What a wonderful weekend this has been! I love, love, love it when Christmas is on a Sunday. I love attending church and being able to take the Sacrament. It being Christmas, and the Sabbath day allows me to to think of the Savior at his birth and his death and his life anew. Some Christmas traditions that I love? For more than a hundred years, our church congregation has met together on Christmas Eve for a nativity, for no more than an hour and exchanged Christmas wishes. Part of the tradition is for each child to receive a brown paper bag with an orange, some peanuts in their shell, an old fashioned chocolate, some hard candy and taffy. During the many years of this tradition there were years of hardship, most particularly during the depression, when this bag of treats was the only gift some children received.
Another tradition that we enjoy is our Christmas Eve meal. Grant and I go on a date a few days before and select dips, appetizers, chips, crackers, cheeses, pickles and olives. It is an easy and tasty meal with virtually no dishes. Wait! Did I forget the little smokies? Yes, this year we had little smokies. The sauce called for beer. I bought my first can of beer. We let all the kids smell it. They were all disgusted. So much so that some of them didn’t want to eat the little smokies. I’m glad of it. I think I would have been a little worried if they thought it smelled good.
Christmas morning was fun. Anna got two little girl rats and is so excited to finally have her own pets! All of our children have gotten a pet when they turned 6, except Anna. Sam got his snake. Lizzie, a lovebird that was exchanged for a kitten when we developed allergies to the bird. William got Hugo, the dog. The problem is all of those pets and Charlie and Kevin the cat are still living! We are pretty maxed out when it comes to pets. We thought rats were a good option.
Other gifts? Lizzie got a ton of clothes. Sam wanted a new long board. William got a go pro type camera. I got date coupons from my romantic husband and Grant got an authentic Lincoln costume. We had Mom, Brian and Rebecca here for present opening. Later this evening we went to visit my Dad and Sheri. I missed my sisters and brothers who were not here but it was nice to be around family.
The funniest part of the day was at about 9 am. After we had opened presents we were having breakfast and Anna was not being very nice. When Lizzie told her to stop Anna said, “I don’t have to be nice, I already got all of my presents from Santa.” Lizzie replied, “Yes, well, he is watching to see how you act now for next year’s presents.” Anna smugly exclaimed, “He isn’t watching me! He is sleeping right now!” Only Anna would realize the loophole in the whole naughty and nice = presents scheme. So, as I head off to bed I wish one and all, a Merry Christmas!
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