Laila Gifts

We switched things up this year and gave the kids their Laila gifts a few days early instead of on Christmas Eve.  I wanted to bring Laila a tree and had the girls help me make cinnamon ornaments.  We decided to go down after church on Sunday.  We put hot chocolate in a thermos and wrapped up our gifts and brought our traditional Christmas story about Johnathan Toomey.  The weather was nice--just cold enough to enjoy the hot chocolate but not too cold to freeze us out.  We had gotten a small amount of snow a few days before but Colorado Springs had gotten quite a bit so we made sure to take a tarp so we wouldn't get all muddy from the snow.  We gave the girls a charm bracelet with the first letter of their name, a compass, a heart, and a state from each place they had lived in.  The bracelet is big for them but they will grow into it.  The boys got a cool compass with a leather pouch.  I had just finished reading 1st Nephi in December and it seemed appropriate to get a compass.  It reminds us of staying on course, keeping our minds on eternity, and focusing on Christ.  It was a peaceful day and I loved being near Laila's grave again to be near her and remind us all that she is still a part of our celebrations and family.