4:20am

Every couple of nights this month, this is what the clock in my kitchen looked like as I was ready to head off to bed. I've always been a night owl, but this is a bit later than usual for me!

I've been thinking about why the Christmas season gets so exhausting sometimes. I think it has to do with wanting to give. Christmas is a celebration of our Savior's birth. We know the significance of his life and His example. Christmas time fills me with a special need to follow His example - to give to others and do for others. (Not that we don't try to follow his example year round! :D ) There are so many people in our lives that we love and are grateful for-I guess I'm willing to sacrifice some of my sleep toward that end. While I try to "simplify", I still must do what I can this time of the year.

So what's keeping me up late at night this month? Well, there's the usual year round culprits: cleaning, dishes, laundry, preparing kids stuff for school, etc. But there's also the extras...

decorating the house,

cleaning out the food storage a bit to donate to food drives, shopping online for just the "perfect" thing- or atleast something that will be liked or needed. (Then there's searching the internet the night before to see which store has that and which has the best price! :D)

Then there's Christmas cards to be ordered and mailed out later,

making dozens of sugar cookies for school parties,

(and then recleaning the now flour covered kitchen- and myself!)

putting together teacher gifts,

wrapping presents, cleaning up the extra messes from winter fun like playing in the snow

and decorating the gingerbread house. (I still find little ball shapes candies around the kitchen from that night! Kobe kept throwing the candies at the roof & hope that they would stick- some did- some ended up on the floor!),

planning and preparing our holiday parties, and on and on...

We had a really fun holiday party early on in the month. It was our Christmas Family Home Evening. We invited a few families and a couple sets of missionaries. We had dinner and then watched our family's favorite Christmas movie- Mr. Krueger's Christmas.

(You can click there to watch it on YouTube!)

("Mr Krueger"-Jimmy Stewart and "Clarissa" -Greg's first love!)

This movie is more than 25 years old, and although it is a bit dated, we just love the story!

Then we played the White Elephant gift exchange. Very fun & I think everyone went home with something they actually liked! Yea!

(Angie) ( Connor and Cole) (Elder Ricks, Elder Jerez, & Blake)

(Brian & Owen) (Kobe, Jillie, & Dave)

I ended up with a beautiful hand drawn nativity picture- drawn by our very own Elder Jerez.

I made him take a picture with it just before he was transferred. He's so talented. (the sledding hill beat up his chin earlier on this day!)

Our Family Home Evening was a great way to start Christmas for me!

Anyhow, I think overall the 4:20 am bedtimes were worth it, if that's what had to be done to make all of the Christmastime-fun a reality. Maybe in the future there will be more free daytime hours where I can accomplish some of this uninterrupted. For now, I'm OK with it. I am thankful that Jackson still takes naps so I could snuggle down with him on the days I need it. I am also thankful for a restful end of the year week with no school, no work, and plenty of sleeping in :)