Five Reasons

Me and my Davy Boy

It is no secret that I LOVE Christmas, and thus I love December!

Oh, December! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

Aren't they both so handsome???

Reason #1- My Russell

My sweetheart was born on December 10th. He puts up with a LOT from me (scatter-brained-ness, an aversion to cleaning our bathroom, running homeschool groups out of our house, that kind of thing), but he loves me and treats me like a QUEEN every single day.

I'm so glad he was born! And I'm so glad he picked me to be his bride, even with all my quirkiness!

I love you, Russell!!! 

Sweet Baby Morganne-- 1993

Reason #2- Morganne Natalia

Morganne was born two days after Christmas. Hence, we gave her the middle name of Natalia, which means "born on Christmas." (The 27th is close enough, I say!)

She's our parenting guinea pig, and peacemaker extraordinaire. She is absolutely without guile, for anyone. She has taught (and keeps teaching me) so much! She brings peace wherever she goes. 

She gets to be home for December (wahooooo!!!!) before she goes back to Idaho to start a service mission in the Family History Center there. (She's been volunteering in the LDS Humanitarian center for the last 5+ months.) I'm so very grateful my parents have welcomed her into their home so that she can have this experience of being away from home, but not on her own before she's ready.

And we're all so glad she gets to be with us all for Christmas! It's our LAST Christmas all together for a long time. (Our Brennan leaves for his mission on January 1st!)

She's really five!

Reason #3- Miss Avalon

Avalon makes every day an adventure! She's my other Christmas baby, and so her middle name is Noelle. She says that whenever someone sings about "Noel," they're really singing about HER.

This year's newest Christmas album.

Reason #4- Christmas Music!!!

Hello. My name is Rachel, and I am a Christmas music junkie. I blame it on being in choirs since the age of 8. Everyone who's ever been in a choir knows that you start singing Christmas music in September.

This business about waiting to listen to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving is sooooo hard on me! But I try not to make my husband too crazy (See Reason #1), so I do my best to control the urge to start playing my beloved carols at least until a few days before Thanksgiving.

I think I'm doing better than I used to.

Our Christmas music collection is MONSTROUSLY huge. On iTunes, it tells me that if we played all the Christmas music we own, it would 1.6 days to play all the songs. (And I think it's actually more than that now. I need to add a couple new albums to the playlist.)

YESSS!!! I know it may be a bit pathetic to be proud of that, but I love it. I make all kinds of playlists out of the music we have: Christmas Sacred, Christmas Fun, Christmas Cleaning Music, Christmas Traditional, Christmas Celtic-- should I go on? (Probably not.)

 

Reason #5- THE Reason for the Season

I have a great love for my Savior, Jesus Christ. 

I love how everyone remembers Him, sings about Him, tells the story of His birth, and serves others all through December.

I know that the joy and goodness we all feel during the Christmas season is because we take the time to focus on Him, His birth, His mission, His sacrifice, and His pure love for everyone.

Merry Christmas!!!

Love, Mama Rachel