A Magical Christmas

 The magic of Christmas is amazing. This year was one of the most magical Christmas I have had. Having my own family now and a little toddler makes the Christmas season more magical for me. I have always believed in the magic of the season with acts of charity people do, the magic in family traditions and the magic of people remembering to keep "Christ" in Christmas. Here are some of the highlights of magic I have seen this season.

Lets start with Santa shall we? I was so excited to take Little Miss Ava to see Santa this year. In preparation I picked out a cute outfit for her to wear and did her hair in pig tails. (she looked so dang cute) We all loaded up in the car and headed to the mall. After waiting in line for a half hour, it was almost are turn. When a family a few spots a head decided to wait for someone to come and be in their picture. When it was our turn they finally decided to go see Santa because their four year old had been crying for the last five minutes  because she wanted to see Santa. As they were heading up a "grown man" joined the group and went to go take the picture with the kids. Are you freaking kidding me? Your four year old through a tantrum so your older daughters boyfriend could be in the picture?... Nevertheless we went to go get our picture done and Bryce went to put Ava on Santa's lap.... She never made it, all she would say is "scary" I tried to sit down with her on my lap. she would not have anything to do with it. How great is that? My daughter wont sit on a strange mans lap that is wearing a big red suit and has a beard. I was very proud of  my little girl! Plus this saved me 30.00 bucks. Woot! double whammy!

Next up lights on Temple Square. This is something I always did growing up and am very excited to share this with my family. We went this year with the Reeder's. It was a short trip because it was freezing and the boys wanted to get back to play games. I'll post pictures of this when I get home. We are out of town for the week.

We also took time to make cookies, hot coco treat bags for the neighbors. Shout out (to my little sister who helped deliver them).

Growing up my family always received gifts from a "Sub for Santa". Once I realized this, I told my mom not to put my name down on the list because other little kids needed this more then I did. Having received this and knowing that they really helped my mother out. I decided at a young age that I would be a giver. During this season I always make sure I have cash and change on me (during the rest of the year don't count on it). Bryce and I are not at the point where we can do a Sub for Santa for a family yet. What we did do is donate money to guys that ring bells outside the stores. I think they do this for the salvation army.
I really enjoyed having Ava put the money in and telling her it was going to help with food and gifts. I know she wont remember this next year but its not too early to teach her to give.

This year for Christmas Bryce and I decided that we wanted to spend Christmas Eve at our home and start our own family traditions. We mixed and matched ones that we grew up with. This is how we celebrated.
 `We made some tasty cookies and read the Christmas story in Luke. ( We have also taught Ava how to say Jesus, Mary, and Joseph). We then read a story called Snow Flake Village. Bryce's mom gets a new story each year and reads it to the kids. I loved that idea and have added it to our traditions. I have also went a little further decided that as we add more kids to our family I will get one book for each of them (the same one of course) and as my kids have kids they will have a collection to carry on the tradition. We then made sandwiches (my family always did that on Christmas Eve).
    On Christmas we went to Church and then up to Bryce's parents. Taya insisted that the family wait until we were all up their we got up there about 1:30 and Dusty and Haley showed up about 2. Ava was so excited to to open presents and had lots of fun. One of the things I love about Bryce's family is that they are so laid back it is really nice.
    Bryce also pulled a fast one of me. He had me thinking that I was getting a bread spread for Christmas, which I was not happy about. We have an agreement that he can not get me anything for the house: such as appliances and after my birthday present fiasco I was worried. So I went a head and bought myself a new purse and headband. I kept hinting at Bryce that I wanted boots or new sneakers. Under the tree were two boxes one (a pair of boots for Ava and a box that appeared to be boots for me. I picked up the box and it was light too light to be boots). I opened it. Inside was a bag from Zales inside was a shinny box with a beautiful heart shaped necklace with sapphires. He got me good. For our anniversary he got me matching saphire earrings. I loved that I got surprised more then getting the actual pieces of jewelry.  
   I hope you all had a great Christmas!