Holiday Decorations

Snow! Snow is one of my favorite holiday decorations. I have gone without it for many years living in Seattle but Utah has welcomed me back with a nice little dumping of the always festive white stuff. Beautiful! (As you can see the house needed all the help it could get since we haven't hung any Christmas lights or donned our front yard with any blow up Santa Clauses.)

A Willow Tree Nativity. I have wanted to start collecting this nativity for a long time and thanks to my WONDERFUL sister in law, Angie, I have gotten my start. She gave me this portion of the collection as a birthday/house warming present and I love it. Thanks again Ang. I set it up in our entertainment center and the recessed lighting shines down on baby Jesus perfectly.
This picture was given to me last Christmas by my great friend Kelly Lee who WILL be a famous photographer someday. She had taken some pictures of Ayva for me right after she was born and used one of them to make this perfect holiday decoration. The words on the bottom of the picture say "A bright star shone, a babe was born, God's love was known." I will always cherish this gift. Every year as I unwrap it and find a special place to display it I will be reminded of the real reason we celebrate Christmas, Jesus Christ was born. Thank you Kelly.

Take a deep breath...

Isabella finally started preschool today. In anticipation for this big event I have spent the past 2 days getting her excited about going in hopes that would decrease my chances of having to deal with her clinging to my leg and begging me not to leave her. She has always done well with going to other peoples homes in the past but she has always known someone that was there. And recently she has gone through a phase of shyness and insecurity about making new friends. In fact our first couple of Sundays in our new ward she refused to go into nursery and instead chose to sit in boring 'ol Sunday school with Peter and I. (It's not boring to me of course. Just saying that it would be boring to a 3 year old.) But today when I dropped her off she surprised me. She walked right up to her new teacher, took her hand, looked at me and said "bye mom". Just like that. No crying, no hiding behind my leg, none of it. She was so brave. I on the other hand returned to the car and had to take a deep breath so I wouldn't break out into tears. She is growing up and needing me a tiny bit less everyday. I am grateful for the time I have with her know 'cause she is a very special little kid.