More Christmas Excitement...

Before starting this post, I want to mention one of the very most exciting things that we found out about on Christmas... Danny's brother and his wife are expecting!!! We are so excited for them. Their announcement definitely made Christmas all the more exciting.

So with that said, I want to mention one more great Christmas tradition. As I said that Danny was thrown into the family through marching bands and dropping clothes pins from his nose, the Youngs have their own fun Christmas Eve tradition... the nativity! Everyone dresses up and as Danny's dad read we acted it out. With Spencer and Andrea's new exciting news, they fit perfectly in the role of Mary and Joseph. Cute Jackson, who's not so little anymore, was the baby Jesus, and ran around with a hook in his hand making slashing noises. Uncle Joe, Danny, and I were the wisemen in our awesome robes given to us at our wedding luncheon by Natalie for this specific purpose. We've had them safely gaurded and were excited to be able to get them out! Here's a picture of the whole gang in all of our Christmas glory. I hope Natalie doesn't mind that I stole the picture from her blog...

So I mentioned that it was a "Grandparent's Christmas" in my last post, so I thought I would explain that. It was a really neat Christmas for a lot of reasons. On Christmas Eve, in place of the traditional pajamas, we got a blanket that she had made. When my grandma passed away a few years ago, my mom kept a lot of her clothes and dresses and made them into blankets! It was so fun to look at all the different squares and remember the different times she wore different things. There's her dress that she wore for her's and Grandpa's fiftieth anniversary, her Egyptian print apron that she always wore when she was cooking that no matter how many times my mom washed it still had stains all over it, funny nightgowns, crazy dresses, her white polyester pants, different blouses, and a square from her Christmas table cloth. The back was one of her sheets. My mom spent so much time finishing all of them. They were the perfect gift, and brought back so many fun memories of Grandma Tyler.

Then on Christmas morning we went over to the Young's where Danny's parents spoiled us! The neatest of the gifts were things from Danny's grandparent's house. I should have Danny write this part, because he knows more about the things we received, but it was neat for me, because even though I had met Grandpa Eddington a couple of times, it helped me see more of who he and Grandma Eddington were. We got a deck of cards that had been used to play Grandma Eddington's legendary game of bloody smash, and Danny got a stocking that had been put out for him at their house with one of Grandpa's paintbrushes in it. We got some wonderful books, both ones that he'd helped design, and some from off of his shelf, like The Three Musketeers and a Book with Dicken's Five Christmas Novels (which I'm very excited to read! We were at Barnes and Noble, and I had a copy of one with three Christmas novels in it in my hand and had decided not to buy it at the last minute). Danny was very excited about the stuffed gorilla :) and wooden mice. Danny and his two sibblings each got specific things they had wanted from their grandparents house. It was so great to watch what everyone received. It was so great of Danny's parents, especially his mom, to part with such meaningful things and share them with us!
Both mine and Danny's parents worked so hard this Christmas, and gave us such wonderful gifts! We are both so grateful to have parents who do so much for us and are such amazing examples for us. We've both been blessed with grandparents who also set, and some who are still setting such great examples. They are definitely amazing people!

Christmas trees and other traditions...

Does something look wrong in this picture? Danny and I have fixed it countless times, rotating the stand, standing it up straight, we even put wood down in the stand to keep it from tipping. I thought it was wedged in there tight enough that it would keep it from tipping again, but aparently I was wrong. Our home teacher came over on Sunday and I was sitting there trying to listen, but I couldn't help but think that it had tipped just a little bit further. But inspite of it all, it's a beautiful tree! Everything about a Christmas tree shouts "TRADITION" and ours follows that trend. All growing up I loved my Grandma Tyler's Christmas tree. I would have to say that it has been a "grandparent" Christmas (which I'll explain later). This picture doesn't have the best lighting, but there I am standing in front of her tree. Yes, it is white, but very magical. Every year she would put up this fake tree covered in all kinds of ornaments. We would go over for her Eggnog Party to celebrate the start of the season when it was up. Everyone would look all over to find the pickle ornament. We'd drink sparkling cider and look at all of her fun decorations. This year it was fun for us (me in particular) to be able to put up some of her decorations in our appartment. Some of our ornaments are off of her tree. We even found a box of bubble lights at Shopko. They only had one box left! So our tree has lot's of fun ornaments. Here are three of the ornaments- the first two are from my grandma, and the third is one Danny's grandma gave

