Christmas 2013

I love Christmas! I have my nativities up on November 1st, I start listening to Christmas music as soon as Chris will let me! I love the smell of a real Christmas tree, I love giving to others. This year, as I sit here at the end of Christmas day 2013, I'm happy!

I wasn't really feeling the Christmas feeling this year until about a week ago. I was driving into Lethbridge listening to some of my favourite Christmas carols. My favourite carols are the Forgotten Carols. I love the message each song has and they remind me of those people we often don't think about, like the inn keeper, Joseph, and those that weren't there, but heard about His birth and still believed. As I listened to the songs I was struck by gratitude for my Saviour and His sacrifice for me. I love that we can celebrate His birth and His life, not just in December, but all year long!

We've started a tradition in our family of having Santa Claus come a few days early. That way the kids can open their presents and enjoy the gifts they receive. That leaves Christmas day a day we can focus on the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

This morning we started with stockings and had a great Christmas morning breakfast:

Christmas Morning Breakfast Casserole

4 cups of shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed
10 eggs
8 pieces of cooked bacon,chopped
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/3 milk
4or 5 green onions, chopped
Hot sauce to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup of additional shredded cheese for top of casserole

Mix all the ingredients together except the 1/2 cup of cheese. Pour into a greased 9×13″ pan. Top with the shredded cheese. Cover and put into refrigerator overnight. Let sit on counter for 5 to 10 minutes and then bake uncovered at 325* for about 45 minutes or until the eggs are cooked.

(I actually cooked it for about 1hour and 15 min), It was great, even Ryker, who "doesn't like eggs" ate it!
Then we acted out the nativity. We don't have enough in our little family to fill all the parts, so we enlisted the help of some "buddies"

This Christmas has been a little different than most, we started renovations on our bathroom last week Friday and we've been slowing working on it since then! so today we kept working on that, I'll post pictures of the final project when it's done (soon I hope!)

We had the missionaries come over this evening. I remember being a missionary at Christmas time, and I appreciated the members that allowed us to be a part of their Christmas and I wanted to return the favour. It was the beginning of a new tradition, Velata for Christmas dinner. Everyone loved it! Raclette to grill up the meats, Cheese fondue, and Chocolate fondue! One Elder was very adventurous and dipped everything in the chocolate! I mean EVERYTHING, including pickles, cheese, carrots and shrimp!

After dinner we tried a new program from the Friend magazine...

Elder Jones played piano for us and Kayla and Blakelee held up all the letters for us! It was a great way to end the day and remember again the true reason for the season!

It's been a fabulous day! It is my hope and prayer that all of my friends and family had as good a day as I did! MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and yours!!

(I'll admit I love my Scentsy buddies and I did my own nativity when the kids were done)