That's a Wrap

 Of course, I don't mean that's a wrap when it comes to presents. I haven't wrapped one of those yet....

I'm wrapping up fall semester. I finished my math class last week with a B+ (I'm a solid 87% now with 99% complete, ha). I finished early because I chose not to take the final. I would not have been able to get above a B+ no matter what grade I earned on that last exam. I decided a low B+ was just as good as a high B+ and lifted the stress of more studying. This has been a difficult class and I've had help from all over the place (thank you x's 100, Sheri!). 'Math for the Real World' translates into a semesters worth of story problems and exactly no math for the real world. It feels so good to be finished, low B+ and all. Moving onto English and Humanities.

 We wrapped up our gingerbread house tradition. My friend Dawn and I have this down to a fairly calm science. I used hot glue on the houses, she had candy galore and the mess was minimal. We even had some time to catch up while they loaded up on sugar. We drove to see Christmas lights after building houses so they were good and over the sugar high once we came back home.

 Our old stake had a Community Nativity Display that I really wanted to see. They did it years ago and it was something I always looked forward to attending. Last minute I decided to drive up with the kids and even convinced our friends to join us. It was incredibly beautiful and quite evident that countless hours went into the planning and pulling off such an event. There were over 300 nativities displayed from all over the world.

Shhhh. Don't tell the Stake Relief Society President you saw this picture. The storefront Baby Jesus was supposed to be off limits but Owen just helped himself like they were long lost friends. Oops. So glad I snapped the picture before we were lovingly told this was a no-no. Totally worth stressing that hostess out. Look at his cute face.

There was a room full of costumes and an amazing photo booth set up as well. This might be my favorite photo that we've taken in a long, long time. It took some convincing so I'm glad these boys eventually played along. The older boys were very hesitant to dress up and Owen didn't want to wear a robe at all. The crook finally drew him in and then he cried when he had to give the crook back. Three year old life is rough. You can probably guess it took no convincing that angel in the back. She suggested I wear the pink and she wear the white. After they emailed me the photo I could not stop smiling because that girl makes me laugh. She pulled out that angel pose all on her own. She's definitely one of the angels in my life.

We drove home and went straight to our ward Christmas party. We sat by the Smiths and thankfully, Fletcher played with Owen for quite some time. He was getting restless after such a long day. When the primary kids went up to sing, he went right up with them and sat on the front row. It pulled at my heartstrings a little bit. He's a big boy and will be going into Primary in just a couple weeks. It all happens so fast, it's hard to believe. When the red suited man came into the room, he threw both hands in the air and yelled, 'Santa' (ala Elf). Ahhh, he'll be little a while longer and I'm so glad.