I Heard the Bells

This Christmas was one of my very favorites!  We didn't have a million different places to go, we just kind of hung out at my parents house all day with family, and enjoyed an evening bowling and playing foosball together. After I became a mother, I really learned to apppreciate the simple things. Anniston was much more excited about opening and recieving gifts this year, so much so, that everyone in my family wanted Anniston to open their gifts for them. Oh, the joys of being the only grandchild on the Pilley side of the family! My favorite gift this year was from my sweet husband, of course.  He got me this beautiful chess set from World Market that was handmade in India. About 3 years ago, Gabe and I went out and purchased a five dollar chess set at Walmart. We played it all the time! We used to stay up way too late playing, and we always had a fun time playing it together, even though Gabe always beat me. I attribute my consistent failure to win against Gabe to him being in the chess club in middle school.  Yes ladies, be jealous! But I'll have you know, I totally beat Gabe in our first game on my new chess board! I'm in a bit of denial, still trying to accept that Christmas time is over and still wishing everyone a Merry Christmas everywhere we go. It was a wonderful Christmas in the Lawrence and Pilley households! I hope everyones Christmas was as pleasant and simple as ours. <3

Christmas Eve with the Lawrence's

It has become a tradition for us to spend Christmas Eve with Gabe's parents, which is so nice, because it saves us from having to commute all over the place on Christmas day. Anyways, now that Anniston is starting to get older and really getting into the holiday stuff, I wanted to start a family tradition for our own family. I saw a few ideas of Christmas Eve boxes on Pinterest. I never actually looked to see what was in the boxes, but I thought the idea of a Christmas Eve box was cool.  So I decided to make my own version.  I packed our box with some yummy salted caramel hot cocoa, the story of the first Christmas, a finger puppet nativity to go along with the story, holiday decorations, and the explanations of how they correspond with the Savior's birth (thank you primary lesson).  The whole thing went over very well, except for the sitting through the story part of it. I think we are going to have to find a shorter version for more toddler-like attention spans.  After we finished with all of the activites in the box, Gabe and his dad set up the slide that Gabe's parents gave Anni for Christmas, among millions of other gifts. That little girl of ours definitely gets spoiled!  Anniston absolutely loves her new slide and wants to be on it 24/7!  All and all, it was a very pleasant Christmas Eve with the Lawrence's.