Wrapping Up Christmas!

Before I pack up the tree and put away the decorations, I wanted to write a little about our Christmas this year. And just to make sure I don’t bore everyone to death, I have limited my writing to our top five, okay, make that six, events—with me being the sole judge. (They are listed chronologically.)

1. Gingerbread house making! This is our second year to do this and we love it. Although my team's house didn’t quite turn out to be as cute as we envisioned, we still had a lot of fun. And we are already drawing up plans for next year so we can win the competition! (Sorry about the picture Kat!:-)

2. Games, games, and games! Kristen learned a board game at BYU from a boy who learned it from a friend who had lived in Asia—and that is why we don’t have a name for it. But Kristen made a game board from poster paper and then laminated it. We then used peanut butter M&M’s for the game pieces and had hours and hours of late night fun. (Although it is a game of strategy and requires deep concentration.)

3. Birthdays. This next event is one my two daughters participated in and one I feel is worthy of mentioning. My friend Christy, lost her son in an accident a year and a half ago. December 23 would have been his 17th birthday, and having a desire to celebrate his birthday in a positive way with his friends, Christy purchased 300 DVDs of the church film, “Families Can Be Together Forever”. About fifty youth in the area gathered together and within an hour had all the DVDs distributed throughout the neighborhood. What a wonderful way to celebrate! And what a great way to share the gospel! (Sorry I don't have pictures)

4 Smores! On Wednesday night we built a bonfire in the river bed that runs in front of our home. (There is rarely any water in an Arizona riverbed so it is a safe place to be) We then invited our neighbors, brought out the marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers and had a great time eating smores and visiting.

5. Christmas Eve at our house. Each year for the past 25 years we have celebrated Christmas Eve at our house (with the exception of the year we were in Guatemala). My sister- in-law, Judy, and her family came and spent the evening with us as well. One of her daughter’s brought her finance so it was fun to meet him. Our friends, the Farley’s were kind enough to smoke a turkey for us for our dinner and my daughter Camille, made very yummy side dishes while Kristen added the rolls. (I got the evening off!:-) Afterwards we played games, sang songs, read the Christmas story from the scriptures and then were entertained by Uncle George and his daughter, Riki, singing. I love traditions!!

After everyone left we opened our family gifts. Camille had made pj's for all the women (her first sewing project ever!!) They turned out so cute. We also bought matching pj's for the men. (If you look closely you can see how our family has gone to the dogs!)

6. Christmas morning. Always in the past the kids would wake us up at six, eager to open gifts. This year everyone slept in. I finally got up at seven and made muffins while everyone slumbered. By eight I couldn't take the suspence any longer and woke them all up. My daughter, Michelle, was hilarious. She had wanted to purchase gifts for everyone, but lacking money, she just wrapped each person something she found around the house. I got a can of corn and my husband got a razor. At least they were useful gifts! After breakfast we headed to Mesa to spend the afternoon with Grandma. It was a perfect day.