it's beginning to look a lot like fall

I had a great idea this week. Christmas is my favorite holiday of all, mostly because we have such great traditions that we enjoy and look forward to. Some holidays (like the 4th of July) we end up doing something different all the time so it's just...different. There's something to be said for persistent traditions. That said, we started off the holiday season with our advent calendar (with little chocolate pieces in each day) and reading a story and singing a Christmas song and reading a scripture about the Savior every day until Christmas. I've really enjoyed it, even if some of the stories are...better than others. :) And for St. Nick's day on the 6th, we had a special dinner.

We took care of most of our Christmas shopping this week as well. We talked about present ideas, we went out and about, we browsed online, we made purchases... it's fun to have a good excuse to try and think of what people might like. And Friday we went to the Christmas party at Church and hung out with friends afterwards.

Wayne had quite a busy week with final projects and presentations and critiques all week long. Saturday started off relaxing, because Wayne has finished most of his school projects, but it gained momentum unexpectedly throughout the day. We ended up having to miss a friend's party in the evening so Wayne could finish his last project, and drove to campus twice - once to take down his art show, and a second time to retrieve his artist statement from the trash so he could use it for the documentation of the project he has to turn in tomorrow. But then he'll be all done until the end of January. He has a nice long break to look forward to, and will be able to work on his work nonstop.

We've started having "winter" weather here. It has been raining the last few days; yesterday was so windy, a tree branch landed on our balcony, the power was out for a few hours, and someone else in our complex said a tree fell and made a hole in their roof. Quite the blustery day.

Today has been good so far. Wayne was set apart as the 1st counselor in the Sunday School presidency, and I had a really fun lesson on animals. The five year-olds had lots of fun telling me about pets they love and how we can be nice to animals, and then we all got messy with some homemade play-doh that was probably a bit too wet...but we had fun. I let them wipe their hands on my bag instead of wiping them on their clothes. :)