Christmas 2020

         Last week I had taken Jenna to the church with me in order to wrap gifts for some members in the ward.  Another sister had dropped by the church to donate some games – which Jenna volunteered to take home.  I’m not really certain how that came about but we did end up with them.

        Thursday night Jenna’s Sunday School teacher dropped off a candy filled sock.  Jenna added the small sock to our fireplace; she said it would be for Bonnie.

 

        It turned out to be a really nice Christmas.  Each of us had three gifts beneath the tree plus the two games we dubbed from Santa Clause. Traditionally we will first open our socks.  Jenna passed them out one at a time.  I noticed my sock was bulkier than it had been before I had gone to bed.  Gloves, toffee, a chocolate orange and a notebook had been added to what I had already put in. 

 

        We each ended up with chocolate oranges – though Roland’s was dark while Jenna and I both received milk.  Roland also had sugar free chocolates and a McDonald’s card.  Jenna and I both received peppermint bark which Roland doesn’t seem to care for all that much. 

Jenna also received some Christmas cubes in her stocking.  She said it was meant for me but had to put it in her sock as there was no room in mine.      

me doing an elf jig while singing a Christmas carol

  

Bonnie's stocking

        After the gifts were open we watched Light the World here.  I like watching the virtual recording as opposed to seeing it in person – which I think I’ve only done once.  Watching so many faces (and not just doll-sized figures on the stage) from the comfort of my couch was so much better than going downtown Salt Lake. While I listened to the music, I filled out this Christmas themed paper.

 

 Afterward we played Mormon-opoly (one of the two games from Santa) It seems like a good theme for the transition from Book of Mormon, Christmas, and the Come Follow Me program which starts the Doctrine and Covenants.  The properties start at the New Testament (Bethlehem, Gathsemane), Book of Mormon (Zarahemla, Jeruselem) and church history (three places in New York, Nauvoo, Illinois and Kirkland Ohio and the progression of the church) also included are four newspapers instead of four railroads, “faith” and “bishop’s storehouse” instead of “chance” and “community chest”, and “spiritual darkeness” instead of “jail”.

        I like reading the information on the properties for example “Fayetteville Township, New York” says

 

·        The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized here on April 6, 1830.

·        The first conference was held here on June 9, 1830.

·        Where the Book of Mormon translation was completed.

 

Temple Square:

 

·        The Temple Square Mission began in 1875.

·        Home of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which held its first broadcast on July 15, 1929.

 

Some of them offer scriptures to read while the game is being played.  Bishop’s Storehouse and Faith cards also include scriptures at the end of each direction.  For example I had to pick a property to donate to charity and then I was sent to spiritual darkness the next round.  Jenna had passed go five times before I would make it around the board once.  And they made me the banker and all of the money and cards stuck together which added more time to the game.  When I landed on Roland’s properties for the umpteenth time I forfeited the game and so Jenna declared Roland the winner. 

 

        Jenna took Bonnie for a walk while Roland and I ate an early lunch.  She had returned after only a few minutes as it had started raining and Bonnie doesn’t like the rain. It was raining for most of the day and into the night.  It is still raining.

         Throughout the day Jenna and Roland played the Book of Mormon chess set while I took a few pictures and started this post for my blog.  I was unable to finish all of my thoughts until this morning.  My post would have probably included more detail if I had not been interrupted.  I suppose it already appears too long.  Oh, well.

how our tree looked Christmas morning

shirt received on Christmas - the only unwrapped gift beneath the tree
pictured: a chicken with the caption keeping it rural.  Also got matching
socks with roosters with the caption: rise and shine (pictured below)

Roland sent this doll to his mom and we got to watch her open it

This was taken later in the night; played our last game - not a new one

Christmas Morning 2019

Each year that we’ve been here we have mailed four packages to Salt Lake -  one for each of my boys and one for my sister and her family.  This year we mailed only one package.  We sent out gift cards to each of my sons and presents to the children of my middle son – not to play favorites among grandchildren, but I knew we’d be receiving a package from them and so wanted to make a gift exchange to the only son that it seems to matter. 

The first gift under our tree was one from some ward members we had had over for Thanksgiving a couple of years ago.  The gift was moved when the carpet was cleaned and we forgot to return it.  We had three small gifts under our tree, presents from my sister and her family.  Jenna guessed what they were – but did not know all of the details that awaited on the inside.  Randy’s gift to Jenna arrived unwrapped, but I took it out of the box and put it in a decorative Christmas tin and put a tag to Jenna from Randy, Carrie and Devin.  Gradually other gifts appeared.  This is how it looked on Christmas Eve before Roland and I finally went to bed:

Roland creates cards and sends them out each year.  He sends cards out the last three months of the year focusing on Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  Each year it seems we receive more Christmas cards than we did the year before.  This is what our two doors looked like last night before we went to bed:

And here is the way the fireplace looked last night before Jenna went to bed:

I had purchased some stocking stuffers for Jenna when Roland and I had gone to Eugene (here)

We ended up purchasing another sock to fit all of Jenna’s loot.  So this is what she woke up to on Christmas morning:

Our tradition is to open our stockings first.  This year we opened our socks one at a time – starting with Jenna. I thought she would be more excited over the silicone straws than she appeared to be.  She did express pleasure for the flamingo and pineapple ice cubes.  Her favorite item that she retrieved was a plastic dinosaur that Roland had bought for her.

In Roland’s socks were the first two “stress” super heroes:  Batman and Superman.

I was surprised by the amount of items that my stocking contained – including two pairs of socks.  I selected the warmer of the two and put them on my feet.

My sister’s gift from her family to ours was a pair of socks for each of us.  Minons for Jenna, an almost “cat-in-the-hat ‘thing’” socks for me, and superman socks with capes attached for Roland:

Roland and Jenna put their socks on right away. Jenna continued passing out gifts and we continued opening them up one at a time. 

We had each recived a hat for Christmas – all “wrapped” the same way.  Each in a tin can.  Roland’s to Jenna, Jenna’s from Randy and although Jenna had picked out the hat I was wearing, it had been marked from Santa.

Though Jenna wasn’t wearing her hat until the final few pictures. The last two gifts beneath the tree were for her.  Tony has always managed to sent give Jenna her absolute favorite gift of the season.  Last year it was a lap blanket featuring a tiger. 

The year before it was the first six seasons of Psych (see here) 

She opened the gift from Tony first.  She screamed in delight at discovering the game “Encore” which she has asked for each year since we have lived in Tri City. 

The last gift was from her brother, Randy and his family.  It was a Pokémon hat.  So now she has a Pokémon to wear in summer and one for winter:

 Jenna's top three gifts this Christmas: