Snowflakes: Star Wars Style

One of PE's coworkers gave him a packet of Star Wars Snowflake designs. He brought them home and I had a new hobby for the next month.

 I had to use an x-acto knife to cut out most of it. It was very difficult, and the only reason I did them all was because I am a completionist. 

Seriously though, I began cursing PE's coworker for giving them to us. I could only handle doing about 1 a night, because it would make me sick. But to be fair, doing just about anything makes me sick these days, especially in the evenings. (Why is it called morning sickness?) But as I would lay on the couch too sick to do anything, it would drive me slightly crazy that I still had more snowflakes to cut out. PE did cut out one of them, and 2 of them are ones I made a couple years ago.

Kudos to you if you know what they all are!

Christmas

This year we kept the presents in the play pen instead of under the tree. After P1 went to bed we put everything under the tree for Christmas morning!

Santa set-up some Jake & the Neverland Pirates Duplos for P1, and was even so nice as to set up the Star Wars Mr. Potato Heads that we got on Christmas Eve.

P1 walking in on Christmas Morning!

P1 enjoyed his duplos, and he really loves to shoot the little cannon.

 P1 also got some coloring books:

P1 also got his very own laptop! Just kidding. But it was his favorite thing to play with at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We spent the afternoon at PE's parents. P1 was thoroughly spoiled with many books, and a snowsuit.

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve

 On Christmas Eve morning, I made french toast, and P1 REALLY wanted to help me cook. He would get quite upset when I put him on the floor so I could finish cooking. So after breakfast, I let him play with the spatula and griddle. The spatula was his new best friend all day long. He even took it outside and played in the snow with it!

Christmas wouldn't be complete without some yummy gingerbread men! P1 loves to eat them, and he really wanted to eat ALL of them.

Playing video games with Dad:

We spent Christmas Eve with my family. P1 loved hanging out in the family room with all the remotes. (And he knows where Grandma hides them!)

Opening his first present. Unlike at his birthday, he actually helped unwrap some presents this time!

Playing with the Star Wars Mr. Potato Heads my parents gave us:

P1 really liked his toy remote from his grandparents. PE isn't too thrilled with how noisy it is:

Traditional reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" by Grandpa:

Dickens Christmas Festival

For Christmas we took my family to the Dickens Christmas Festival. It was fun to sample all the many different food items for sale. P1 enjoyed sticking his head in the many photo booths they had.

P1 really enjoyed the dogs the had the the Pet Adoption booth:

We ended up buying a small bottle of Pear Lime Cinnamon balsamic vineger, and a wool llama jacket for P1. Sadly, the bag was dropped in the parking lot and the bottle broke. So we ended up with no balsamic vinegar, and one well-marinated wool jacket!

"There is No Peace on Earth"

I love many things about the Christmas season, but if I had to pick a favorite thing, it would be singing Christmas hymns. I LOVE singing those hymns, and am often sad that we only sing them at church 3-4 weeks of the year. In recent years, the words of the hymn "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" have really touched me. Especially verse 3 and 4, here is verse 3:

And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

We live during troubled times, and it can be so easy to despair. It seems like the wicked are winning. Wrong is called right, and right is called wrong. Religious freedom is under heavy attack, and anyone who tries to stand up for it is persecuted. Our vote seems to matter very little in our country, and that should be a frightening thing for everyone. I feel like we are on a sinking ship, and there is very little I can do about it.

But then I remember the words to verse 4:

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."

God is still with us. The wrong may prosper for a little while, but the right will prevail. We cannot give up the fight. Jesus Christ will soon return to this earth, and it will not be as a babe, but as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Our Savior will uphold His church and His people during the difficult days ahead. Satan is fighting hard because he knows there is little time remaining. And he knows that he will lose. We ARE on the winning side, and we have to stick it out to the end.

And even though we live in difficult times, we can find peace through our Savior. Jesus Christ did bring peace on earth when He came to earth as a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. Because of His divine birth, He was able to give His life for us, and take it up again. Because of Christ, we can have peace in a turbulent world.

"The Savior is the source of true peace. Even with the trials of life, because of the Savior’s Atonement and His grace, righteous living will be rewarded with personal peace. In the intimate setting of the Passover chamber, the Savior promised His Apostles that they would be blessed with the “Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost” and then uttered these important words: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” Then just before His Intercessory Prayer: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”"

-Elder Quentin L. Cook, April 2013