Christmas was a whirlwind! We got back from our trip to Hong Kong on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. I went straight to the grocery store, while Michael started an attack on the luggage and laundry. I had made soup and froze it before our trip, so I just threw our dinner together.
Next was our annual Christmas pageant. I must say that every year gets a bit more crazy. Please remind Michael that next year it is his turn to narrate, and MY turn to film! Continuing on...The children all picked out their own costumes this year. I'm not sure if I can describe it adequately, but I'll try. Nicole was Mary. She decided to wear Mike's huge white t-shirt with a ball inside, because she was, after all, pregnant. She rode into Bethlehem on a stick horse, and continued to feed and pet it throughout the entire birth. What a woman! Let me say here that Caitlin's Cabbage Patch kid that suddenly appeared played his part to perfection. Eli was Joseph. He started out in the huge, black, grim-reaper Halloween costume, but somehow managed a costume change mid-pageant and ended up in the white Starwars wrap-around robe. Jay was our shepherd. He wore his brown Star-Wars cloak, and I must say looked his part the best, if it weren't for the life-size stuffed lion that he brought to the birth. Rachel, our Christmas Angel. Or maybe I should say Christmas fairy. She had on a white shirt and skirt, but wore green fairy wings, long green feather earrings, and some Red and Green leg warmers. I will say that the metal-cross-stitch frame she barretted in her hair was a nice touch. Last came in Caitlin, our wiseman, with a bright fleece scarf wrapped around her head. Let's just say...Vibrant? Well, it was quite the sight to behold. If only we hadn't tried to sing Joy to the World. That just pushed the senses past their thresh-hold! It's time to face the facts...WE ARE TERRIBLE SINGERS!
We barely made it through the pageant...But we had a wonderful time reading the love gift letters that we had exchanged with my family. The kids wrote Santa a note and left the oreos (after dealing with the disappointment of no time to make any cookies), and climbed into bed. Santa stayed busy for several more hours. Just before bed, I noticed my royal blue junior high Cheerleading trunks, and wondered how they got here, instead of stored. There are many things that baffle us. And you may be baffled as well, at this point, but you'll understand my reason for mentioning this at a later point.
We actually had to wake our children up! We have never had to do this before! But we had our entire church group coming over at 12:30 for church, and then Christmas Dinner. We also were so excited to talk to both of our families. So we woke the children up at 6:00am. We had a wonderful time, especially opening thoughtful gifts sent by our family in Utah. We felt so loved. We then were able to visit with our family. It was a high-light of the day. After we were finished opening the gifts, we had to say..."Merry Christmas kids! Now make it look like this never happened." We rushed to put all of our gifts on our beds, and clean up to get ready for church. I will say that by this point I was wondering what we had done, inviting everyone here. I wasn't feeling that "Christmas Spirit" at this point, I am ashamed to admit.
Just as I stepped out of the shower, people began to arrive:-). I was very quick to get ready. We had a wonderful Church service. It was just the right thing to help us focus on our Savior. Afterward, we had a wonderful dinner. Some Chinese friends, came after our service to join our dinner. Everyone brought things and we had a delicious ham. Wow was that a treat! We found one ham at Metro, and boy was it delicious! After dinner we had a white-elephant exchange. It was so much fun. There were about 40 of us, and every age enjoyed it. Nicole had helped me load a few bags since things were so crazy. Sister Yu got up, and opened her gift. First she pulled out a silly hat that Nicole had put in, and next thing I know, she is holding up my blue cheerleading trunks! I was in shock! I think she was too! Nicole had seen them sitting there and just put them in. Well, needless to say, it got quite the laugh, and Sister Yu, rewrapped them and stuck them back under the tree. Luckily, later in the game, Rachel recovered them for me. You know, since I'm sure I will be wearing them soon...
When everyone left, we couldn't stop smiling, and couldn't have imagined how our Christmas Day could have been any better, except of course being with our far-away family!
And now I have to apologize. We got a new digital video camera, which we are very excited about,and forgot to use the regular one. I know I can pull pics off of it, but am not that handy yet, so I guess you'll have to just use your imagination this time, and I promise not to do that again!
