We had a great family celebration on Christmas Eve. That is our big family get together with a festive meal, Nativity reenactment, and a visit from Santa Claus. Not everyone came but we did have eight of our sixteen kids with their spouses and 32 Grandchildren; 50 all told which is just short of half the family. Mary was back from Michigan, Suz from Arizona before they move to Mexico, John from Florida, Bina from California; Al, Doug, Mike and Emily from Utah. And oh yes, Cookiedough the pet rat, and Tallula the red parrot.
It was a gala event! We had a meal and that gang went through a 15 pound rib eye roast, mounds of mashed potatoes, salads of all kinds and pies everywhere. It was pretty festive.We had a mammoth Family Home Evening and sang carols. There were comments from Opa, Al and Paul's kids enacted the Book of Mormon predictions of the coming of Christ with Samuel the Lamanite up on the wall calling everyone to repentance. James memorized big blocks of scripture so we did not have to read; William and Peter were the Lamanites and William had his Nerf cross bow and they threw balled up paper rocks. Last year, William nailed Samuel the Lamanite right between the eyes. We told him he was suppose to miss. "I practiced missing Opa". He missed Samuel but managed to shoot several things off the piano.
We have always tried to act out the Nativity in our family as the children grew up which is now getting to be quite a production. I had Doug act as stage manager organizing the rather large flock of sheep with many Shepards. He gave them their cues and I read from Luke 2. It is just a wonderful happy time.Santa then made his appearance and passes out gifts to all who will not be there Xmas morning. That was wild as well and luckily Mary picked up some things for the grand kids while we were in China. The guys got ties.
When we lived in Michigan, Christmas morning was a big thing. It was the only time of the year we bought boxed cereal in the store and each one got their own big individual box of Fruit Loops or Cocoa Pops. We are not doing that now as most have Christmas with their families but we do a little Christmas gift giving with those who are staying in our home for the Holiday. It is a great time of the year and there is wall to wall joy.
Speaking of joy, here is my 15 year old Grandaughter's reaction (Natalie, Emily's daughter) to getting her new cell phone for Christmas.It was grand, it was fun and it was family wall to wall. Einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr wuenschen wir Allen. Always wanted to say that.
Love, Opa
5 comments:
It is hard to describe the energy, chaos, noise, and joy at those family events at your house. It is hard to hear yourself think let alone keep track of all the kids and keep them from sneaking into the candy.
You forgot to mention that cookie dough the rat was on the loose and so was Suz's parrot. Or maybe you didn't know because there was too much going on
It was fun and memorable
I thought it was funny when Doug huddled all the children around him to give them the "game plan" for acting out the nativity. Fun memories-thanks!
Grandpa--that is funny you put a link to that video. I was so surprised and happy. ha ha.
Natalie
It sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas with your family! I still remember you and Elder Hansen handing out gifts at zone conference in Munich. Dave and I were sad we weren't able to see you while in Utah. We had some mis-adventures in the snow on Christmas night that messed up our schedule for the rest of the trip. We'll catch you next time!
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