Candlelight Dinner

This past Monday night, we completed one of our favorite Christmas traditions. On the first Monday in December, we eat dinner by candlelight (pizza) and then we decorate our Christmas tree after/as part of FHE. I'm not sure what exactly is so exciting about turning out all of the lights and eating pizza in the light of Christmas candles, but the kids LOVE it! They could hardly contain their excitement. After dinner is cleaned up, we have FHE and decorate the tree. Here are some pictures of the grand night!

Ready to eat!

Hannah and Caleb
Emma and Lizzie

Cheers!

Mama and her girls (well, 75% of them anyway)

We have this book with GORGEOUS pictures that go along with the scriptural version of the first Christmas. We read the book as part of our lesson.

Excited to decorate

In order to help the number of ornaments on our tree grow, the kids get a new one each year during this special FHE

Trimming the tree

Our other favorite part of the night involves this ornament. The first year Joe and I were married, we bought some cheap ornaments from the dollar store. One of the boxes held this extremely ugly yellowish ball. We laughed and laughed because it was so ugly and deemed it the "onion ball." Joe made a big show of placing it on the tree and decreed that every year we would hold a special moment while putting it on the tree. Well, eventually it led to the "onion ball speech" where Joe talked about how the onion ball represents the Savior (because He wasn't as glittery and stuff as others but He is the reason we celebrate, etc). We like to tease Joe because when the kids were all really little, he tended to wax eloquent and his speech was WAYYYYY too long for young kiddos (we would giggle and giggle as we watched videos of the kids running all over the room as Joe tried to give his speech). Last year, one of the kids was admiring the onion ball, and accidentally dropped it on the floor where it shattered into a million pieces. It sent the kids into hysteria. Much crying and moaning ensued. So, before FHE, Lizzie and I ran to the store to try to find a replacement. Not easily finding a homely little onion ball, we came home with the huge one instead! Joe looked at it aghast, and decided he would have to amend his speech, lol. We laughed and laughed again when it was placed on the tree because it dwarfs everything and almost knocked the whole tree down!

Joe gave a wonderful onion ball speech! We love you!

Sorry...pictures out of order, hehe.

Caleb was very interested in the concept of putting candy on our tree

The candy cane he was working on somehow broke and he decided it would be best to just eat it instead

Here is an obligatory picture of the baby (she was very interested in all the action)

Our tree NEVER looks very...um...good. Some branches have six or seven ornaments on them, some are facing backwards, and we tend to have chunks of tree with nothing on it. I love it, though, because I know that six little children put their hearts into making it THEIR tree! Some day, my ornaments will be nicely placed and correctly oriented. For now...Merry Christmas Boyer Babies!