White Elephant

Rich and I were invited to a White Elephant party this year.  We had a great time (and got voted for the worst present given.)  I think that's debatable though because we came home with this guy:

That's right.  A real. live. lobster.

The boys thought he was awesome and couldn't get enough of him.  They named him Pinchy.

Alexander was not too happy about his brothers picking up Pinchy.

Sunday night we took him over to our friend's house and cooked him up (along with some steaks and chicken) for dinner.  The boys were really interested in the boiling of Pinchy but didn't like the taste of him so much. The rest of us found him to be rather tasty.

Most memorable gift ever.  We'll see it we can beat it next year.

Santa and Treats

Saturday morning our ward held a Christmas breakfast.  It was great and the big man himself was there!  Not surprisingly we didn't get great pictures... William is the only one who smiled about sitting on Santa's lap.  The rest of the boys weren't quite sure.

Later in the afternoon we set out to make some treats.  The boys were great workers.

We have quite the assortment this year and we can't wait to share them with our neighbors!

Trimming the Tree

A few weeks ago we pulled out the Christmas tree.  The boys were so excited to decorate it and practically did the entire thing on their own. 

I wasn't quite sure how Henry would do with the tree.  He did pretty much what I expected...  pulled all the ornaments within his reach off.

So moved all ornaments within his reach higher and he surprisingly hasn't been interested!  Thank goodness.

Alexander really wanted to put the star on top but couldn't quite get it.

So James took a stab at it.

I just love having a tree up and seeing the warm glow of the lights in the evening!

Giving and Receiving

Per request I am adding the talk that I gave today at church. I still feel it is a bit muddled but oh well!  Don't feel obligated to read... but for those few of you who want to--here it is.

The wise men gave gifts to the Christ child and we give gifts to one another at Christmas.   When King Benjamin is teaching his people just prior to his death he reminds them to teach their children, “to love one another, and to serve one another” (Mosiah 4:15).  Loving and serving someone is the best kind of gift we can give.  Christ showed us by example how to be a cheerful giver of our time and talents. Christmas is a time of giving. I think that as adults we recognize this and then without realizing it we send the opposite message to our children.  We’re always asking the children in our lives, “What do you want?” or “What is Santa going to bring you?”  So how do we mesh these two ideas?

I don’t pretend to have all the answers.  I have a 3-year-old who, every time he sees something remotely interesting at the store--whether it's in the toy section or the groceries--tells me, “I want that for my birthday.”  But today I’ll share just a few traditions we have in our home that I feel help to teach our children to love giving.  First, stop asking what they want!  Once we find out a few things they want we just stop talking about it.  Most of the time, if we don’t bring it up, neither do they.  

Then we start focusing on the giving.  Several years ago I started working with my boys weeks before Christmas to come up with ideas of what to give their brothers.  Because we didn’t have a lot of money to spare and I didn’t want just another toy to clutter up the house we decided to make the gifts.  The boys worked hard on their gifts and I remember them being so excited to give on Christmas morning.  It was such a great experience that we have made it a tradition.  Every year we come up with something and the boys get more and more excited as they put their time and love into it. I love the story that President Uchtdorf told in the Christmas Devotional this year about the picture he drew for his sister which she treated like a treasure.  He said, “How I love her for that.”  He also told of the toy knife carved by his brother for him.  It doesn’t have to be big or extravagant just heartfelt.  

A friend of mine from high school did something wonderful this year.  Early in the month she and her three young children held a bake sale.  All the money they earned was used to buy toys for needy children.  They were able to purchase 19 toys to donate. Her children loved the entire experience—especially dropping the toys off at the fire station.  What a wonderful lesson in giving!

The next tradition actually comes from my family growing up and I loved it so much that we do it in our home as well.  (In fact, as I talked to each of my sisters this week about this topic every one of them mentioned this tradition).  On Christmas morning as we divide up the gifts each person starts with 2 piles: one of the gifts we have received from parents, grandparents, friends and the other is the gifts that we are giving.  The youngest starts first and picks a gift from their “giving” pile and gives it to the person.  I remember Christmas mornings being so excited to hand out my gifts thinking of how much that person would like their gift and knowing the thought I had put into it.  It was fun to see that family member really receive the gift instead of everyone tearing through their presents one after another.  It also gives the receiver a chance to look the giver in the eyes and give a heartfelt “thank you.”

President Uchtdorf reminded us in the Christmas Devotional, “Not surprisingly, the Savior is our perfect example not only of generous giving but also of gracious receiving. When He was in Bethany, near the end of His mortal ministry, a woman approached Him with an alabaster box of rare and expensive oil. She was allowed to anoint His head with this precious gift.

