Christmas 2012

We had a wonderful Christmas.  A few days before Christmas, Greg’s mom sent us her electric player piano plus two boxes of piano rolls.  Besides being a player piano, it is a regular piano with a lovely soft touch.

We drove to Alex’s house on Friday and were blessed with dry roads the whole way.  Alex and Lanette treated us to sushi!  We had never had it before.  It consisted of rice (always required for sushi), fish (thankfully cooked), and vegetables, and seaweed rolled into rolls then sliced. 

On another day she made pies - apple, pumpkin, and key lime.  YUMMY!

Alex and Greg enjoyed working on a project to add 12 new recessed lights to the ceiling around the edges on three sides in the family room.  The result was very nice.

On Saturday, I taught Aedin and Winrey to make snowflakes.  They caught on so fast, and can both fold and cut their own without any help.  They even figured out by themselves how to cut stars and hearts in the snowflakes!  We had a great time making them, and almost completely covered the back sliding glass door and upstairs playroom window with our creations.  On Sunday we could look over the fence from the church parking lot and see the snowflakes in the windows. 

On Friday we drove into Salt Lake City to see the Christmas Lights and manger scene at Temple Square.  It was really crowded!  Everyone had the same idea!  It was beautiful thought, and not too cold.

On Christmas Eve it began to snow, and eventually piled up 2 or 3 inches.  I made a paper doll with clothes for Winrey.  She really liked it and carried her new doll around wherever she went.  On Christmas Eve we sang carols and watched the Luke 2 movie about the nativity.  That night we went to bed with the anticipation of a beautiful, white Christmas.

Alex and Lanette had stretched a large piece of wrapping paper across the hall so that the kids would not forget and go downstairs before everyone was ready.  On Christmas morning Alex slipped downstairs to turn on the Christmas lights and start the Christmas music.  On cue, the kids ripped through the paper and went downstairs.  There was a large pile of gifts under the tree.    Aedin had been talking about how much he was dreaming of getting a motor scooter.  He was wondering if he had been good enough for Santa to deem him worthy of the scooter. 




To his complete joy and excitement, there next to the Christmas tree was his scooter, and another one for Winrey. 





He literally jumped up and down he was so excited.  Everyone opened their stockings, which were neatly laid out on the couch.  Cedar was very happy with the 3 or 4 small toy cars in his stocking. If the cars had been his only gifts he would have been perfectly happy. 

We began opening the gifts one at a time. 

Some of the gifts were part of a pirate treasure hunt!  One present had clues about which gift to look for next, and so forth.  The treasure hunt ended with a large pirate treasure chest full of “gold” coins, which they will use for playing with as well as decorating on Pirate day.  Lanette also had gifts with clues for Alex that resulted in more gold coins and “jewels.”   They both had the same idea! 

 Winrey got a ballet outfit and ballet doll.

  

                                                                                                     

 

 Lanette got box after box of beautiful clothes.   Alex had found a Chinese site online that sold cute clothing for ridiculously cheap prices.  The clothes are very small sizes, which worked beautifully for Lanette.   Later she tried on the different outfits and Alex took pictures of her outside as she had fun modeling the clothes.

 

The kids had fun trying out their new motor scooters.  This is Alex helping Winrey on her first try on the scooter.

 

That evening, one of the neighbors decorated the whole street with "luminaries."   They are paper bags with candles inside.  It was beautiful.

We had planned returning home the evening of December 26th.  However, the weather forecast was warning of a blizzard that would start very late that night.  Out of concern for our safety on the road, we resignedly decided to go home on Christmas evening.  Alex and Lanette prepared a wonderful dinner for us, and then we drove home.  We had dry roads all the way home.  The next day it snowed all day, and over the next couple of days piled up about 6 inches of fluffy sparkling snow.

Alex and Lanette went snowshoeing and sent us a picture.

Saturday night we watched “It’s a wonderful Life.”  We didn’t think it was too late to watch a Christmas movie. 

It's been snowing the last few days.  We have 6 or 8  inches and it is piled up everywhere and is very pretty.  It's cold too, about 15 degrees at noon.  Tonight Greg and I are going to chaperone at the church youth New Year's Eve Dance.  It's for kids 14 to 17 years old.  We've helped before and they are great kids.  We never have any problems.  So we'll be dancing to their music LOL!