December Miscellaneous

What can I say?! It's been a week: tinged with a little of the unexpected and undesirable, but also blessed with the typical large amounts of love and laughter.

Of late, Lucy demands that we leave her door open when we put her to bed at night. Wes and I are not huge fans of this, but since she still goes to sleep, we don't complain too much. One night last week, quite a while after we had put Lucy down, Wes and I were in the living room talking and laughing about something. We were suddenly surprised by Lucy's voice calling out abruptly, "Mom and Dad. Go to sleep."

Sorry, Lucy.

We've spent time watching Christmas shows. (Our favorites this year: Elf and It's a Wonderful Life. Lucy's favorite this year: How the Grinch Stole Christmas. At some point of every day we see Lucy's squinty-eyed, dimple-cheeked, I'm-being-so-sincere look, and we hear the slurred, squinty-eyed, dimple-cheeked request, "Can I watch Grinch, Mom and Dad?" She then waits with the squinty eyed and dimple cheeked expression until we give our answer, which varies from "Sure!" to "Maybe later" to "Not a chance, Darling.")

We've spent time playing in Christmas snows.

"Cheese!"

"Are we done with pictures, yet? The snow is calling to me..."

Snowman Family

We've been savoring Christmas smells (I love my Apple Spice and Delight Febreze. And we made our traditional, spicy smelling Christmas Meatballs yesterday. MMmmmmmm.)

We've been to visit Santa at the grocery store. Lucy sure glared him down, but he was good enough to grant her a parting candy cane. After the visit she declared him to be a "nice" sort of character and agreed to stop by one more time for a friendly wave.

We've been enjoying and admiring our friends (more to come on that topic later) and we've been APPRECIATING the love and prayers of our family.
We continue to drown ourselves in Christmas music. Yesterday we spent a few sweet Sunday moments atop our bed singing Christmas Primary songs with Lucy. We didn't make it much farther than "When Joseph Went to Bethlehem," because every time we tried to turn the page Lucy screamed, "No, sing Joseph again!"

And in as much as we've had a few bitter pills to swallow this week (cue tearful conversation on the "front porch" of the Cannon Center's "Christmas invitational" cabin. You know you're a Hall Advisor when your life is so public that you can have blatantly sentimental conversations with your husband in glaringly public places), the strains of my favorite Christmas song have been extra sweet and even more tear- evoking than usual:
What sweeter music can we bring
Than a carol for to sing
The birth of this our heav'nly King?
Awake the voice! Awake the string!
Dark and dull night, fly hence away,
And give thee honor to this day
That sees December turn'd to May.
Why does the chilling winter's morn
Smile, like a field beset with corn?
Or smell like a meadow new shorn
Thus on the sudden? Come and see
The cause, why things thus fragrant be:
'Tis He is born, whose quickening birth
Gives life and luster, public mirth,
To heaven and the underearth.
We see him come, and know Him ours,
Who with his sunshine and his showers,
Turns all the patient ground to flow'rs.
The Darling of the world is come;
And fit it is, we find a room
To welcome Him, To welcome Him.
The nobler part of all the house here, is the heart,
Which we will give him, and bequeath
This holly and this ivy wreath,
To do Him honour; who's our King,
And Lord of all this revelling.

What sweeter music can we bring
Than a carol, for to sing
The birth of this our heav'nly King.
(Most of you know this beautiful carol, but if you don't you should listen to the Mo-Tab sing at least the first few lines on Deseret Book's site. )
Hope Christmas time continues to be merry at your house!