A Festival of Light

We ventured over to Winterhaven last Friday to see the "Festival of Lights" that is put on every year, which is also a fundraiser for the Community Food Bank. We took our cans, bundled up the baby, and braved the cold. It was beautiful, and we enjoyed seeing all the diversity of celebration. But I loved seeing the houses with big Nativities out front. How great it is to see people celebrating the true Christmas. I really liked what President Monson said about dropping the ending of The spirit of Christmas, and what everyone really is feeling around the holiday season is the The Spirit of Christ. We are so blessed to have a knowledge of our Redeemer and Savior. We are so blessed to know that families are forever. We are blessed to know that God knows and loves each one of us. We are blessed to know that we can repent and be forgiven. We are blessed to know that Christ lives and is the Light of the world, and through him we are able to know these things. Christmas is a festival of Light... in which we can celebrate the knowledge we have of Christ, and feel of His spirit more abundantly.

Lyla loved looking at all the Lights! See those big eyes. We couldn't even get her to look at the camera

Here is our little Christmas tree that we rescued. It looks pretty now, but at the DI the poor thing looked like it had leprosy... limbs falling off everywhere.


My little Elf thinks she is so sneaky, but I caught her trying to catch a peak at her presents!

Now that the weather is so wonderful, Lyla loves to go on walks... any chance she can get! This is us walking to the donut shop early last Thursday, to surprise dad with donuts when he woke up. We just had to celebrate "Dead Day" with donuts!

Hello December

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and we have much to be thankful for. We were able to spend it with my dad and his family in California. It was small and delightful...all the great food without all the people! My mom spent a special Thanksgiving at her sisters, so we missed her lots but eventually met up for Eegees when Jess and I got back into town. Sadly our camera was dead so no pics of our vacation, or of Lyla outeating us all. She was so excited to try all the new flavors, and continued to eat long after the rest of us were through.

And now it is December. The year has flown, and here it is Christmastime again. We love Christmas! We love looking at lights, and listening to the First presidency Christmas Devotional. We love rescuing sad looking Christmas trees from DI and making them beautiful (pics of our tree soon). We love singing carols to little Lyla. We love finishing a long semester of school, with a festive bout of holidaying to buoy us up to survive the next semester. We love spending time with family and friends... but most of all we love celebrating our love for the Savior.

Here are a few pictures I thought I would share of our December so far.

Daddy daughter love...awhhhh.

It makes me miss my daddy!

By the way I took this fabulous picture myself,

the lighting was too perfect.

"Santa...are you sure this beard is real?"


My little Elf helping set up the tree!
She loves to look at it all lit up at night.

And this face was so cute I couldn't not post this picture.