I absolutely love the lead up to Christmas – the anticipation, the traditions, and the extra time together as a family. And this year I was especially grateful to have us all together.

The Sunday before Christmas is always extra special (and even better if it falls on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day itself). We dress up in our Christmas finery, and sacrament meeting is always filled with beautiful music and inspiring messages about Jesus Christ. This year, Kevin gave me a special gift to wear to church – a nativity necklace. I love it!!!

I also love all the special messages about our Savior that are posted online. They are a wonderful reminder of the true reason we celebrate the holiday in the first place.

Another thing I love about this time of year in Texas, are how my roses and other plants come into bloom again. There is nothing quite like December roses.

We also had lots of movie nights, and afternoons, etc. Between all of my Hallmark Christmas movies, our family favorites, and newer Christmas movies, there was not a shortage to choose from. On Tuesday night we watched the animated Grinch movie together, which was very fun.

We had gorgeous weather, and so we all went together on my morning walks, which meant that Arthur also got to play at the amazing playground. It was a wonderful way to start out the day. We even went on Christmas Eve.

I was very behind on many of my preparations this year – for good reasons (going back to work and continued chemo), but still, it was a lot at the end that I still needed to accomplish. Because of that, I had Derek help me set up a table in my bedroom to use for wrapping gifts, and then I not only had each kid wrap the gifts they were giving to each other, but I had them wrap a bunch of the stocking stuffers for each other and their dad. We would usually watch a Christmas movie together as we did it.

On Monday night, we had our friends, the Holmes family, come over for some fun. We played carols on the chimes, ate yummy desserts, and Arthur put on a Little People Nativity play – which is always fantastic. It was so much fun!!

And on Tuesday, the day before Christmas Eve, each of us were able to attend the temple, although we all went at different times. It was yet another wonderful way for us to focus on our Savior, Jesus Christ.