Monday, December 31, 2018

Merry Christmas to All


Christmas finally actually happened. I love how the whole month of December rolls along it feels like a merry-go-round of activity and color and light, but when Christmas itself actually comes all becomes rather quiet. All the friends we have seen during the month are spending the holiday with their own families. Gifts have been delivered. The work parties and church gatherings are all done. And we settle into the quieter celebration. It's especially quiet for us because we don't have a ton of family around. I watched several Instagram and Facebook posts that friends shared of their huge family parties with pajama parades and long tables set up all through their living rooms to accommodate all the guests. I have to admit that I get slightly sad and a bit wistful when I see stuff like that, even though I know it could be overwhelming to attend that large of a party every Christmas. But since my siblings all live away and we don't have parents or grandparents who pull together a huge gathering, it's up to me and Troy to make our sweet holiday exactly what we want it to be. It has taken us some years to really identify what it is we like to do and how we like to celebrate, but we have learned to be proactive about it and so our celebrations are really wonderful.

My sister who lives in Colorado did come in to town for Christmas, as did the one of her three daughters who doesn't already live here. We had hoped to find a time when both Peter and Margaret would be here together but alas they did not overlap times. We planned a small gathering for my side of the family and the only time that would work for this was on Sunday the 23rd for a brunch. (Can I just say that I'm very proud of all the cooking and cleaning and hosting I did? Because I am. I almost felt like a grown-up.) We had a nice breakfast with bacon and waffles and fruit and of course whipped cream, as specifically requested by my niece Hannah. Real whipped cream! She triple checked. It was cute. Anyway, we had a nice breakfast together. I love my three big tall lovely nieces. So do my kids. We were sad Kate's Cameron could not be in town with us too, but Hannah has been seeing a cute guy for a couple of years now and he joined her in SLC for the holiday and it was nice to meet him.


Something really special about this brunch was that my dad prepared a gift for each grandchild. He mailed them to Adam's family in Seattle and sent them home with Peter's family in St. George when they visited. But for my and Margaret's kids we decided to open them all together since dad was there with us. I'm not sure how to say this tactfully but it was a little surprising that my dad wanted to do this. Surprising and very sweet. Normally he's only a part of the adult gift rotation, so it was touching that he wanted to do this. The gifts he gave were some treasures he and my mom picked out in Russia. He gave almost all of the kids dolls that he and mom found, except for Chase and his cousin Smith, who got a small collection of painted Russian eggs. He picked out nice Christmas boxes for each item and wrote a letter telling about where the gifts came from and that they were in memory of their Oma who loved them so much. Dad had Chase read this letter out loud to the group, which immediately reduced Kate to tears. It was super sweet. And they each opened their keepsake and I think all were touched by the gesture. It was a really nice morning together, and I just wished that my brothers and their kids had been with us too. See? I guess I really do crave the large family gathering.

I do have to mention one little visit we did get on the evening of the 23rd. Troy and the girls and I had spent the afternoon delivering the very last of the knitted ornaments - including one to Layton to our friend Mary, and may I here thank my husband for not being mean or scolding when we made it all the way to Bountiful before I realized that I brought everything we needed for the visit except the ornament itself? Good man, that Troy. Anyway, after that visit we headed to the University hospital to see our friend Myca who was struggling with some health issues and possibly had to face Christmas as an inpatient. Luckily she got to go home on Christmas Eve, but we enjoyed spending an hour with our friends. Ok so after that, we got home, and The Becky was waiting for us. She had some relatives visiting from England and she really wanted to introduce us to them. Troy was a little confused at first - like, why does this family really want to meet us? Well, the truth is, I don't think that was the point at all. I think the point was for us to meet this family, especially the two kids. They were two of the cutest and most outgoing kids I've ever met, plus those accents! We were completely charmed. They were so dang cute! They insisted on singing us a Christmas Carol, which proved to be a rendition of Silent Night that was rather out of tune and missing a line or two. They captured our hearts so completely that we spent the rest of the week singing Silent Night to each other in deep British accents. Our hearts were won.




