Christmas Events

Well, we really enjoyed our quiet Christmas celebrations. It started off at the David and Tina Lim home on Christmas Eve with Korean BBQ--so good--and a white elephant gift exchange amongst our friends. Brad & Kim Wilson, Mike & Sherri Stone, and another couple from the Lim's church family were all there with their respective kids. I decided to keep the gift that said "Open me and all your wildest dreams will come true" on it. I couldn't resist having my wildest dreams come so I got a roll of toilet paper, a roll of dental floss, two tubes of toothpaste, a toothbrush, a Q-tip, and a round cotton pad. Jasper got a candle warmer. Big whoop, but TP? Who could resist TP?

Christmas morning we plugged in the light-up star atop our tree, and had the boys follow the new star just like the wise men did, and then we opened gifts from each other just like the ones the wise men gave to the baby Jesus. We were delighted with the boys reactions to their gifts. Kai loved getting more CARS cars, and a train crossing station for his Thomas the train set. You should have seen the priceless look on his face any time he opened something having to do with CARS. Varick's response was more of, "hey look! A toy shopping cart. Kai's not taking it away from me, so I think I'll play with that!" I got quite a shock when I opened my gift from Jasper--ahem--I mean the boys (we weren't supposed to get each other anything). They got me a nice watch to replace the one I'd lost five years ago. I felt like a card not having given anything to Jasper besides re-wrapping "Bourne Ultimatum" from his parents, and a little gosh gift in his stocking. I guess Jasper finally found a way to give me a surprise gift--it's difficult to do.

We went to one final dinner potluck at the A.J. and Karla Johnson home with a few other friends, including Todd & Sarah Thatcher, Wes & Alease Bott, and the missionaries--whom we had signed up to feed before being invited last minute. We all had a great time visiting and eating some great food. The besides the white elephant gift exchange with the adults, the kids brought a wrapped book to exchange as they listed to the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. While Todd Thatcher recited the memorized poem the kids passed the book to one side every time he said "who."

The whole day was quite a joy and we are so grateful to celebrate the Savior's birth as a family. Besides lighting up the Christmas star, we started another tradition of reading the Christmas story to the kids that had some pictures to go along with the scriptures. Kai really enjoyed that. He even got up from the reading to show us the case to the "Joy to the World" DVD. It too had a picture of the nativity. He was very excited to tell us that baby Jesus was born! And we were excited right along with him.