doesn't understand why cowboys weren't present at the Savior's birth. 

 The next weekend we attended a fairly elaborate and beautiful Nativity Pageant in another stake. It was very well done, if you live here and haven't been, you should go! They served hot chocolate after it was over, and they also had a Creche Exhibit that we took a look at. Right before the pageant started, they had a 12 year old girl with a good voice sing "Go Tell it on the Mountain." Jilly latched right onto that song and has been singing it quite a bit.

 Gordon is entering the phase of not being able to take normal pictures. He's off in Gordon la-la land much of the time these days, and I think maybe that's why he's so distracted when I need him to focus. 

 All the kids wanted pictures under this sparkly tree. Ev and Jill LOVED the teenage girl dressed up as an angel at this pageant. The look on their faces was priceless. 

Jilly and I attended the Christmas Concert put on by our stake, and Jilly was such a trooper to sit through the whole thing. I tried to take Ev last year, but she complained of a need to throw up shortly after the concert started (which never materialized and miraculously went away after leaving the chapel). So she opted to stay away from the concert this year. Jilly's favorite song was, once again, "Go Tell it on the Mountain." 

 The ward Christmas party. All the primary kids could dress up as angels, animals, or shepherds. The girls opted for angels, of course. We talked to Gordon about being a shepherd or animal, but he only wanted to be Woody. So Ben and I gave up and Gordon wore his Woody dress up outfit, much to the delight of other ward members, who laughed at the sight of a cowboy on stage during the Nativity. Our friend's kid was a sheep who ba-baa'd his way through all the Primary songs, and that was also awesome. 

Gordon's good buddy Max came to church with us one Sunday while his parents were recuperating from the  flu and a new baby. The boys were happy to be together. 

Gordon "getting ready for the showdown." This is a lyric from "Dustland Fairytale," by who else? The Killers.  He was standing on the back of the couch yelling singing the chorus of "Runaways." It's his way of calling the girls over to put on some show. Crazy kid, but we love him anyway.