Last Christmas without children

This was a significant year, as I look back at it now, because everything about everything changes once you have a child!  It all changes for the good-mostly!  But I think it was an important time to just enjoy life as the child!  We were living in Las Vegas, at the time.  We had moved there the past April, when  John had finished his semester at BYU.  We were living in a two bedroom condo and I was pregnant with our first child!  I was very excited and of course, remember being so tired that whole holiday season!

We spent that Christmas with my family, who lived about an hour north of Vegas.  The gift I remember most that year was a black maternity jumpsuit!  It was way comfortable, but I think back now and cringe. I guess it was in style then! LOL!   My mom had given it to me!  I also remember that I got baby things that year, which was so fun!  I think everything about my life, at that time, was focused on our growing family!  I couldn't wait to be a mother.

The other stand out memory from that year was getting our Christmas tree!  I decided that I wanted to go out in the mountains, just like I had as a child, to find a tree!  My youngest brother was game to go with us (he was about 11 at the time), so we headed out!  The only tool we took was a small hatchet.  None of us had experience in judging how a tree would look on the mountain and then translate into a tree inside!  The one we picked out and then made John and  Kirk spend over an hour chopping down, was way too big to ever fit inside any home!  We ended up needing to cut down a part from the top to work and it left quite the hole on the side.  It really ended up being the ugliest tree ever, but we sure had fun finding it!  We almost ran out of gas too, which just added to the fun!

Yesterday was a very full day and I am so exhausted now this morning.  I kept 4 of my nephews yesterday.  They range in ages of 5 to 10 months.  It was quite busy, but fun!  Olivia and Noah were in heaven!

After they left, we quickly ate dinner and then headed out to a live nativity.  We met another family there, our neighbors from before we moved!  It was so great to see them again!  It was extremely cold outside-around 20 degrees. We had to wait in line for about 30 minutes to ride in a horse trailer to the spot where they do the live nativity.  By that point, Noah had had enough and screamed to go back to the car.  John took him back and I continued on with the kids.  There was a long path, up a hill with animals and shepards along the way to talk about the story.  Once at the top, we walked through a barn with more animals and different booths of games and weaving, etc.  There were wise men there, telling their story and two darling camels!  It was awesome!  From there, we continued on our journey, into another barn where we found the baby Jesus.  It was a lot of fun, even if we were so cold!!!  Next year, I think we will plan better with what we wear and maybe a blanket or two!

After that, we followed our friends to her parents house (which was close by) and had cookies and hot cocoa and visited some more!  It was a wonderful evening!

Here is the template for today.  This is the last for the December album and I know the numbers are random, but I just put different numbers for examples.  You can change the number to fit the day.  They are done simply and in a way to just reuse over and over again-customizing with your digital kit and your photos and journaling!  I need to get mine caught up!

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