I have a confession to make. Let’s just keep it real tonight. There have been years as a single mom that I have drug my tired self into December almost kicking and screaming. There have been years of ok let’s just go thru the motions and get this over with. And then there are years, like this one, where my excitement and anticipation has been building for this beautiful season to make memories with my precious girls, our friends and family, and celebrate the birth of my Savior Jesus Christ. Yep, Christmas 2017 is gonna be a good one!
Something that makes a HUGE difference in the kind of holiday season I’m going to have is my focus. Tonight my girls and I sat down to set our focus for the month of December. We are all determined to try our darndest to make that focus be on our Savior Jesus Christ. The way we are going to accomplish that is by joining and following a wonderful world wide movement called #lighttheworld. In all its beauty, this is an advent calendar that can help us all focus on Christ at Christmas. This is the opportunity for 25 days of December to follow Christ’s example, straight out of the scriptures, and help spread His light thru Christ like service. We were able to do it last year and can’t wait for Friday to come to start 25 ways in 25 Days to Light the World!
As our prophet has taught us, I believe that “As we follow the example of the Savior, that light will burn within us and will light the way for others.” My hope is that 25 small acts of service performed by three Kikuchi girls in Spring, Texas may just bring a little joy, a little light to someone, somewhere! And even if that joy and light is the Kikuchi girls ourselves, well that’s success!
You too would be greatly blessed if you join us to #lighttheworld! You can find a daily scripture, video and service ideas here:
#lightheworld I am also using this really great adapted for childrens version from this site that you will love!
a year of fhe Riley is ready to do this!
But obviously we haven’t been waiting til December 1st to dive head first into all things Christmas! Of course the day after Thanksgiving was the day for pie for breakfast! FYI Thanksgiving leftovers complete me. But we were also determined to get our tree up so we could enjoy it as long as possible! That Friday wasn’t the smoothest with some tired and grumpy little girls AND their momma. So after two long and sweaty trips to the storage unit to get all the Christmas goods back home, and lots of whining and tears, we were incredibly blessed by the wonderful Miss Taryn! Not only did she whisk the children off to the bookstore while I decorated the front yard and then Nana and I set up the tree. But she also brought dinner and then totally helped Keagan and Riley hang all the ornaments on the tree that Nana was unwrapping while my exhausted hiney “supervised” from the floor! Quite the unusual tree trimming memory but it’s definitely one we all laughed thru and will never forget!
On Saturday Campbell came over to play because not only are cousins the best, but that gave me time to finish decorating the rest of the house and get everything cleaned up. Funny enough the girls talked me into a water balloon fight which lead to serious water fun on the slide. I had to lift Riley up to the slide at least 67 times but the constant giggles were totally worth it! Plus it amazes me that it’s almost December and these cute girls were totally comfortable in their swimsuits outside. Cause you know, Texas.
Since the tree went up that means that our elf Elmer is back! He always instigates a serious amount of excitement around here! On his first day back Miss Keagan folded up some Barbie blankets to gift him with a love note and all! Darling!
Every night since Thanksgiving we have visited our favorite lights display on Rose Dawn. This is one of the easier special traditions the girls and I’ve got going and we just all absolutely love the incredible show set to music!
And you know it’s a non stop party around here because who cares about the serious to do list (me! me!). So we have also had lots of other fun. Playing outside has been great minus those stinkin mosquito bites we are all covered with!
I used chore bribery when the girls wanted to build and paint their bird houses.
Miss obsessed with costumes Riley has flip flopped back and forth between reindeer antlers and her Mary veil all weekend.
And who doesn’t love begging Santa for a teddy bear bigger then you will ever be?!
So as the sun went down tonight on another day I am feeling so grateful for the season ahead and especially for our plan to enhance it by trying to Light the World! Hopefully there will be several blog posts to come on the great experiences we had doing just that! And I’m sure a post or two will follow that elf Elmer! Speaking of Elmer, it’s gettin pretty late around here. I better go check if he has moved! Goodnight!
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