Every Christmas season I look forward to our traditions. And so do Cody and Noah.
On November 30th we set out the little red door that is a gateway to the North Pole because starting the next day, Noah's elf, Phenial, arrives. Noah loves finding Phenial in his new hiding spot every morning. This year Phenial had fun being a little naughty and bringing holiday cheer. Noah loved the morning Phenial replaced each of our stockings with our underwear, but Mommy didn't get a picture of that. Our family blog really isn't the place for lacy things and superhero undergarments, but here's a few Mommy did take of Phenial's fun each morning.
Family Photo Graffiti
Holding Baby Jesus
Good Morning Mirror Message
Held Hostage by Army Men
Shoe-Shoe Train
Another tradition of ours is one from my childhood. I always climbed on my dad's shoulders to hang the star (or angel) on top the tree. I climbed on my dad's shoulders well into my teens to carry out this tradition. It's something I've passed on to Noah and Cody. The topper is the very last thing that goes on the tree and it's Noah's job. He does it so well! And with such joy on his face!
We have an Advent calendar to help us count down the days til Christ's birth. Each day has an activity whether that is reading scripture about the Nativity, doing a random act of kindness or a Christmas craft. Noah looks forward to this each morning. For one of our crafts this year we made an I Spy Christmas Tree out of beads and random objects around the house. It was so much fun and now we have a game to play!
I Spy Christmas
What do you spy with your little eye? Something blue?
Something new this year was the release of the Journey Christmas album called "Simply Christmas". This was an absolute labor of love and something that has brought great joy to our church family. It was an honor to be a part of the project as well as have a song I co-wrote with Pastor Trent and the band make it on the album, "Emmanuel". I know it's past the Christmas music season, but if you haven't already, check out the album on iTunes. Search "Creative Journey Simply Christmas". Hope it blesses you and your family.
Another tradition going strong since Cody and I started dating 14 years ago is Cody gets me an ornament for the tree each year. In the picture above (on the left) is the first ornament Cody surprised me with in 2000 for our first Christmas together. And the ornament on the right in the picture is the one from this year. So sweet. I look forward to his thoughtfulness every year.
Noah started his own tradition of school holiday parties. For Christmas his class had a pajamas and pancakes party in the morning. They watched Frosty the Snowman in their jammies while a dad made pancakes for everyone. Noah signed up to bring fruit, so we jazzed up the fruit idea and made Grinch Fruit Kabobs (thanks, Pinterest!) out of grapes, banana slices, strawberries and mini marshmallows on a toothpick. So easy. So fun and cute!
This year instead of making sugar cookies for Santa, Noah wanted to make cupcakes for Jesus' birthday. (And also because I told him I heard "Santa" loves chocolate cake with cream cheese icing...) So that's what we did. Santa did leave a note thanking us for the yummy cupcakes. You're welcome.
Noah is becoming quite the artist. He loves to draw things. He surprised Cody and me with this sweet Christmas tree (above). That makes my heart happy.
Noah wrote all of his Santa letter this year with spelling help from me. He asked for Imaginext Star Wars toys, a transforming robot and the video game Swap Force. Santa was very nice to Noah leaving all he had asked for.
My boss threw his team a little Christmas paint party to celebrate the season and all of us. It was great to get together and paint a little masterpiece. Cody and I made one together. I love having it hang up in our home during this holiday season.
Working on our masterpiece
Me, Zan, Tracy, Andrea and Kiah
The team and our masterpieces
Our masterpiece
Pastor Clark and Robin know how to spoil the Journey staff. They blessed the staff with a great Christmas party at Elevation trampoline park in Edmond and lunch at Mama Roja's on Lake Hefner. It was a lot of fun just being together as a staff playing dodgeball and jumping til we were out of breath!
Kiah, Alysa, Tracy, me, Lindsey, Tehia, Jen and Catherine
(Adam and Bryan photobomb in the background.)
Lindsey, Alan, Bryan, me and Tehia
Pastor Clark and Robin also blessed the staff with tickets to see Anchorman 2. Ministry is such a wonderful blessing to get to do for a living and sometimes it can get very heavy, but it's nice to just enjoy each other and laugh! I posed for Noah in the new Lego movie cutout. He thought I was such a cute Lego girl!
You bet we were out in the snow this year! We ran to Home Depot to get a sled, hooked it to the Jeep and off we went in our yard having a blast! It was really fun especially when Cody turned quickly and Noah and I face planted in the snow. We got a good laugh!
Another tradition of ours is to see the Downs Family Christmas light show. We bagged up some canned goods to donate to the Food Bank and headed east for the show. It's really incredible how much hard work they put into the show. Noah loves to watch the dancing lights set to songs on the radio. We just turn the channel to the station and enjoy the entertainment!
Noah has a tradition with Kynlee. Each year they exchange gifts. And this year Kynlee was so happy that Noah "remembered" she wanted a LaLa Loopsy doll. She was beside herself!
Every year we make a big gingerbread house. This year we made mini ones...Well Noah made them with Kiah and Josh who came over to babysit one night. Noah called them gingerbread teepees. He even made a little campfire pit for all the gummie bears.
Noah went to see Santa this year. He took his letter, too. The computer that captures the digital picture crashed, so the little elves had to reboot the system. Noah got a lot of time with Santa! He was the luckiest kid that day to get special one-on-one attention from jolly 'ole St. Nick. Now this year, Noah has gotten too smart for his own good. He's asked too many good questions about the realness of Santa. We did have to confess that this Santa at the mall was a helper Santa because the real Santa was too busy making toys to come to the mall in person. Hopefully we can hold out on the real spirit of Christmas for at least another year.
One thing we hope does not become a tradition is the ice storm just before Christmas that made us lose power for two and a half days! Luckily our sweet friends, Jeremy and Tiffany, let us borrow their home for a few days while they were in Houston visiting family. It was nice to have a warm place to stay. Our house got down to 53 degrees before the power came back on. I was worried we wouldn't get back into our home for Christmas Eve, but the Lord blessed us. Phenial (picture above) hung out at the house during the power outrage. Even though it was cold, he still kept warm. But I guess elves are used to the cold.
The ice hung around for a few more days before it started to melt. We lost a lot of tree limbs...Once the temperatures rose and the ice melted, the whole family spent two days picking up sticks and loading the trailer. We filled five trailer loads full of broken limbs from our yard, our neighbor's and my mom's.
We had a great time celebrating this season and preparing for the coming King. Now for the big day!
