Christmas is coming!

Christmas is coming! We've participated in a few Christmas preparations over the last few days, and because of that I can say that it feels like Christmas is close.

On Friday, BD and I got together to make Christmas candies. We made turtles, a Bingham favorite, among other things. That was always something I enjoyed about the Christmas season. It was fun to do with BD.

Then, that night, Robert took me to a concert downtown. A friend of ours sings in a group of chamber singers, and this group performed in The Old Church. Built in the 1880s, this church is a neat place to do concerts and it only seats 400 people (if really squeezed in). The group sang a wide variety of Christmas songs and carols, and they did a fantastic job. To me, nothing is better than good, non-commercial Christmas music to bring in the holiday feeling.

Monday night brought FHE with BD and Kurt. We brought back a Bingham Christmas tradition. We made gingerbread houses, out of real homemade gingerbread, and then decorated them. It was so cool to be able to share that tradition with Robert, whose previous gingerbread house experience included only graham cracker structures. The Plasters made one house, and Robert and I made one for ourselves. In Bingham tradition, we weren't to eat anything off the gingerbread house until New Years Day. I don't know if we'll stick to that part of the tradition. . . .

Then, last night, we finished decorating our tree. We got our tree a couple of weeks ago. Marlo initially freaked out about it and pretty much stayed out of the living room for a day after we put it up. Now he loves it and the tree skirt (which he managed to pull off the tree a couple of times and it stayed in a perfectly round position--I still can't figure out how he did that!). We covered it in lights a while ago, but didn't have all the ornaments we were going to use, so we waited until we could put them on all at once. Robert had several ornaments collected from his own childhood, and it was neat to be able to use those on our tree.

Christmas is my favorite time of year! It has been satisfying to participate in each of these activities. Each reminded me of multiple fond memories I have of past Christmases. I'm looking forward to our first real Christmas together (not stranded in a strange city because of weather--if you don't know that story, I'd be happy to share it another time), and to determining which traditions we'll start or continue with our own family. I'm so grateful for a Savior, whose birth we celebrate at this time of year, and without whom we wouldn't have a hope of salvation and exaltation with our families.

Below are some pictures of some of these recent activities.

Here is our tree (which we got for free!), with the lights on it.

Putting on the initial ornaments:

Our tree almost finished. This shot doesn't show it in its full glory--it looks awesome in reality. On the other side of the tree is one of Robert's favorite ornaments, a bird. Marlo had some fun with it initially and I think he got confused when it didn't feel real.

Another Bingham tradition involved quarreling over who got to put the coveted Ernie and Bert on the tree. In the end, Tom always won because they were his. However, this year I got to put Bert and Ernie on our tree, thanks to Rochelle. A couple of years ago Rochelle made new Bert and Ernie ornaments for each Bingham sibling. So awesome!

Below is our faithful tree guard. These days he is most often found here. We're just grateful that he's not trying to eat it anymore. :)

The star always went on the tree at the very end in Binghamland. It was last to go on the this tree, and it even looks the same as the traditional Bingham star (very classy--it's a cardboard star covered in tinfoil)!

Now for the tour of our gingerbread house! Here is a front view. And yes, to quote BD who coined a new phrase, "it crookeds."

Here is our mushroom garden. I found these sour gummy mushrooms, and BD and I decided to use them in our decorating. These are the only mushrooms that I like and so condoning their presence in such a way was easy. And it's appropriate to have them in our gingerbread house yards because, "hey, it's Oregon!" (There's a story behind that comment too.)

Here is one of my favorite parts of our project! Despite searching at four different stores, we couldn't find gummy spearmint leaf candies (another Bingham staple). We would use those to create pine trees in our yards. So, I had to do something different. But I think it looks cool!

Here is another favorite part: the wreath. It looks good!

Here is some of Robert's handywork. I love what he did with the roof!

So I know it's not the most classy thing, but I had to include peppermint patties somewhere. So, they are in the front yard, in piles. They represent the non-landscaped part--they're dirt piles!

We've got to have Santa in the chimney!

There are two sour patch kids on the walkway (which was lined with peanut M&Ms and filled with chocolate rocks). They are shorter and skinnier than the mushrooms in the garden. When I commented about that, BD said again, "hey, it's Oregon!"

Here's my cute husband. Mwah!