Music

Music is probably my most favorite thing about the Christmas season. I love how you can turn the radio on and listen to songs of our Savior. It brings a different spirit to my day when I've heard at least one song of Christ. I need to remember to listen to spiritual music throughout the year, not just Christmas and Sundays.

Our ward choir sang today, as I'm sure most in the Church did. While there certainly weren't professionals up there singing today, it was still very sweet and the spirit was very strong. I admire choir conductors in the church. They do this without pay, and they often give up quite a bit of their Sundays in order to do their job effectively. Also, I can only think of 3 other people that are dodged by other people more often than the choir director. Not only do they have to put up with being ignored, they also have to plan the Christmas program. My mom was the choir director for many years, and I know she worked really hard to get a program that would bring the Christmas spirit into peoples' lives.

I also went to a string quartet concert this evening. This is a yearly occurrence that I find to be a lot of fun. The concert is about an hour long and it's very informal. More like a bunch of friends and loved ones getting together to listen to good music and catch up with each other. My absolute favorite part of the evening? The lemon bars! Specifically, my mom's lemon bars. They are to die for and we generally only get them once a year. It's probably my favorite treat of the season. Krusteaz doesn't even come close.

Silly Kids

I realize that everyone reading this that has kids will understand what I'm talking about. Silly is good, right? My two kids are "playing" with each other today. I put playing in quotes because mostly its my daughter bossing around my son and complaining that he's doing something to her. Luckily he's only a year and a half and doesn't realize what she's doing. I knew when we got pregnant with him that he would have two mommies.

It drives me nuts when they fight over toys. Really? Do we not have enough toys that you can find SOMETHING to hold your attention while the other toy is being played with? Apparently not. In fact, the fights right now are not about toys. They are about plain old cardboard boxes. Yep, might as well not have spent money on Christmas at all.

Speaking of Christmas spending, I'm really proud of myself this year. I've limited myself to simple presents for the kids and only 2 at that. I figured the kids could get a present from mommy, a present from daddy, and then whatever Santa brings for the stocking. I loved Christmas growing up. We would get totally spoiled! Not only would Santa bring us 1/2 a couch of gifts, but mom and dad would give us a lot of gifts as well. As much as I really enjoyed that, I can see how that could get very expensive. In order to save money in the future, I decided to limit the gifts now when they are little. That way, it won't be a big disappointment when they are teens.

Not only will my kids not get totally spoiled as I did, but I hope it means we can focus more on the true meaning of Christmas. As fun as toys and goodies are, we really don't NEED them and we NEED Christ. Without Christ, there wouldn't be a Christmas, and I want them to remember that. I'm sure a lot of parents feel this way.

Oh, and have you heard about the comment gifts? We are supposed to leave comments on everyones' blogs as a gift for them. Cool eh? I know I won't complain ;)