Christmas 2009

We’d been a bit up in the air about what to do on Christmas Eve. We wanted to go with our traditional soup-and-bread dinner and nativity reenactment, and finally the evening came and we found ourselves with a wonderful group at our place. Highlights (in addition to the new sausage and potato soup recipe) included Steve’s impression of the Angel of the Lord and the Wise Guy who "left my GPS on my other camel" (that was Chad). It may have been the most rousing Christmas Eve we’ve ever had.

Our Christmas morning policy is that the kids wait for us to bring them downstairs at 7:00. After being up late the night before, we weren’t anxious to get out of bed, particularly since we didn’t hear any signs of life upstairs. So we stole up to Gavin and Arwen’s room at 7:30, only to find that Gavin had been lying patiently in bed since 7:00. What a surprise!

At the bottom of the stairs Arwen let out a squeal of delight at finding the stockings. The kids must have spent 20 minutes delightedly pulling out each item, then putting together their Lego Star Wars speeders before realizing they had presents under the tree. We had just enough time to open everything before it was time to head to a local nursing home, where we met three other families from our congregation for some caroling.

We roamed the halls for the first half hour or so, accompanying ourselves with a wide variety of fun percussion instruments my parents sent us for Christmas (plus the ukulele, of course). Then we congregated in the rec room for our "show." We performed a few solo numbers but mostly took requests from several residents who seemed truly grateful for the chance to celebrate together. I recognized at least one woman from our Christmas visit two years ago. This meaningful tradition, which we picked up from my parents’ former ward in Vancouver, Washington, is one we hope to make a regular fixture in the years to come.

The rest of Christmas Day was very laid back compared to the level of activity leading up to it. We even postponed our fancy dinner in favor of leftover soup and bread. I managed to reach a few family members and close friends by phone and left messages for several others. It was great to be in touch.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!