Wednesday, December 27, 2017

The Spirit of Christmas - Jenna




Initially Roland and I had agreed on purchasing only 3 gifts for Jenna to open.  I had forgotten about the 5 books we had purchased in September.  Roland also went haywire one day when he wanted to go to Roseburg and neither Jenna nor I wished to go with him.  He returned with some Pokémon cards and some other things.  We had also given a stuffed toy of Snoopy that shakes his head to the “Lucy and Linus theme” I think there were at least twelve gifts for Jenna.










She said her favorite gift was the snoopy 





The Spirit of Christmas - Roland


            Roland's first gift came in the mail.  It was from his boss.  She sent him a melted snowman kit.  Jenna has been playing with it ever since, and enjoying it immensely. 



          I didn't realize how many ties Roland has or may have not purchased any - though it came at his request.  He did ask for a more subtle or blended design than what we had purchased, but I think he was pleased just the same. 




all of the rings are full - some with more than 
one tie each.  I counted 7 Christmas ties


these are the ties he received for Christmas

He was hoping the design would be subtle as these



here are the ones he didn't receive (I have to call)
 
          In addition to the ties, we had given him fruitcake and snowballs.  Roland often gravitates toward both. 
 
J also gave R a bandana



 I probably should have just gone with my initial plan of getting him a DNA kit.   It would have been the only gift under the tree for Roland.  I just think the price will go down again.
  Of all the gifts received on Christmas morning, Roland says his favorite was the cowboy tie that Jenna had picked out for him.

The Spirit of Christmas - Gifts



          We sent hats to all of our kids for Christmas this year.  They are Oregon Duck hats.  Many people here are avid Duck fans.  I have no preference, though I do like the "Duck" colors better than the "Beaver" colors.  I thought Biff might like the orange, but we didn't see any Beaver sock hats.
  

          We've made and received many sweets this year.  Roland had wanted to make gingerbread men but we ran out of time before we could purchase all ingredients, so he purchased a tin of butter pecan meltaways instead.  I will always think of them as "Mexican Wedding Cookies" as I had learned that is what they were called - but the name probably is not a best seller at Christmas time - possibly?


Next year I am giving out Queso and chips as I felt burnt out on sweets this year (as I'm certain many others did).



          Roland is the sole eater of the gingerbread house as Jenna and I are not too crazy about gingerbread.   I doubt he will eat it all and we'll end up throwing at least half of it away. 


Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Spirit of Christmas - Decorations


I believe we decorated the trees outside before we brought our Christmas tree into the house.  Roland had started out with the lights and gradually we added large ornaments and bows.







We also purchased a starlight system to save ourselves from having to hang lights      





Jenna framed our mirror with the sock toys that Corey had given us years before



and put out many decorations that we have used in previous years.


Aunt Julie sent us this when we first moved to West Valley

middle tree pop up from a card from Ooki (son) and 
back tree gift from Salad Master, Nativity to my mom
her last Christmas

also from Aunt Julie.  It was designed as 
a door hanged.  But we have moved it to
chain on screen door

and added a few new ones as well


Santa is really a tree topper and a stocking Jenna colored

not a great picture.  Jenna received this fragile piece

I displayed our books on the end table this year as Jenna and I had decided to do away with the coffee table



The cards we received were hung on the door


2017

 and I took these pictures as Jenna and I traveled about


at Lowes, I believe


 We picked up some more ornaments at Pier 1 as they had been marked down


I thought this was really cute, but
possibly too big for the tree as compared
with the other ornaments we have

4 nutcrackers purchased for 2018 ornament



Christmas Eve


          When Carrie and Randy’s gift arrived at our house, Jenna decided it would be the first one which would be opened.  We played a game of Monopoly though there’s at least 20 games in our possession that I’d rather play.  After I lost and Jenna forfeited out of boredom, we turned on the Muppet Christmas Carol though we really don’t have a great copy.  I fell asleep while it played.  

We had planned to open our first gift on Christmas Eve after we watched “It’s A Wonderful Life but since I had fallen asleep during Muppets, Jenna decided to open the gift before  “It’s A Wonderful Life” started.  It was a game! 



Because of the time, we decided we would play in the morning instead of right then. 
Jenna decided to go to bed after only an hour into the movie. Between 9:30 and 10:00 last night Roland retrieved the presents from my closet.  I spread the gifts beneath the tree.  We filled the stockings and finished with the movie. When “It’s A Wonderful Life” ended, I went into the bedroom, though I don’t remember Roland coming into the room until possibly an hour later.  I don’t know why. 
          When he did get into the bedroom, he read a bit before turning off the light.  At midnight Jenna opened her door and asked if it was time to open presents.  She gets very excited.  I think she must have left her room shortly after that as I noticed there were more gifts placed beneath the tree and in our socks.  I love it when my children get into the Christmas spirit and each attempt to play Santa themselves.

Monday, December 25, 2017

Traveling Ornaments


        Almost every Christmas tree I can remember being in my house had a wide variety of ornaments – not just colored baubles, but Santa Clauses, snowman, bells and stars – even partial nativities.  It seems like there were some ornaments that made their way up and down and around the tree as someone would take it off to looks at it and hang it back in another spot, or parents would move clumps from one branch to even out the tree.  I noticed that our tree this year had several bald spots - and I could sense that some of the ornaments had traveled throughout the tree once again.

        On Saturday night, we watched the Disney’s 2009 “Christmas Carol”.  Don’t much care for that particular version – though not my least favorite version of "the Christmas Carol".  I did enjoy watching behind the scenes.  It always amazes me how much time goes into each shot.  With Disney’s 2009 “Christmas Carol”, there was also a lot of technology.  



It was interesting to watch. 



I had enjoyed the behind the scenes of “Elf” also.

Christmas Caroling

               Jenna seemed quite excited when the Young Men and Young Women decided to go “Ding-Dong Ditching” rather than their usual caroling, but still wanted to go caroling.  I have not had much of a singing voice this season and have missed singing along with Christmas songs because I don’t wish to risk making my throat sore.


                Jenna finally found someone willing to go with her.  On Saturday, I picked up her friend.  They caroled to a few houses in her neighborhood.  I then took them to the street where we used to live.  They went to several houses.  Surprised some people.  Uplifted others.  I was happy to see how happy it made them.

not your typical caroling attire, but this is what they chose to wear

                On Sunday, we had just one speaker for sacrament meeting.  The remainder of the meeting was for singing five different hymns after the bishop introduced each hymn with a small synopsis for what purpose each had been written. I could tell that she enjoyed that.  I am so happy that she enjoys singing.

Image result for silent night

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Jenna's Wish List



Jenna has never been greedy with her wish list.
Some things are not practical.
Generally her wish is short.


She rated the following from 1 - 10,
10 being the highest.  Only 7 things on her list.
What I'd like to fulfill most is wish #4.
That will require a lot of prayer.


She just wrote her list in random order
but not order of importantness. 
The two things from the list that
she would like most
I don't have control.


1.      New  charger for tablet
(Roland finally broke down and
got one for her as she was using
up his phone battery.)      
                  rates this as a 2



2.      "Everyone wants to steal your cheese" t- shirt
          rates a 7. 


3.      toy box chocolate surprise                  
          I don't even know what that is
          rates a 4


 4.     a good friend to move in across the street         
          this is one we both would like
          both of us would make this a 10


5.      common sense hoodie
          rates a 5

6.      better singing skills     rates a 6
          I think somebody in the ward
          offers singing lessons.  I will look more
          into that

7.      brothers    10


She would also like to see it snow.  I don't foresee that happening anytime soon.