This morning, I had to hide Autumn’s Santa dress b/c she wanted to wear it again, but she had just worn it all day yesterday and I really wanted her to wear her nice Christmas dress from Papa & Mimi. I was finally able to convince her to wear it. Today during sacrament meeting we had the ward Christmas program and it was wonderful. The choir sounded incredible and I cried a few times b/c the Spirit was so strong. For the last song, they had the choir sing the first few verses of Joy To The World and the congregation joined in on the final verse. I couldn’t sing b/c I was so choked up. It was gorgeous and sounded as if a choir of angels from Heaven were singing with us.
During sharing time, the Primary president talked about what the true meaning of Christmas is and then she said she had a special treat for the kids. I guess some of the kids had been begging her to read them a story, so she did. She read T’was The Night Before Christmas Cajun style. It was so funny, b/c a bunch of the kids didn’t know what she was saying and every once in a while one would say, “What does that mean?” All of the teachers were laughing and got a kick out of it.
After church, we came home and got changed and got our stuff and headed over to Mom & Dad’s. Mom was making steak & everything sandwiches for lunch when Christine stopped by to give Mom a present. It was an oversized roll of thread that was a candle on the inside. She’s so sweet and thoughtful and we just love her to pieces.
We packed up the Durango and then stopped at the clinic to pick up Dad b/c he had to go in for a little bit even though it was his day off. I drove out to Uncle Robert & Aunt Sandy’s so he could sit in the back and eat his steak & everything sandwich we had brought for him. We got there and were sitting and talking when suddenly we noticed that this candle had melted from being so close to the fire. It was funny how it had melted straight up the back of the candle.
After talking for a while, it was time to eat. We had quite the spread of deviled eggs, Strawberry fields salad, funeral potatoes, better than sex dip w/ chips, and party ham roll-ups. It was all so good and I ate way too much, b/c my tummy was full but my mouth kept saying it wanted more.
After eating, the kids were getting restless, so we went outside to have some bike races. Caleb & Shane were crazy mad men on their bikes and almost ran a few people over a couple of times.
Uncle Robert let Autumn & Brooke have a little bit of a head start so they wouldn’t get run over. Autumn’s bike didn’t have pedals (not that she knows how to use them anyway), so I pushed the back of her bike w/ a broom so she could go faster than just trying to scoot along. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a great time.
After that, it was time to go back inside for our white elephant gift exchange. Aunt Sandy read T’was the Night Before Christmas and we played the game that I had at my Primary party where we pass our gift to the right when she says “the” and to the left when she says “and”. The little kids were just not understanding it very well and at one point in the story, Uncle Robert had four presents!
Everyone ended up with a gift, and we played where you could steal someone else’s gift if you wanted theirs and then they would get your unopened present. One of the gifts was a Snow White puzzle with a matching pink glitter comb and mirror. Autumn got that present and as you can see, went right to work in combing Papa’s hair.
After the white elephant gift exchange, Aunt Sandy handed out gifts to her grandkids b/c they aren’t going to be at her house for Christmas. Mom had planned ahead and brought a gift for Autumn so she wouldn’t feel left out, but Autumn did NOT want to open her gifts, b/c she thought she was going to have to give up her comb and mirror like in the previous gift opening game. She hurried and went and hid her presents and we were laughing and trying to explain to her that no one was going to take her presents anymore and that it was just a game. We finally convinced her to open her present.
After opening presents, we sang some Christmas songs for a little bit and while we were singing, there was a loud knock at the door and a special visitor came to see us! Autumn was so excited and gave him about 3 hugs before he could sit down, which is quite the change from last year when she wouldn’t go near him w/ out some coaxing. She was very good and waited her turn to sit on his lap. He brought her a Barbie with hot pink hair, which she loved.
All the kids took a turn and I was just watching and taking pictures. I thought we were done when Santa said he had a few more presents and reached in his bag and pulled out a present for me! I turned every shade of red, especially when everyone started chanting, “Lisa! Lisa! Lisa!” They tease me every year and say they know I am in love w/ Santa, but that he’s a married man. Anyways, he brought me a carrying case and 4GB memory card for my brand new Sony video camcorder that Mom had given me yesterday (she was going to have Santa give it to me, but wanted me to have it to record all of the fun stuff at the party).
Santa also had a present for Aunt Sandy (a new biking shirt) and when she sat on his lap, she told him to make sure and keep his hands where she could see them. LOL!
When it was Jamie’s turn, he could not stop staring at Santa. It was so precious to see them just staring at each other.
Santa gave out all the presents and then he had one last special surprise at the bottom of his sack. It was the letter that Autumn had written to him last month! Santa sat and read it with her and then gave her a Barbie movie of 12 Dancing Princesses.
This picture cracks me up b/c we wanted to get a picture of the 2 little babies w/ Santa but they kept trying to pull on his whiskers and Santa was holding onto his beard so it wouldn’t hurt when they pulled on it. He didn’t realize it, but he was choking Jamie. Jamie’s face in this picture cracks me up and Peyton’s face is like, “Save me!”
Everyone had so much fun with Santa and we were so sad to see him go, but he had to get back to the North Pole so he could finish up some last minute stuff for Christmas next week. It was a wonderful Christmas party, and I’m so glad we live close to some of our extended family so we can get together. Being around family always makes the holidays so much more fun.
We got home from the party and it was late, so I took Autumn home so we could go to bed and get ready for the coming week. We had a present for our 7th day of Secret Santa.
The 7th day of Christmas and we are half way done,
Remember no peeking or you’ll spoil the fun.
On this day of Christmas, how nice it would be,
If seven swans a swimming your family could see.
The pond was quite empty since the swans have gone south,
We only found goldfish to put in your mouth.
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