him in '87. Isn't that cool? Anyways, it's been fun to have our tree. One of my projects was to make a tree skirt, but it's not quite finished (other projects took precedence). Hopefully it'll be done by the time we take the tree down. If not, we'll use it next year. Anyways, another of my favorite things that we got from my grandma was her carolers. The lamp behind them has a light bulb in it that flashes like fire, so it looks like the lamp is lit behind them. One of the best parts is that she made them herself. Each one has her initials and the year underneath. BT '77. Anyways, grandparents have a way of making Christmas magical. Christmas Eve we would always go to my Grandma T's house. Some of us would get to go early and help set up the luminaries. She always had a program, special gifts, games, and of course... the marching band! I wish I had a picture of that! This year Danny was initiated into the family by participating in the marching band. Each of us had some kind of little toy instrument, and we'd march around the upstairs to the beat of Jingle Bells. We loved it as kids. We'd also drop clothes pins from our noses, standing up straight, to see if we could get them to land into a jar. The prizes were always crips 1 and 2 dollar bills. Then on Christmas day all of my mom's side of the family would come over. This year I was happy to see that my Grandpa and Grandma Sharp brought taffys with Sharp printed on them. I'm not quite sure where it started, but I always thought it was cool that you put the word in them. My Grandma Sharp would almost always give us homemade gifts for Christmas. One of my favorites were the fleece blankets. Those blankets have come in handy, and have been through a lot over the years. You might notice that two of the skier ones are hanging up behind the Christmas tree. :) We love them. Well, this post took off in it's own direction and ended up longer than I thought. But those are some of my favorite Christmas traditions!

Christmas Shopping...

So... this has been a crazy month, and I keep telling myself I should post something, but it never happened. Finals were crazy, and as soon as that was over I had a couple of projects that needed to get done... so even though they aren't all done, things have slowed down a little bit. Now I have a week with no school or work at home (we've been house sitting for my aunt and uncle for the last week).
Anyways, Danny and I had a really cool experience I wanted to share! We left all of our Christmas shopping until after finals, so that Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday before Christmas we were running all over trying to get things done. There was a certain book I wanted to get my mom so we went down to Deseret Book downtown. We actually saw quite a few people we knew in there. And then as we were leaving, an older couple was coming in. The woman came in, and we waited to see if the man was going to as well, but he held the door open for us and leaned in to say something along the lines of "If you two are foolish enough to come out here then get out!" and laughed. It was Elder Perry! It was so crazy! I couldn't believe how tall he was! It was pretty neat to be able to see him. He just smiled and we told him him "Merry Christmas" as we walked out. He really was just glowing. I still can't believe how tall he is either. I looked it up. A website called LDSindex.com said he is just over 6'4". It also said that when he was up at USU (Go Aggies) his nickname was Stretch cause he was so tall. So we decided that Deseret Book is an excellent place to do Christmas shopping.

And by the way, the book I wanted to get my mom is called "The Life of Our Lord" By Charles Dickens. It's so good! Dickens wrote it for his children, and did not want it to be published. He wrote it from 1845-1849, at the same time that he was writing David Copperfield. I love the way he words things. This is the first paragraph:
"My dear children, I am very anxious that you should know something about the History of Jesus Christ. For everybody ought to know about Him. No one ever lived, who was so
good, so kind, so gentle, and so sorry for all people who did wrong, or were in anyway ill or miserable, as he was. And as He is now in Heaven, where we hope to go, and all to meet each other after we are dead, and there be happy always together, you never can think what a good place Heaven, is without knowing who He was and what He did."

I haven't finished it yet but from what I've read, he wrote it as if his children were all sitting at his feet as he told them the story of Christ's life. And even though it's not 100% doctrinally correct, if you need a good book to read I definitely recommend it!