This was our first year all by ourselves for Christmas. While it was nice to have a quiet Christmas at home, we missed being with our family. It was kind of hard thinking of Christmas traditions we want to do with our family, but since we ended up skyping both families on Christmas Eve until it was Jack's bedtime, it didn't make too much difference. We did incorporate a few things from both families, though. Jay's family eats tacos on Christmas Eve so we decided to keep that tradition, and my family always reads the Nativity story from Luke. My sister Adrienne introduced us to the Christmas scripture candle last year where you light a candle each night and read certain scriptures that help you remember Christ and what attributes He has so you can be more like Him. We did that again this year and will keep it as a December tradition to do at the beginning of the month to help us focus on why we really celebrate Christmas. We also made sugar cookies, and Jack LOVED helping with that, especially eating the dough. :)
We had church at 9 and had to be there a little early, so we only opened a few presents before church. Afterward we leisurely opened presents, and it was so fun with Jack this year. He was so excited about everything that he got. His favorite presents are his orange guitar and his basketball hoop, but he really loved all of them. We skyped again with a few family members and then went to Chris and Holly's house for dinner. It was so nice to spend the night with our good friends. After dinner, we headed to the temple grounds to look at the beautiful Christmas lights. It was a very merry Christmas indeed!
Jay worked New Year's Eve but when he got home we ate some delicious chicken fajitas and might just make that a New Year's Eve tradition. We had a pretty quiet evening with Seth and Jane. We played a few games and chatted as we watch the ball drop in NY.I'm excited for this new year, but also know that there are a lot of unknowns about our life right now that will be interesting to figure out. A DJ on the radio a few days later was asking callers to tell him what had already happened to let them know that 2012 was going to be a bad year, and I thought how sad it was that people were already planning on having a bad year. Why don't we plan on having a great year instead? That just makes more sense to me. So here's to a great 2012!!
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