Our first Christmas here in Alabama was great. It was weird having Christmas without snow or family (but family says there wasn't snow in Utah anyway). It's a tradition in my family to drive around looking at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve and us Shaws added hot cocoa and donuts to that. While driving around we noticed things that are different from Utah such as: the life size Santa mannequins that seemed to be at every house (some were creepy stuck up in the attic window with a spotlight) and how people will put lights around their yards... on the ground. With no worry of snow that is an option! We listened to Manheim Steamroller and had fun.
Once we got home, we finished making cookies for Santa, read a few Christmas stories (The Polar Express, some from Nana James) and then we read from Luke while the kids acted out the Nativity. Ellie was Mary (of course), I was Joseph (ayden didn't want to be), Ayden was a wise man, and Tate was a Shepherd. It was a true family Nativity with kids not listening to their part and the Shepherd kept stealing the Baby Jesus and laying in the manger.
Christmas morning the kids got us up at 7am and we had a family prayer before going out to see what Santa brought. I never used to believe my parents when they would say that seeing our excitement was gift enough for them, but I truly understand that now. My kids LOVED their gifts and were so excited. Ellie has long wanted a Rapunzel Tower and Santa did not disappoint. Even though we were up early, we didn't open all our gifts before church. We only let them open 2 gifts before and had to wait for the rest. But they were really good about it
At Church, we enjoyed a music program which included the ward choir, primary and a few solo pieces. I accompanied a friend while she sang O Holy Night. The accompaniment is 6 pages long and I needed a page turner so Spencer went up with me and sat by me at the piano. Amy did a great job and I did pretty well too (only 1 mess up at the end). After the meeting everyone kept congratulating Spencer on his great job. He thought it was funny that they would say he did a great job turning pages, but then they said "I didn't know you could play the piano. You guys sounded amazing." So it made it even funnier that they thought Spencer was playing with me! Nope, just me. I really enjoyed all the Christmas songs and the Spirit touched me.
Once we got home, the kids were ready for presents. We thought Tate would dive right in, but he really wasn't interested at first. He kept playing with Ellie's stuff (much to her annoyance). It was so fun to see the kids excitement at their gifts and to see what family had given us. We were blessed by so many this year and our Christmas was amazing.
We were able to Skype with my family and Spencer's. It was nice to see everyone, but it did make us more homesick. Spencer ended up having to go into work for a few hours so we had a late Christmas dinner. Our first Christmas in Alabama was wonderful.
p.s. I'll put pictures in another post.
No comments:
Post a Comment