Some who witnessed this event became angry. “What a waste of money,” they said. The oil was extremely expensive. It could have been sold and the money given to the poor. They saw only the temporal value of the gift and entirely missed its much greater spiritual significance.

But the Savior understood the symbolism and the expression of love in that gift, and He received it graciously.”

We teach our children so much by example.  If we are not gracious recipients—of compliments or service rendered--then how can we expect our children to be!  A few weeks ago in his primary class my oldest son made a card for his brother.  It was very simple.  It said “To James From William.  You are awesome.”  

But James treasured that gift!  He carried it around and read it aloud to anyone who would listen.  He felt the love in that gift and by receiving it so well he made the giver of that gift feel highly appreciated.

President Monson said, “Let us make Christmas real. It isn’t just tinsel and ribbon, unless we have made it so in our lives. Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values. It is peace because we have found peace in the Savior’s teachings. It is the time we realize most deeply that the more love is expended, the more there is of it for others.”   

I hope at this Christmas time that we can remember Christ’s example of generous giving and gracious receiving and keep Him as our focus. I'm grateful for this season where we are reminded of Christ's birth and more importantly His life. He was the perfect example to us in all aspects of life and He made it possible for us to return to live with our Father in Heaven one day.

 

Lego nativity

He did it again.  An awesome Lego nativity.

Christmas in Davidson

Several weeks ago we heard about some Christmas festivities happening in the next town over so we decided to check it all out.  There were little vendors set up all around.

The boys got to try their hand at these bows, we ate dinner and wandered around town.

We lucked out that we got to the live nativity right when they were starting their next show.

I was surprised that they boys really wanted to stay for the entire production.  They even wanted to stand in line to see the baby Jesus.  Of course, they were highly un-impressed when they saw that it was just a doll.  But they did love to see the camel and other animals that were there!

It was really well done and the entire area was set up like the town of Bethlehem.

This will definitely be added to our "to do again next year" list!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we decided to make the trek up to Michigan to visit Amy's family.   We started out Wednesday morning and everyone was excited.

I had lots of activities for the boys to do and a book (Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing) to listen to as well.  The trip ended up taking a little longer than we thought (12.5 hours) but the boys did awesome!

We finally arrived at Amy and Jeff's beautiful home and let the boys run around a little bit.  The boys were excited to sleep in the basement.  It was a full house because Jeff's brother, Brent, and his little family along with his sister-in-law were there as well!

Thursday morning the men went to play football and the girls stayed home to start on our feast. 

Sorry Amy... I just couldn't resist!

(Little side note: We were all hanging out one night and I thought to myself, "Never in a million years would I have guessed that I would spend a holiday with Brent Pincock."  You see we were in the same ward at BYU but never knew each other that well.  I mostly knew him because he dated my neighbor in the dorms!)

While the feast cooked we all played.

And since it was a beautiful day we made sure to get outside!

After stuffing ourselves with delicious food

 we let the kids watch a little Christmas show and head to bed.

Friday we had a great time relaxing and playing... The big kids really loved playing in the basement together!

And are these little cousins just not the cutest things?  Henry might need to share a little bit of his hair with Zachary though.

For some reason, Henry thought this bouncy seat was the coolest thing.  He'd go relax every so often in his chair and then get up again and run around.

In the afternoon we headed to Detroit.  When we hopped out of the cars the cousins all gave each other hugs.  I wish we lived closer so we could play all the time!.

As we wandered around the GM building we ran into Santa Claus!  It was an interesting visit.  (He never asked the kids what they wanted or if they'd been good.  He just showed them pictures of toys and asked, "Remember when I brought you Winnie the Pooh?  Remember when I brought you Buzz Lightyear?"  Weird.) 

We ventured outside to see Canada across the river but it was so windy and cold that we didn't last long.

While we waited for Jeff to do a little Black Friday shopping we kept the troops entertained for a bit by watching a bird fly around the building.

Finally we made it to the People Mover for tour of the city.  The boys loved riding the "train in the air."

(I wish I would have taken more pictures... but I was paranoid that Alex was going to hop off of the train!)

I was so glad that we got out to play on Thanksgiving day because on the way back from Detroit it started to snow!  When we got home we all snuggled up and watch Elf.

We woke up Saturday morning and headed back to North Carolina.  Luckily the snow didn't make a dent in our plans and we we driving clear once we got out of Ohio.

Our trip was shorter on the way home but by the very end the boys were ready to be out of the car.  William was so mad that he gave us the silent treatment and passed us notes like this one:

 Read this: If you do not give fruit snacks I will not talk to anyone.

Oh my.  

We had such a great (but too short) trip!  We loved being with family and finally getting to visit with Amy in Michigan.