Finding that Christmas spirit...

Have you ever heard that complaint? The "I just don't feel the Christmas spirit" complaint? 'Round these parts, we believe that you can't just sit back and wait for it to feel like Christmas. You need to do something to find the Christmas spirit for yourself. So that is what we have been doing these last couple of weeks. We decorated the house, and the kids helped decorate the tree. Big Brother has been steadily working to undecorate it, as is tradition for our children of that age! Little sister has been instrumental in testing exactly how many of our unbreakable ornaments can fit on one branch. The record so far is (I believe) 5. The nicer ornaments are up higher, so that they stand a chance of living to see another Christmas! We have watched some of our favorite Christmas Movies - National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, The Grinch, While You Were Sleeping, The Santa Clause. The kids love to cuddle up with us on the couch for the kid ones, and Husband and I love to cuddle up on the couch when the kids are in bed for the ones we love. We still need to watch White Christmas, though! We have our "Story A Day 'Til Christmas books, and we read a story out of both every night. The girls especially love that! They have their chocolate advent calendars, and they love getting their chocolate every night and seeing what fun design is on it. We would have done the Festival of Trees, since Big sister was performing and that is where mommy and daddy had one of their first dates, but we all got sick that week.
We went and picked out an angel from the angel tree, and the girls had a lot of fun going to Wal Mart and picking out toys, shoes, clothes, socks, underwear, and a coat for her. Big sister says it is one of her favorite parts, and I must say that makes me proud. She loves that she can play a part in making sure somebody else has something to open Christmas morning, and it is a wonderful way for us as parents to teach them how to follow the Savior. We went to Temple Square Saturday night to see the lights. The kids all loved that. Big sister's favorite part of the Temple Square lights is the nativity story. If that doesn't help you find the Christmas spirit, I don't know what will! Despite the crowds, it was beautiful and fun. Big sister also had a free kids meal coupon to Sizzler, so we went there after and had a yummy dinner. Big sister loved her steak, once we got her the A1 sauce. Little sister loved the macaroni and cheese, and big brother loved the cheese toast. Alas, I have no pictures of Temple Square. I didn't bring my camera. Sometime this week, hopefully, we will make some Christmas sugar cookies. I try pretty hard to have most of the shopping done before December, and that seems to allow us more time to enjoy the traditions. I also try to keep it all pretty low-key, and not cram too much in so we don't all get stressed and cranky. So far, so good! 12 days to go, and Christmas is in full swing at our house!

For Tracy - the stockings do look very striking against the black railing, eh? There seems to be a bare spot, though! We'll put in our order when we find out what we're having!

Big Brother, with his new favorite toy!

Little sister, seeing how many ornaments she can get in one spot!

Big sister. Goodness but she's cute!

The girls, dancing together. Seriously, we need to watch White Christmas so that I can see if they'll sing the "Sisters" song like my sister and I used to! Love you, Mummer!