Silent Night

Having Christmas fall on a Sunday is always nice. We had church at 9:00 this morning and the ward choir sang. It has been a stressful choir season for me. We had a ward boundary change in September which meant we added some new voices to our choir. That has been a blessing, but it meant that we basically started over as far as learning our Christmas music is concerned. The ward that meets before us has also been getting out of sacrament meeting late fairly consistently which means that we’ve only had 20-30 minutes for choir practice each week. As a result, we ended up dropping one of the songs I had planned to sing and switching to a much easier arrangement of another one. It all worked out just fine in the end though. When the Spirit joins the choir, all the drama falls away.

We worked our Christmas traditions around sacrament meeting. We opened our stockings and Santa gifts before church and did the others afterward. Kevin’s mom was sick and so his parents didn’t join us for dinner like they usually do. It made the day even just a touch calmer. We still had a great day, but it all felt a little bit slower and low key to me.

When Daniel got his new clarinet last June, he was told that it was his Christmas and birthday presents for the next three years. As such, he wasn’t expecting anything big. He did get a small Lego set, Doctor Who Clue, and a hat rack for his ever expanding collection of fedoras.

Nathan has been asking for the Lego Mindstorms kit for the past three years. It is the Lego robotics kit. It is pretty pricey, but Santa decided this year was the year and Nathan was totally thrilled. Yes, I know he looks like we asked him to eat worms in the picture, but he really was excited. He spent as much time this afternoon and evening as we would let him building and programming.

Nathan has always been intrigued by magic tricks. At several times in the past, he tried to teach himself to do card tricks but he always got frustrated because he couldn’t make it all work. In the past couple of months, he tried again and due to the fact that his hands have grown and he can handle a deck of cards with ease, he’s had a lot more success. For Christmas Malia gave him a giant deck of cards. And by giant, I mean as big as his head. When he opened it, he laughed for a full five minutes. In all honesty, I laughed too. The things are enormous.

Matthew got the Lego fire station. Matthew also received a big old Nerf gun, one that he has had his eye on for the last while. The thing has batteries and can belt out a hundred bullets in about 30 seconds. He also got a big coffee table book of the Superbowl. He was super excited about everything, hence the maniacal smile in all his pictures.

Malia wrote out a Christmas wish list back in November. She left it out with Santa’s cookies and apparently he thought her requests were very reasonable because she asked for her own bin of markers, a new doll, and her own train. She received the doll, the train (that works on the multitude of tracks we accrued when the boys were into Thomas the Tank Engine), and an entire bin full of art supplies. Not only did she get her own bin of markers, but she got the big box of crayons, colored pencils, watercolors, paint brushes, glue sticks, scissors, a pencil sharpener, a folder filled with a variety of papers, and tape…so…much…tape. She has a tendency to use a lot of tape and Santa definitely catered to that tendency.

Over the years, I’ve made fleece jackets for the family. We call them fuzzies. The boys have all received several in their lifetimes and Malia has worn many of the hand-me-downs, but she has never had one of her very own so I decided this year was the year for her to get her own. December was super busy and I didn’t get it done when I wanted and as a result, I ended up feeling kind of stressed about getting in all done. But this moment made up for all of the stress:

And then she proceeded to put it on and has worn it all day.

Kev got a little programmable computer called a raspberry pi and I got a new kindle and Downton Abbey blurays. Everyone was terribly pleased with what they got and just as pleased that the gifts they chose for others were so well received. It makes me so proud that they take as much pleasure in giving as they do.

The snow started to fall last night. This morning we woke to the hush of the world blanketed in snow. With the holiday falling on Sunday, it is particularly quiet and calm. Now the kids are sleeping and I’m nearing the end of my day as well. I’m grateful for the many blessings we have been given this year. I hope this calm can continue although I know that the frantic pace of our lives is sure to kick back in sooner than I’d like. But for this minute at least, it’s quiet. It is a truly a silent night, a night of quiet and peace.