Traditions old and new

I'm not going to lie, this Christmas season has been hard in a lot of ways. Wonderful too, but some days I can't get past remembering what is missing this year. Yesterday a package came in the mail. It was matching gifts I had ordered for Julia and Kara. They are so cute, but when I opened that box it felt half empty without a third gift with Adria's name. Making gingerbread houses wasn't the same this year because no one was eating their houses or sucking down all the frosting as fast as possible. And I haven't hung our stockings yet. I actually moved them back to the garage telling myself I'd do it "tomorrow." I say outloud that I just don't know where to put them, but the truth is that seeing a stocking hanging for Adria would just be hard. I finally moved the matching Christmas dresses out of sight in my closet because when I found them on sale last year I bought three. I doubt they'll ever get worn now because it would just leave one dress hanging all alone.
For this reason I've had to start some new traditions that don't feel like a constant reminder of who is missing. We've kept all our old ones too, but its been good to have some new ones. The elf on a shelf has been especially fun. We also started doing a countdown with books for the 12 days of Christmas. I love reading a Christmas story with Julia and Kara each night.

One of the things we did last year was to go to a Christmas program at a mega church in Phoenix. It was really fun with a light show, live animals, acrobats and other fun things. Julia told us she loved it for weeks afterwards so we decided to go again this year. Kara really enjoyed herself. She spent half the time laughing and half the time clapping and was just so excited she couldn't sit still. She kept jumping back and forth between our laps trying to see everything.

Julia loved it even more this year.

As we were walking in, the stars were coming out and Julia looked up and wished on a star. She wished for snow, even though we live in the desert. I told her that not all wishes come true. Then as we were watching the show, it started to "snow" and she looked at me with delight and said, "Mommy, my wish came true!" I teared up a bit.

It was a good night for her. She even caught one of the teddy bears that was dropped from this balloon.

I think her favorite part though was the elephant. This "little" elephant could hoola hoop and stand on her nose and dance.

Awesome!

And so we move on. Still trying to be the best family we can be and fill our girls' lives with the magic of Christmas. I think this year will be a great Christmas. We have had several people bless us generously so that our kids can have lots of presents to open on Christmas morning. But most importantly, this year the birth of our Savior has taken on a much more important meaning. As we celebrate the Christ child we always are remembering that because of His life, we can someday have a Christmas with Adria again.