Sunday was Megan's blessing. It was a very nice blessing and her little dress was gorgeous!
After church I hung out at Mom and Dad's for a couple hours before the McLaws Family Christmas party that night. Julia and I decorated Mom and Dad's tree. The family party this year was at the Priday's house. Dinner was a pasta bar with different kinds of pasta and sauces and was yummy. Then we did the traditional white elephant gift exchange. I ended up with the "Most Interesting Man in the World" aka Dad's picture that's been going around the family for the last three years! He is now hanging on the wall in my bedroom.
Monday (Christmas Eve) I slept in, since I had the day off, did some laundry, made a cheese ball for later that night, practiced my flute for the special number Mom asked me to do for our Christmas Eve program, then packed up everything I needed to sleep over at Mom and Dad's and headed over to their house. Julia and I ran to Target so she could get the last item she needed to finish her last gift, then just hung out at the house until everyone else showed up. Mom made a yummy tortilla soup in the crockpot and J.R. brought some yummy bread he made. For our Christmas Eve program I played "Oh Come, All Ye Faithful" on my flute, Julia and J.R. did a duet on the guitar and ukulele that Julia sang too, also, of "Silent Night," Dad gave a nice thought, and Mom passed out Faith Binders that she made everyone and that we're going to add to over the years with stories and experiences that help strengthen our faith. Steven shared a story about the origin of the song "The 12 Days of Christmas" and then we opened our sibling gifts. I gave to Esther this year. I gave her a bag of Reese's peanut butter cups and the book "Act in Doctrine" by Elder Bednar. Kristen had me this year. A few weeks ago she and Steven came over and gave me some service by putting the legs on my new couches (since I don't have an electric drill) and shredding a big bag of papers that needed to be shredded. Kristen also gave me a $15 Amazon gift card. (Last night I used the gift card to buy two books I've wanted, "Beauty and the Baron" and "Dragon Bound" and the DVDs "Prince Caspian" and "Voyage of the Dawn Treader.") After we all opened out gifts we had treats (including the cheese ball I'd made earlier) and Christmas punch (except this year Mom made it with orange sherbet because that we the only flavor she could fine...it's just not the same orange. Uusually it's green.) J.R., Esther, John, Barbara, and I all slept over at Mom and Dad's. I didn't end up going to bed until 11:30pm and I know Mom was up later than that.
Tuesday we were all woken up about 7:30 by John screaming/crying that he wanted to open presents! Slowly we all got up and dressed. Mom got out breakfast stuff and we ate while waiting for Steven, Kristen, and baby Megan to arrive before we started opening presents. I got so much good stuff! Last month Mom gave me two gifts early: the wise men for my Willow Tree nativity set and a gingerbread house snowglobe for my gingerbread house collection. It was fun to be able to enjoy those two things all month. I got a really pretty glass dogwood basket, another (different than I already have) dogwood pattern teacup and saucer, an awesome "Happy Birthday/Congratulations!" homemade cloth banner, a slow cooker cookbook recipe book, my Ensign subscription renewed, "10 Great Souls I want to Meet in Heaven" by S. Michael Wilcox, "Look Up My Soul: The Divine Promise of Hope" by Gerald N. Lund, and lots of other really cool stuff! For lunch we made Chinese haystacks, then cleaned up all the wrapping paper and ribbons that were all over the front room. Steven and Kristen had to leave to go do Christmas with Kristen's family and J.R., Esther and the kiddos left because they had to go pack for their trip up to Utah to see Esther's family for the rest of this week. Faith left to go spend some time with her boyfriend, so Mom, Dad, Julia and I drove out to see Grandma and Grandpa McLaws. We spent a little bit of time visiting with them and ate some leftover ham and cheesy potatoes that they had. Once we drove back to Mom and Dad's I gathered up all my stuff and finally drove home myself.
Wednesday (today) was back to work.
It's always a bit of a let down once it's all over and done with but it was a great Christmas! Mom always works so hard to make it a nice day and puts so much time and thought into everybody's gifts. I've already put my thank you notes in the mail and I'm trying to think about what my New Year's resolutions are going to be. Any thoughts or suggestions??
I hope you had a Merry Christmas and, if I don't blog again until then, a Happy New Year!
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