Glimpses of Christmas (a bit late, I know)

We enjoyed making Christmas candy with Peter and Katy. This year we made peanut brittle, marbled mint chocolate, and fudge (well, Katy made the fudge, not me. It was DELICIOUS!). We made the traditional bags of goodies to deliver on Christmas Eve. It was fun to take the children around delivering treats to friends from our ward. It even started SNOWING! IT was so fun to sing Christmas songs as we drove from house to house. Unfortunately the wind picked up and gusts were up to 40 mph that afternoon! Our deliveries quickly changed from a caroling, joyful gift to a shivering dash from the van, knock on the door and a quick "Merry Christmas! Goodbye!" before dashing back to the warmth and safety of the van. :) So we cut things short and didn't deliver the last 2/3 of the goodies. Result: we ate WAY too much candy this holiday season, since we didn't give most of it away. We were practically begging visitors to take plates of treats home with them. :)

We had so much fun preparing for Christmas with our visiting relatives! We made the Christmas Eve Bethlehem dinner that is traditional for our family: roasted fish, wild rice, flat breads, fruits, yogurt sauces, and olives (Peter was daring and convinced us to buy a tray of exotic flavored varieties....I think he was the only one that liked them, but it was fun to try something new). We eat by candlight with wooden platters and talk about how daily life would have been different if we lived in the time of Christ.

After dinner we dressed everyone up and acted out the Nativity. Katy made a beautiful angel, dressed in my graduation robe. Sarah was Mary, Matthew was Joseph (in a Turkish robe), Daniel was a Shepard (wearing the ever-popular brown tablecloth), and Kelso was the baby Jesus (who tried very valiantly to escape the manger). It was pretty fun!

Oddly enough, Nathan convinced us to try a movie on Christmas Eve. You may ask: What wondrous movie did we watch on such a special night? I'm not sure how to put this....we watched the worst movie ever made. EVER.Have you ever seen "The Star Wars Holiday Special"? If you haven't, don't. Even a RiffTrack couldn't save it. George Lucas officially issued an apology for even making it. It's that bad. It was great for making fun of it and laughing....but that's the only redeeming factor. It definately made for a memorable Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning was so fun. A few highlights would be-
Nathan constructed me an artist's light-box! So cool! I've want3ed one for years! This one can penetrate 3 sheets of paper!

Matthew was given a rock tumbler...which was a BIG deal. He's been saving his money for 9 months so he could buy one, and he's only reached the halfway point for the price tag. When he opened it he was SO delighted. For FHE tonight we put it together and filled it with his first batch of rocks. His other favorite gift was some glow-in-the-dark stars for his bedroom. When he saw them glowing the first night, he jumped up and down yelling, "Yay! Yay! Yay!"

Sarah's favorites were a porcelain doll and a stuffed elephant from her great-grandma Nelson. She's carried the elephant with her everywhere this week!

Daniel's favorite was a melody harp (it's actually a fmaily gift from grandma Kingsley) with sheet music. He LOVES to sit and play this harp over and over and carried it with him all over the house until we taught him that it had to stay in the music room. Now he lays on the floor on his tummy and plucks out music contentedly.

We had a large box left over from a new dishwasher we purchased (Merry Christmas to me....the old one broke!) The children have played in the box every day and slept in it several nights. What fun!

On Christmas Day we feasted on the traditional turkey, potatoes, yams, rolls, etc. A friend of mine gave me her top-secret roll recipe (she had to be able to bake this family recipe before she was allowed to marry her husband). The recipe was SOO yummy! I could have eaten just rolls for dinner! We didn't make any pies or desserts...we still were overloaded with fudges and candies...and gingerbread houses. Nathan put lights in the houses so they glowed like night lights. We left the lights on all day and night for the week of Christmas. It looked pretty neat!

A big highlight of the season for me was just spending time with Peter and Katy each night after our children were asleep. We'd eat fun cheeses and crackers, candies, fruit salsas with chips, and drink sparkling fruit juices while we played games and talked. It was like a party every night, and I really enjoyed having them here. They left for Georgia this morning, so it's quiet and lonely at night. We were so blessed to have them with us for Christmas!