Merry Christmas!

This year Chris and I had Christmas with his family here in LA. We had a great time! Christmas is one of my favorite holidays because its more of a season rather than just a day. I love the feel of when 'it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas'. The music, the decorations, the cold air. Christmas is and always has been a huge time for my family- we are very big on traditions. So it's always full of fun and special memories for me.  My mom does fudge, brittle, cookies, cakes, you name it! She always has Christmas music on in her car and playing in the house. Our house is decked out from top to bottom in Nutcrackers and snowmen etc. 

In my family, we always try our best to incorporate the true meaning of the holiday as much as possible. We always spend Christmas Eve reading the Nativity out of the Bible and as children we used to play each of the characters. Then we would all pile in the car and drive around singing Christmas songs and looking at all of the Christmas lights. We would come back home to a big sheet covering the entry way to the room that had the Christmas tree- so all you could see through it were the outlines of the presents and the soft glowing lights (this was because my parents never put out a single present until Christmas Eve after we went to sleep, they hid them in their locked room all month long to drive us crazy!).  We would read a sweet Christmas story, about giving and love and it would always make at least a few of us cry. The morning would come and all the fun would begin! We would all line up, youngest to oldest a the entry way and be frantic to be let in as we could see MANY more gifts than before. These are just a few of the many traditions we have as a Carver family & I hope to carry some of them as well as the Spiker traditions, on into my own little family. 

  I have a testimony of our Savior and what he did for all of us. Christmas is a wonderful time to remember our Lord and why we are here on this earth. I am so grateful to have my family and to have even MORE family now that I am married. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!