This is the Season....

We started off December with our ward Christmas party and had a great time. Here is Lou Who trying out the the chocolate that was suppose to be part of the centerpieces!

 This is the North Pole where they got to meet Santa! Curly was especially excited to meet him

 Oh wait.... who is that jolly man that is not impressing Curly and is making Lou Who scream hysterically??? Poor Curly was a bit disappointed to learn it was daddy. We had to do some serious explaining about why daddy was acting like Santa - it's because Santa has helpers! I was still sad she figured it out so quickly and was disappointed, but she got over it and understands that the REAL Santa comes later.

 It was still pretty cute to see Haans play such a fun character and he got a lot of compliments later, on how great he was. I have some better pictures I'll have to scan in that were given to me today! When he first got asked to play Santa, he got off the phone and gloomy said, "But I'm only 32!" To which I replied, "It's cause Santa is JOLLY old St Nicolas, and you are really jolly!" And it is so true!

We have had a lot of miracles happen this month, mainly monetary miracles and we have had some wonderfully kind help that made us be able to make it through the month AND to also have a festive and merry Christmas! We had planned on not getting a Christmas tree and sadly I was really disappointed about this idea because I LOVE Christmas trees. They make me so happy to see them all lit up in my home and the smell of pine brings such joy, I guess cause it only happens once a year. I know Christmas tress and presents aren't the real reason for Christmas and I am always grateful for the reminders of why we truly celebrate Christmas, but not having anything festive is kind of depressing. So thank you to all that have helped us financially this month! You truly have been answers to prayers.

 So we did get a Christmas tree and although we didn't get to cut it down like I am use to (yeah I don't think Hawaii has any Christmas tree farms, imagine that) we still had a lot of fun picking one!

 We got a small one for our small living space and it was just perfect! Curly loved decorating it with me and was such a good helper. 

 We also got another small miracle in the mail weeks before Christmas! Since we moved to Hawaii and didn't bring anything to decorate for the holidays, we were really excited to open this early present from my parents!

 The miracle here is that I had wanted a children's nativity set so the girls and I could talk more about the true meaning of Christmas, especially since Curly is older and understands a lot more. Thank you mom and dad for knowing I wanted one before I even told you! It has been well played with and leads to lots of great discussion! (and some fights!) :-)

 Here is Lou Who making off with the Angel!

 Curly even got up early the next day, just to play with it! She didn't even come to say hi to me like she usually does (can you see it's still dark outside), she went straight to playing!

 And here is our beautiful Christmas tree that still makes me smile! Even as I sit here tonight and smell it's beautiful aroma! Yeah I think we will keep it as long as possible! Not only because I LOVE Christmas tress, but because it reminds me of the help we received from people who were in tune with the Spirit and were answers to our prayers!