December favorites and happy new year!

With the Christmas thrill and magic winding down, we're enjoying a slow and relaxing week-after, hanging around the house together.
I keep reflecting on our beautiful Christmas season,
feeling nostalgia and gratitude,
and decided to make a list of favorites,
so as not to forget what made it so wonderful:

• Stockings hung by the chimney with care.
• Lots of knitting (photos of the Christmas handmades to come!).
• Making aprons from tea towels...super easy and fun!  (thanks for the great idea, Mindy!)
• A new nativity in the mail from my MIL.  I love it!  Thanks, Mom!
• Making gingerbread, caramels, and lemon curd for friends and neighbors.  Yum!
• Seeing the lights at Temple Square.
• A traditional family viewing of It's a Wonderful Life.  Love!!
• This beautiful short film.  Such a special Christmas gift to the world!
• A live nativity in our neighborhood...dressing up as shepherds and following Mary, on her donkey, to the stable up the street.  Then visiting with neighbors over hot chocolate and barrel fires.
• Hosting a great (and sticky) marshmallow fight (due to a lack of snow for a snowball fight), complete with PVC pipe launchers. 
• Piano and violin recitals, giving a feeling of good 'ol pride to this mama's heart.
• Surviving the beginning of basketball season, with three players in three different leagues.  (I knit almost an entire sweater vest watching my boys play in December!)
• Christmas parties and celebrations.
• An office party up at Park City's Olympic Park.  Dining with great friends while watching the US and Russian ski teams train and perform amazing jumps live.  Wow!
• Deciding I just couldn't go a year without making holiday dresses for the girls...on Christmas Eve morning!
• Seeing the girls twirl around in their new dresses and swedish clogs before our Christmas morning Church service.
• Hearing the children of our neighborhood sing "gloooooria in excelsis deo" at the top of their lungs from the pulpit.
• Watching a brave 10-year-old son sing a solo without flinching, even though the Church was packed to the rafters.  He sang the verse, "Come to Bethlehem and see..." with such power, that I was convinced he would have been the one running through the town, telling everyone to come and see the newborn King, had he been there then.
• Taylor's confident recitation of Christ's birth from Luke 2 at the pulpit.
• Caroling to friends and neighbors.
• Having another turkey dinner, with ham and all the trimmings, on Christmas Day.  And having Mom and Uncle Todd here to eat and celebrate with us.
• Lots of happy surprises on Christmas morning.  Joy!
• Feeling coziness and warmth as we gathered as a family by the woodstove, cherishing our time together. Soaking in the magic and wonder of the season.  Together.

I always get a little nostalgic as we welcome in a new year.  I have felt so much joy and happiness this year.  I have felt so truly blessed.  I have had some amazing experiences.  I have learned so much and grown in so many ways.  I have been blessed by so many wonderful friends.

However...

there is so much more to be learned.  So many new roads to travel and paths to forge.  So many opportunities on the horizon.  It's time to begin a new season of growth and learning.  And I'm ready to go!

Welcome 2012!

And a Happy New Year to you all!!