The Woods: January 2013

Christmas Eve

We had a shortened version of Christmas Eve. We went to Uncle Skip and Aunt Angela's for treats and the reading of the Nativity story. Decker and Cody were the only 2 small children, so we didn't dress up and play the parts. Aunt Angela let them set up this small porcelain nativity set as Uncle skip read the story..

Then we went home and let the boys each open a Christmas gift. You can see the pure excitement in Decker's face. He knows exactly what to do when a present is placed in his hand. Cody on the other hand was not interested in opening his own present. When we gave it to him, he threw it to the ground. He watched Decker open his gift and afterwords was more interested in his own.

What is it Decker???

Scooby Doo pajamas!!

Cody opened his package...Buzz Lightyear and Sheriff Woody pajamas

Cody was so cute how he stuck out his chest to show us his pjs.

Success!!

Then Mike brought out my Christmas Eve present. Decker and he had worked on it all day ...starting from scratch. A manger for my Nativity set. He started building and after he had worked on it for a few hours, I asked him if he'd like to see the pieces that were to fit inside, because some are tall. I got out my set and he realized that he had built it big enough, but too short. So he adjusted by adding some height to it. I love the additions because it gave extra dimension to the manger. Decker was so proud, he had kept it a secret all day.

I asked for a fence or window for the donkey to look over. A place for the Angel to hang, and possibly a light to lighten up the scene. He created all this and so much more. I absolutely LOVE it! It means so much to me that he created this haven for the nativity that my grandma Lyon made for me in the 1970's. She gave it to me when I graduated from college and it finally has a home. All built by my wonderful husband and son who loves to work with his daddy. ;) Sappy I know...but it just can't be anything else! It is magical!

Ward Christmas Party

This year our ward transformed several rooms in the church to depict the Savior's life. The first was the Primary Room. The Primary had set up a live Nativity where the children could participate and dress up as one of the characters. Decker got to be a Wiseman bearing a gift for the the Baby Jesus. Decker didn't want to stay in the costume for very long and I quickly put it on Cody. He too only lasted a few minutes. I thought they did a fabulous job on the Nativity.

Another of the rooms depicted the Miracle of the 2 fishes and 5 loaves of bread to feed the 5000. Here you got to eat some fish and piece of bread. Another room was all about temples and they had all the pictures of the 100+ temples displayed.

Then there was Santa Claus. Decker was ready to tell Santa exactly what he wanted, Cody was a little shy and just wanted the candy cane.

I had to hold Cody to get close to Santa. It was a fun night!

Traditions, Traditions, Traditions...Bellevue Botanical Gardens

We went on the last free day of the season, December 6th. We really lucked out because it had rained all week, yet this evening, not a drop. The lights seemed even more spectacular, yet the whole display seemed smaller. Cody wanted to sit by this frog and "hug" him.