christmas in the congo

tonight we celebrated congo style....sort of. part of the tradition in the congo is bringing gifts to jesus. that works out really well for our family because we already do that every year already. this is our box that we made in 2007 when we started this tradition. we think about things that we can work on throughout the year that would make jesus happy. we usually try to promise 2 or 3 things.

i was looking through our gifts to jesus and noticed a trend with all of them. we all seem to have constant struggles that we try to fix. here are some of my favorites:

charlie 2007 (age 3) - i will stop saying "no" to everybody.

ali 2007 (age 5) - i am not going to complain about kneeling on my knees anymore. (that one actually worked. every time she complained we reminded her about her gift to jesus and she would stop)

mom 2007 - i will stop yelling at the kids.

charlie 2008 - i will stop crying about everything

ali 2008 - i am not going to hit charlie anymore

dad 2008 - i will come home happy from work

mom 2008 - i will work on being more patient with the kids

oscar 2009 (age 2) - i will try not to fight or be mean to charlie and livia

ali 2009 - i will not complain when i have an owie

mom 2009 - i will try to relax more and focus on what is most important

livy 2010 (age 2) - i will say my prayers every night

oscar 2010 - i will get ready to be baptized when i am bigger and i close my eyes and not get water in my eyes. (he was very adamant on this one)

charlie 2010 - i will not fight with oscar or anybody at school.

i will read my scriptures every night (and he does)

ali 2010 - i promise to use my words instead of my hands

dad 2010 - attend the temple 24 times this year

as you can see we are still working on the same gifts year after year after year after year!!!!! i type it up on the computer and post it on the refrigerator all year long. it is nice to be able to look at it and remember what is really important and what we promised. the kids also remind me that i am not keeping my gift to jesus if i yell at them.

this year

dad is going to work on preparing better for his sunday meetings

 i am trying to be the best mom i can be

ali will fast with a happy attitude

charlie will try to be positive instead of having a negative attitude

oscar is going to be a better listener and help jesus take pictures (this is what he said)

livy is going to stop screaming at people

and maggie is going to be a happy baby

sounds good on paper (that's what my dad would always say). i love this tradition and i hope we continue to do it for many many years. you should too!