December Miscellaneous 2012

Here's the monthly picture post for December:

I took this picture just before cutting my hair off to remember how long it was.  This is the "before"...

And the "after".  I wanted something short and fun for our Cancun trip.

Working on an owl hat.  More on that later...

I made this lovely stuffed croissant ring for dinner and it looked so pretty I had to take a picture.

Claire's fancy church hair.

Trying on cowgirl boots at Murdock's.

Claire being all sassy.

Claire's kindergarten Christmas program.  It was pretty cute! Claire is in the front row with the black and white polka dot dress.

I love Christmas decorations! And I love Shaelyn!

Cute eight-month-old girl.

I love this wall decor.  It's nice and big and we put it above the door to our bedroom.  A great way to bring the true spirit of Christmas into our home.

I love that tree!

The Christmas train

All the girls made their beds with all their favorite stuffed animals.  Then they each wanted me to take a picture of their made beds.  Hallie was first:

Then Claire's bed.  They were pretending it was a roller coaster.

All three girls on Hallie's bed

Everyone on Evie's bed

I love those silly girls! They are such good friends.

More Christmas decorations.  These are the Christmas "toys".

 It's a bit hard to see in this picture, but on the silver box it says "To: Jesus, From: The Henderson Family".  This was our gift to Jesus for His birthday this year.  Each night, during scripture time, we wrote down the nice things we had done for others that day (or drew a picture for those too young to write) and put the papers in the slot.  It was our way of showing our love for Him. 

These next pictures were taken on the night of Hallie and Claire's Christmas program.  They didn't have a Christmas program for the elementary school, so Hallie and Claire joined the Urie Elementary children's choir.  They practiced after school twice a week for three weeks and performed at the Bridger Valley Coalition of Churches Christmas Program.  Don't they look so beautiful?

 They sang Joy to the World, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, and Away in a Manger.  All Christ-centered carols.  It was a very nice program put on by the Coalition of Churches, so the entire program was about Christ's birth, and I loved it.  It was so nice to be uplifted and inspired during a Christmas program. 

Hallie is on the first row on the far left and Claire is midway across the first row with the black and white dotted skirt.

Other December events:

-Our family spoke in church.  It was our "welcome to the ward" talks.  I spoke on the love of God, and Rob spoke on sacrifice.  It's always such a learning experience for me each time I give a talk.  I feel like that topic and the talk I prepared have really stuck with me, and I find myself still thinking about the things I need to work on that came from that talk.  I definitely need to react with less impatience and more love towards my family.  Hallie and Claire also gave talks this time, and they both did great.  They talked about Jesus and the Christmas spirit of service, giving, and love. 
-We had several new friends over for dinner and games.  Lots of fun!
-We had a Henderson party before we left for Cancun since we were going to miss all the Christmas family parties.
-Hallie and Claire earned money by doing extra chores so they could buy gifts for each member of the family at Santa's Secret Shop at school.
-I subbed for a Zumba class, the same class I was set up to take over for in January.

There are of course a few more December events that will get their own posts, but I love all these small things too :)