Christmas in Florida

The week before Christmas my friends put on a fabulous little Christmas party.  We wore ugly Christmas sweaters and crazy Christmas socks.  Then each brought 3 dozen of our favorite holiday cookies to share, and a Christmas ornament (store bought or homemade) that represents us.  We wrapped up our ornament and then went around the circle picking a present and taking turns trying to guess who brought which ornament.  We each brought 12 identical ornaments as the one we wrapped so everyone got to take home an ornament and a box with a variety of fabulous cookies. 

I made these ornaments with a picture of Jesus inside.  I feel like this ornament represents me because of the strong emphasis my parents have always put on remembering the true meaning of Christmas and making sure to remember the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and his great example during the holiday season.  It is so easy to get caught up in the worldly celebrations of the season, which are really fun, but it is so important to take time to reflect and celebrate the true reason for the season.   Having an ornament with a picture of the savior on my Christmas tree is a great way for me and my family to remember him.  I loved being able to share this with my friends, and loved all the ornaments they each brought also.

We also went to the Miami Beach Bowl as a family and with some of our friends!  BYU played Memphis.   The 4th quarter was super intense, unfortunately BYU lost in overtime.  It was still a really fun time.  The kids were awesome!  Reef slept majority of the time and Ayla loved meeting Cosmo and running around with her friends!

Santa came to our house early this year since we were going to be in Utah for Christmas.  This is the first year Ayla started grasping the concept of Santa and presents!  It was super fun to watch her excitement as she opened all her presents.