Christmas Day with family...embrace it!

You just want to embrace Christmas with open arms like these cute granddaughters, Daisy and Evelyn. If you could only hold on to that glorious day of love, excitement, tears and awe of the birth, life, and mission of our Savior. Gratefully, we have the Sacrament each week that reminds us why we are here and our mission to learn to love like He does.

One of the most wonderful events of the day was the hour or so we were able to Skype with Emily. Although we were separated by 8,000 miles there was no delay, the sound and picture were great! She loves being a missionary, and loves the wonderful people in Argentina she has been called to serve.

Several gifts of service to me were done by Julia & Austin the day before where they helped me prepare a double batch of scallop potatoes, and sweet potato pie. Then Meredith stepped in on Christmas day and took over the rest of the meal preparing the ham, fruit salad, and Vivi and Ondalynn helped with the other dishes. We certainly enjoyed a delicious Christmas Day feast where the sister missionaries joined us and then we presented them with two large Christmas stockings filled with surprises. I shed a few tears that week when I learned that our Christmas packages to Emily never arrived. I'm hoping for a miracle that someday they will.

With all the family together, Sydney had come prepared with costumes and an outline of the Nativity program. She is a super organizer and pulls together these events, even with a dress rehearsal beforehand in the basement.

Crismon gave me the "Vivienne" skirt from JunieBlake (cousin Rachel & Emma's line of clothing). I gave Crismon a printed, hardbound book of the blogs that I've been doing over the last 4 years. It was so exciting for me to see my work in a book! Julia also made Austin a book of their wedding.

We had many laughs and smiles as we watched Evelyn and Christian open their gifts. Children are the magic of Christmas.

The adults played a fun game of "What would you do for a Klondike bar?" that our friends, Joyce & Romeo Betita had brought by that day. We are always giving Klondike bars back and forth.

Our cup runneth over with joy.

Christmas Eve...

Christmas Eve began by 4:30 p.m. at the Vance's where Ondalynn prepared a wonderful display of appetizers. The William's and the Caudle's were with their in-laws, so it was Dad, me, Julia and Austin. The little ones were so excited anticipating Santa's arrival. What a joy to be with children at this special time.

We held our Christmas program by the children acting out the events in the America's where Samuel the Lamanite prophecies of Christ's birth, interspersed with Christmas carols, Sydney performing on the violin and piano, and Julia V. sharing her piano piece, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies.

Then some fun games, opening presents, and hugging them goodbye so they could get to bed so Santa could come. Before leaving, the children piled on top of Julia & Austin for pictures. Julia said, "This is our life in the future." Austin said, "Times two!"

Ondalynn presented us with the gift from all the siblings, a scanner, for me to scan the boxes and boxes of pictures we have. We were so thrilled. Thank you everyone for this most needed gift.

Christmas came early...the William's arrived!

 
The Christmas holidays could officially begin with the William's family arriving on Tues., Dec. 17th. Meredith was a trooper to make that trip from Phoenix with 3 little ones under the age of 4 and having to change planes and have a layover. Despite the long day, she still had her winning smile to greet all of us. We were so excited to have her here and her darling children, Evelyn, Christian & Hudson, to wrap their arms around our necks. Hudson at first was a little taken back by all the attention and wasn't sure who we were, but soon he warmed up to us and he's been giving us that adorable grin every since.

One of the first stops at home was getting in the hot tab. It's been a fun adventure throughout the holidays. It was exciting when Bryan joined the family late Friday night, December 21.

Bryan always likes a project, so he wasted no time jumping in and doing things around the home. We had had some water damage in our kitchen ceiling and it was in need of much repair. We had repairs done on the roof and a new skylight put in, but still needed the installation and repair done on the kitchen ceiling. After Christmas was over, Bryan jumped into repairing the ceiling. Watching a few videos on YouTube he was ready to tackle it. I guess anyone who can perform surgery on a person, has the courage to tackle a repair in the kitchen. He did a super great job. He is such a good daddy and he includes his kids whenever he's working on a project. Such patiences!

He rented a chainsaw from Home Depot and took down one of the last remaining trees in the backyard. It was a beautiful tree, but the huge pine trees in our neighbors backyard completely blocked our view. We needed to take out the tree for a little sunlight. He also cut a number of branches and stacked the wood which help to clear debris from our backyard. Bryan found time to paint part of the bathroom downstairs where it has needed some repair as well. All in all, he got our house and yard back into shape while he was here. We can't thank you enough Bryan!

Other activities included decorating Christmas cookies at Ondalynn's house before Christmas. Meredith was such a huge help to me to do the caramel popcorn and getting them ready to deliver to friends and neighbors.

Dad and I took three hours Sunday evening before Christmas to deliver goodies to each of his counselors, and Stake Executive Secretary, the out going Scott Emery, and his new one, Perry Stevenson, and all the Bishops. The William's and the Caudle's had dinner with the Vance's that night. Glad they were could be together, but we did miss being with them.

New Years Eve after getting the children down, we played a fun card game with Meredith & Bryan. I was so grateful the next day to have Meredith jump in and put all the Christmas decorations down, have them stored back in the garage, and have the house cleaned up so quickly. That is always such a big job. I couldn't have done it without her.

The children are so fun to watch and play with, and read stories, and take on small outings to the library and McDonalds. We just don't get enough time with them. Last Sunday evening we had our family testimony meeting, it was so cute to hear Evelyn bear her testimony. Christian has been faithful taking his Kids Now and Provantage Reliv drink to help him put on weight. He is gaining, which is great. Evelyn & Christian love to "push" the car out of the garage when Grandpa leaves for a meeting. They are so funny!

We've had a few really cold days, but nothing like other parts of the country. We're grateful for our mild Oregon temperatures.

Bryan left on Sat., Jan. 4th to go back to Arizona as he has rotations at the hospital in Tucson during Jan. Meredith and the children leave this Wed., Jan 15th. We will miss them!