Christmas and End of Year Wrap up

2011 has been quite a year at the Nielson home. We started the year with high hopes that our fertility treatments would make us parents by year end. We ended the year nearly done with adoption paperwork- yes, we will be parents but not the way that we ever anticipated. We are so grateful for the lessons this year has taught us. We have learned to lean on our Savior and learned much about ourselves and our marriage. We are definitely better together.

JD is still hard at work at DHI Computing in Provo. He is such a good provider for our family and puts every energy into everything he does. He is still the financial clerk in our ward and enjoys his calling. I was so touched when we went to tithing settlement and Bishop Lawyer just raved about him and how much his dedication to his calling helps him in his calling as bishop. He said it takes a lot of pressure off him because he knows he can count on J.D. I about burst with pride because I know that he wants to do everything he can to fulfill his calling and serve our Heavenly Father.

I am still working at American Fork Hospital in the Maternity unit. I LOVE my job! I get to be with new moms and their babies during those first precious days of life...amazing! I have learned so much about caring for a new infant which will come in handy...someday. I have also made some wonderful friends since I started working there. I am so grateful for these awesome women. I love working at night but it sure has sent my sleep patterns into a tailspin. I'm starting to get a better handle on switching from nights to days when I have days off. I also got a calling as a family history worker in our ward. I am thrilled to have this calling and look forward to doing more of our family history and doing temple work for my family members.

We are in phase 3 of our adoption paperwork. This phase is when we make selections about a baby regarding health conditions and such and more information to introduce us to birth parents. We are wrestling now with the letter that we need to write for our profile to tell more about us. It is only difficult because it is the first look into our family that anyone sees and we want it to be the right feeling and words. We will be attending adoption training classes that LDSFS hosts the first weekend in February and once we are done with that and have our home study done we will be official and our profile should go live on itsaboutlove.org. Hopefully by Christmas next year we will have a new little bundle in our home.

Santa found us this year for Christmas and I think he may have emptied most of his sleigh in our living room. He dropped off several movies, books, new scriptures, a Kindle Fire, gift cards, handmade journals, candy and much more. We had a simple Christmas dinner because I had to work Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the day after Christmas this year. We made up for the low key Christmas buy celebrating in high style for New Year's Eve.

Christmas morning has never been a good look for me but I look my "best" here because I just got home from work.

We decided to go all out for our New Year's dinner and had crab legs and rib eye steak. It was so yummy! Santa gave up The Big Bang Theory on DVD for Christmas so we hung out at home and watched it most of the day and actually ended up toasting and kissing at 12:12 because we were so wrapped up in the show. Yeah we are party animals like that. We did make sure to have donuts in the house (grandma Sullivan's tradition) to bring prosperity in the new year and plenty of sparkling cider (one of JD's favorites) to toast to a new year.

We are looking forward to 2012 and everything that is ahead of us in the new year.

Christmas Traditions

J.D. and I decided when we got married that we would buy a new ornament for our Christmas tree for something significant from our life during the year. This year we will be purchasing a Salt Lake Temple ornament. I love the memories- even though there are only a few so far. We plan on buying one for each of our kids to so they will have a start to their Christmas decorations when they leave home.
We also go to see the lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake. I love to see the lights. You can read more about that in the previous post.
In addition to this I'm trying to find great ideas that we can add to our traditions that will be easy to keep going once we have kids and will bring meaning to the season not just something to do. Tonight I was blog browsing and read at Viva la Vida about a tradition they started a few years ago in their family and I L-O-V-E it! (Thanks for the idea!!)
Here it is...

The three gift rule: every member gets three gifts for Christmas.

Only. Three.

Wrapped in green, gold and red these gifts symbolize and are reflective of the gifts that the Wise Men gave.

GOLD: This is the most obvious in color and significance. It's precious and worthy across all cultures and times. For us, it represents something we want.

FRANKINCENSE: Used as a holy anointing oil, its resin was derived from a tree, symbolizing gifts wrapped in green which represent something we need.

MYRRH: This is perhaps the most mysterious of the gifts. In times of old, it was a sacred substance and those whom could afford its resin used it as an incense to treat virtually every illness and disease. Since it was a reddish-brown in color our gifts are wrapped in red and represent something that will make us a better person.

Is that not the greatest idea ever? We are going to start it next year...because I am done shopping and wrapping this year.

This year we also sponsored a couple of kids in our ward and helped out with Sub for Santa at work. It was so fun and such a blessing to be able to help out and make Christmas a little brighter for someone else. That is a tradition we will keep going too.

Do you have any traditions that you love and want to share?