I enjoy quiet intimate time too. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day held more of this for us, which was fine, since we carefully planned what we wanted to do and how we wanted to celebrate. Can I just say here how much I love, adore and appreciate my husband? I really do. I'm so glad he and I are together. One thing that has become a tradition at this point is going to our neighbor's home for Christmas Eve breakfast. Becca made a delicious casserole and I brought....something good. I'm sure of it. I just can't remember what. Anyway, of course part of the reason for this gathering is to just be together but also we love to listen to the live broadcast of the Christmas Eve concert from the choir at King's College. It is beyond heavenly and brings exactly the spirit of Christmas that I always hope to invite. 


After breakfast was some quick clean up at home - of course I had laundry out and dishes undone, so we whipped the house into shape and then got in the car and drove to Crystal Hot Spring. I think this is the third year in a row we have gone there with Troy's brother Sam and his family. It's such a nice relaxing place to be, just soaking in all the steamy water and getting the holiday aches out of our bones. I didn't even bring my phone, so no pictures, which is really probably best for everyone. 

The evening held for us a quiet evening at home. My dad joined us, and we ate Korean food - bulgogi, mandu, kimchee. Not too much. It was delicious. I love having something interesting on Christmas Eve. For years with my family we would make homemade Mexican food. I've done appetizer nights before too. This was great. You know what was also really really great? We had just enough storminess to give the valley clean air. That's been a huge problem lately and we can only use our wood burning stove occasionally. Nothing lifts our spirits quite like having a crackling fire in that stove. December has been getting as inverted and polluted as January, so I felt like it was one of my favorite parts of Christmas to get enough weather to not only give us a slightly white Christmas, but to give us several days of clean lovely air and thus a merry fire burning in the stove all through Christmas and even the week after. Marvelous.

We ate our dinner, watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas and A Charlie Brown Christmas, and cuddled up to listen to The Night Before Christmas and a reading from Luke 2. Then it was off to bed for my kiddos, all of whom very happily still go to bed early on Christmas Eve. 


I was pretty darn excited for Christmas morning. Some years I have ideas of what gifts I want to give the kids well in advance and kind of have a plan in my head. However, this year I really felt behind and didn't have a clear sense of what to do. But it came together and I was really pleased.

Got to have the traditional line up into the living room






Really fun morning - here are some of the favorites:

Chase: a new cool razor, sushi t-shirts, tall socks. a Jurassic Park hoodie, new art pens and paper, a tactical spork from Romney, and most exciting - a giant new enclosure for his lizard, Omnom

Romney: a really nice camping knife, a huffelpuff t-shirt from Kate, a beard hat, a Stitch union-suit, a play ticket to see Wizard of Oz, new boots, and a great big Harry Potter Lego set.

Emma: Yoda legos, a Rosana Paninho cookbook, a rabbit puppet, also a ticket to Wizard of Oz, a chemistry set, a bath bomb set from Cara, and she got the real show stopper.....

Her very own pet! A tortoise!  Meet the newest member of our family, Topher:



It was really fun. We had to blindfold her and Chase came and put the little creature in her hands. It was really fun and she's been a great pet owner. What a fun pet - he's really active but not stinky. He only eats vegetables and is fun to hold and let run around. 

Okay there was another show stopper. Troy and I enjoyed picking out some gifts for each other - heart rate monitors and new slippers and jackets and casserole dishes. I didn't think there were going to be any surprises though. I was wrong! Troy arranged with a friend to get me a real banjo. I've so loved my little hollow-back tambourine-like instrument but he traded that with a friend to get a real grown-up and seriously heavy banjo. It's taken some getting used to but what a sound, and what fun to get back in the groove of playing. I did indeed burst into tears. Video not to be included here. That guy. He loves me. And I love him.

We did have to totally rearrange Chase's bedroom to accommodate both the new lizard enclosure and the new tortoise. Wasn't expecting to two that on Christmas Day but was actually great. I love bringing order to a space.



After some room cleaning and dinner preparation, we packed up and headed off to the movie theater to go see the new Mary Poppins movie with Emily Blunt and Lin Manuel Miranda. What a fun show. We all really enjoyed it and I may have teared up more than once. We loved it. Great way to spend the afternoon.

In the evening we again had my dad over as well as Troy's parents to enjoy a little more of a classic dinner than bulgogi - awesome pot roast and potatoes.

What a blessed Christmas day. I'm so very grateful for the celebrations we enjoyed and the people we got to enjoy them with.


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