The Stubblefield Family: December 2008

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Friday, December 19, 2008

We had a great time at our Ward Christmas Party last night. We ate lots of yummy food and visited with good friends. Hannah and I sang with the Relief Society and Ben and Jared sang with the Elder's Quorum.

Jared and his friend Dave having a good laugh about

Ben spitting food into Jared's hand during the Elder's Quorum's song.

The highlight of the evening was a visit from Santa!

Hannah giving Santa his sticker.

(Thanks again for the stickers Aunt Becky!)

Merry Christmas!!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

A Night in Bethlehem

Every year our Stake Christmas activity is "A Night in Bethlehem." They transform the parking lot at the Stake Center into the streets of Bethlehem. You pay your tax of a canned food donation and in exchange receive "money"...I like to call them "Bethlehem Bucks." :) Then you go around to the different merchants and exchange your money for goods and treats. There is a sweets booth, which only charges one piece of money per family!! :), a fisher who offers gold fish crackers and a well of water...which is freely given to all. There are roman guards roaming around, beggars asking for your money, and rich men offering loans, Inn keepers and risers full of angels singing under a big bright star. At the carpenters shop they give, also freely, nails to remind us of the suffering of the Savior. There is a shepherd outfitting shop where they sell cloth head covers and ties to put them on. There is a potters shop where they sell clay and remind you that we are the clay in our Heavenly Father's hands and a Jewelry shop where we buy bracelets and this year they were also giving away dradels. There is also a gift shop where you can purchase gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Kyle came along with us this year.

Hannah getting her bracelet.

Mary rides about the streets on the back of donkey (a real one). Joseph leads her from Inn to Inn and if you listen you can hear them being turned away at every one. Eventually they settle down in a stable and the Christ child appears in the manger. The Angels sing, the shepherds and wise men come to worship. It is a beautiful night.

This year when we stopped at the gift shop, we explained that these were the gifts that the Wise Men gave to Jesus and moved on to the other shops and booths. While we were listening to our Stake President give his closing thoughts and bare his testimony, Hannah said, "Mom I want to give Jesus his presents." So Jared pulled the "gifts" off of the little paper they were attached to, that explained the significance of each one etc., and gave them to Hannah. She didn't want to go alone, so, she and I went up to the manger and one by one she placed the gifts in his Manger. As you might imagine, I teared up. It was a tender moment. And since then, thanks to my sweet Hannah, I've been thinking a lot about the gifts I can give the Savior each day.

Ben on the other hand was interested in the gifts that Jesus had to give and wasn't shy about stealing straw from his manger. :)

Christmas Parade

Last Saturday morning was the Boiling Springs Christmas Parade. Our neighbor Kyle is in the Junior High band, so we went out to watch.

It was a fun small town parade. There were muscle cars, a beauty queen, motor cycles, fire trucks and a really long line of John Deere tractors. :)

There were dancing squads, karate kids, bmx bikers, soccer clubs and tons of Boy/Cub Scout troops. There were horses, soliders and army trucks. Lots of local professionals for hire and quite a few Church floats too. There was even a giant Sonic drink that walked in the parade, which made me think of the Sechrists! ;)

Most importantly, to Hannah though, there was candy...lots and lots...of candy! :) At first she was a bit shy about getting out there and collecting the goodies.

But after a while this girl had it down to an art. She was a woman on a mission and it was quite fun to watch.

Sweet success.

"Oh, look, there's a parade going on too! :)"

The loot.

All in all Hannah ended up with almost a gallon ziplock full of candy! Amazing! And after all that she was also excited to see Santa. Ben enjoyed the parade too, even though in the pics he looks pretty serious. :) He waved "Hi" to everyone and especially loved the guys in the Fire Fighter Dog costumes! :)

Here I am with my wonderful kiddos.

I may not have put on my make up ;)...but I did put on my Christmas mittens from Anna...nice and cozy warm! :)

A Nice, Hot Breakfast

One cold morning Hannah decided she wanted to eat her pancakes on the heat vent...her brother thought that was such a fine idea he plopped down and joined her. :)

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Well, Jared's time at UPS was barely a moment in our family history, and in fact it's already been deleted from our blog. :) It turned out that the job was only going to be for about a week and a half and was not going to turn into a regular job like they had promised. When Jared learned this he decided that the added stress and subtracted sleep on a week when he was already pulling 8am-9pm days wasn't worth it. So, that was disappointing, but we are looking forward to PT training being over this weekend and to a restful Christmas break.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Decking the Halls, A Visit with Santa and a Gingerbread House

At our house this year, we didn't waste any time getting into the Christmas spirit! :) The day after Thanksgiving we brought home our Christmas tree and I decorated the house, one of my favorite things to do. Most of our decorations are gifts from people I love and so it warms my heart, while making the house feel full and bright.

This year, like last year, Hannah is pretty determined to believe in Santa Claus. For a while she was asking us a bunch of questions about him. Eventually she got around to, "Can we go see him?" So we headed over to the mall. Hannie picked out a Santa Claus sticker from home, carried it in her little fingers to keep the sticky part sticky, all the way in the car, into and through the mall, waited in line and gave it too him when it was our turn. He graciously recieved it. She sat on his lap and told him what she wanted for Christmas..."decorations" and "lots of suprises." It was very, very sweet.

On the way home she asked me where Santa lived. And I told her that the Santa Claus story says that Santa Claus and the Reindeer live at the North Pole, way up at the top of the world, where it is very cold. She asked me how they stayed warm. I said, I thought they probably drank a lot of hot chocolate and sat close the the fire. She thought about that for a few seconds and then said..."Mom, Reindeer can't drink hot chocolate." I suggested that maybe they could if they used a a straw. She thought about that for a second and then gave me a face like, "come on" and told me that was just silly. :) Traveling by jingle-bell sleigh through the night sky, living at the North Pole, bringing toys and treats to every child of the world on Christmas Eve...totally believable...reindeer drinking from a straw...ridiculous! :) I guess, we'll have to see what the big guy leaves under the tree this year! :)

Also, a couple of Sunday's ago we spent the afternoon/evening with our friends, the Hogues. They helped us decorate our gingerbread house...which Hannah and Ben both loved doing. Here they are with the finished product. Ben decorated the Christmas tree and Hannah decorated the house.

Well, we hope everyone's advent season has been happy and bright so far. We are looking forward to all our annual favorites and a few fun extras this year. We'll keep you posted! :)

Monday, December 1, 2008

Home for the Holiday

Well, we were sad not to be with my family on Thanksgiving like we planned. We missed you guys a lot! But, our Thanksgiving at home was quiet, warm, and cozy. We watched the Macey's parade by the fire.

Jared chopped wood with our friend and neighbor Mike (the man with the ax and the wood :) and the kids played outside for a while. I baked an apple pie while The National Dog Show and A Miracle on 34th St played on tv. Here are the kids working on their "apple pie."

We cooked a turkey breast in the crockpot, seasoned it with Herbs de Provence and it was delicious, along with our sides. To decorate, we made a paper pilgrim hat (it wasn't quite big enough to wear :) and Jared brought home one of my favorites, a potted mum.

When we asked her, before the prayer, Hannah told us that she was "thankful to eat food and to live with her family." Those were on my list too. My heart gets soft when I think about all we have to be grateful for. We love each of you and think of you when we count our blessings.

Little Ballerina

Hannah's dance performance/class observation day was the week before Thanksgiving. She wore a new tutu for the occasion. Jared made a spectacle of himself camming and snapping photos all at the same time. :) I couldn't have been more proud. Here a few photos. We wish you could have been there. :)