Let the Holiday Season Begin

With the first day of December under way, the holiday season is in full-swing.

::Traditions::

What would the Christmas season be without a few traditions?

Our family loves to have slumber parties around the Christmas tree where we watch Christmas shows and eat holiday snacks. It's so fun and my kids can't wait!

Another tradition we've adopted is "The Last Straw" where we put Baby Jesus in the manger on Christmas Day. Between now and Christmas we make Jesus the softest bed in the world by putting straw in the manger. Each straw we put in will be for one good deed we have secretly done for a person in the family. Once a week we draw names and whoever's name we draw is the family member we do kind things for all week long. The kids love to do their secret good deeds and Baby Jesus' bed is already collecting a nice pile of straw.

Ever year we also donate food items to the Salvation Army. We receive our list of food items to get and the kids learn to help a family in need. In fact, last night we even raced another family through Wal-Mart for Family Home Evening to get the food items. The kids LOVED it. Carson said that he felt like he was on the Amazing Race. We didn't win the race {stupid self-checkouts!}, though we managed to find canned pumpkin, while the other team substituted it for apple pie filling since they thought the store was out of the pumpkin. Carson said, "Well, then I think this goes down in the history books as a win for our family...." Does Carson take after Jared's side of the family, or what! Leave it to him to find some sort of loophole where the outcome goes in his favor. The fun activity aside, I love teaching my kids the importance of giving to others and how we all can make a difference in others' lives. While the one food box may not seem like a big deal, it was fun to point out to the kids how each ward provides about 30 food boxes each. Times that by all the wards in our stake and the other few stakes in our area and you have well over 1000 families that are being fed. So yes, all of our one boxes make a difference. Carson is such a numbers kid that it really hit home with him.

Those are a few of our holiday traditions. What are some of yours? I love getting new ideas...

::Holiday Activities::

I love the Christmas season and the activites it brings. This month is filled with our Relief Society Christmas Activity, the Ward Party, Jared's Work Party among other things.

Oh, and I even have a cookie exchange to go to this year. For the most part, I'm not too shabby at the whole cooking thing, but for some reason I always bomb in the worst way at cookie parties. Remember this post? Let's hope I bring my "A Game" this year and make a rockin' cookie, or at the very least, one where people actually want to bring my cookies home.

Also, this year I feel like Kaiya is old enough to attend and sit through the Nutcracker, so we are going to start our yearly tradition of going. I'm so excited. Kaiya loves ballet so much so I think she's going to love it. Well, at least the first half...

December also means that it's time for both Chloe and Carson's birthdays. So I'm sure we'll be cookin' up something special for both of them. Carson wants to go rollerskating. We'll see.

::Christmas Gifts::

Remember when you were a kid and you had like just your mom and dad to get something for? Man, times were much simpler then!

I've got some of my shopping done, but still have so much more to do.

Foremost on the annoying front, I've been searching for a baby doll for Chloe. A few years back, Angie had gotten Kaiya a Fisher Price Little Mommy Doll. The doll was a cute little Asian baby. Now Kaiya liked the doll and all, but wasn't really a doll girl, that is until Chloe became a doll girl. Those girls fight over that doll like nobody's business. I thought to myself, "Perfect. I'll just get Chloe an Asian Little Mommy Doll for Christmas."

Easier said than done.

Apparently, Fisher Price doesn't make Asian Little Mommy Dolls anymore. Sure, there are a plethora of blond hair, blue-eyed dolls. You can always find yourself an African-American doll if need be. Occasionally you can find the Hispanic Doll as well. But, Asian doll---you're out of luck.

What's the deal, Fisher Price?! This isn't Nazi Germany! Sure, my people can make the dolls, but I guess we don't merit having one of our own anymore. Sheesh. It's not like the Asian people became extinct. We're still around.

So here are my options:
A--Buy Asian Little Mommy doll on ebay. I just have a hard time spending 40 bucks on a doll that I know was $12.
B--Buy little blond hair, blue-eyed Aryan doll.
C--Buy Hispanic doll and Chloe will see dark hair, dark eyes and be cool with it.
D--Buy African American Doll and say, "Look, it looks just like your cousin, Baby Qiana!"
E--Buy FAO Schwartz Asian Doll for $40.

Luckily, I think the rest of the gift-buying will go smoother than that. Let's hope so.

::Financing Christmas::

Guess who's a workin' girl the rest of the week? Yeah, I'm back at the high school. Besides the fact it's about 50 degrees in the building and I'm freezing to death IN MY WINTER COAT, this week is lookin' good for me. Apparently, it's something called Enterprise this week, which takes the Seniors out of the building. Yeah, so I had three kids in my first hour class, second hour is planning, no kids for third hour. I guess I'm supposed to have a few for 5, 6, and 7th hour. The best part is that I'm subbing for computer science so the kids are just on their computers the whole time. Woo hoo! One kid was like, "I'm so glad it's Enterprise this week!" Yeah, kid---you and me both.

Note to anyone who might be reading this and looking for a gift to shower my way---I could really use those cute fingerless gloves right now. I'm not even kidding about how frigid it is in here.

This is me signing off...