Dear Family,
We had the best Christmas Eve celebration with many of our kids and grandkids. We usually put on a great dinner to which Doug and family, Emily and family, Mike and his gang, Suz and family, Rebecca and family all came with John and his family from Alpine. I believe we had about 50 over for dinner.
We served our traditional rib roast for the adults, sirloin roast for the kids and I even had a venison roast, (from the deer I just harvested the week before), slow cooked in a German recipe sauce. I did not tell too many what that was but it was gone! It was really good! Doug said that was the best of all them meat dishes. Everyone went to a lot of trouble to bring the sides, buns, salads, vegetable dishes, snacks and of course wonderful desserts. It was a great joint service with we providing the meat course and everyone else brought an ample supply of goodies. It was all eaten!
After dinner, we had our program which featured Mike and his family on the Bells playing Christmas songs.
We then had the reenactment of the nativity scene which has been a fun tradition over the years. Former players in our home In Michigan now have their own children as players.
Keeping up with the times, I read from Luke and Mathew from the scriptures on my iPad. There is Kaley in the background following the dialog on her iPhone, Mike hooked me up to a loud speaker so I could read above the din. (With so many Apple computers, iPads, iPhones and iPods given out at Xmas, our network was overloaded!) Anyway, it is always a sacred time to read from the scripture about the birth of the Savior and all were respectful.
Here is Tilly and Anthony as Joseph and Mary with Annalise as the baby. Before we started, I asked Joseph to say the opening prayer,(meaning Joseph Wirthlin), but Anthony stood up and gave an appropriate prayer. Later when I asked why Anthony stood up, the reply was "well he was playing Joseph!"
We had a huge cast of players including Tommy with an impala hide on his back as the donkey. Shining stars, Angles, Wise Men and Shepards were all there and it was a great time. We sang Silent Night (I always sing it quietly in German) and it was on to the next event,
We had a visit from Santa, (this year Johnny Hickey) who passed out candy canes full of M&M's as the treat. All maintained they were nice and not naughty for Santa.
Then there was the "White Elephant" Xmas gift exchanged. There were some pretty good item in the pile. The kids went nuts. I got a bar of Naptha soap!
Becca and her family celebrated Christmas morning with us and opened gifts. Mom got an iPhone 5 and is having a ball with it. I got a belgian Waffle maker and have used it to feed the hungry horde. We went to Suz for breakfast brunch and later went to Cathy's for evening Fondue. We were pretty bushed after this. I slept for 11 hours straight. It has been non stop family fun blast and it is still going on!
Merry Xmas to all, Mom and Dad
We had the best Christmas Eve celebration with many of our kids and grandkids. We usually put on a great dinner to which Doug and family, Emily and family, Mike and his gang, Suz and family, Rebecca and family all came with John and his family from Alpine. I believe we had about 50 over for dinner.
We served our traditional rib roast for the adults, sirloin roast for the kids and I even had a venison roast, (from the deer I just harvested the week before), slow cooked in a German recipe sauce. I did not tell too many what that was but it was gone! It was really good! Doug said that was the best of all them meat dishes. Everyone went to a lot of trouble to bring the sides, buns, salads, vegetable dishes, snacks and of course wonderful desserts. It was a great joint service with we providing the meat course and everyone else brought an ample supply of goodies. It was all eaten!
We then had the reenactment of the nativity scene which has been a fun tradition over the years. Former players in our home In Michigan now have their own children as players.
Keeping up with the times, I read from Luke and Mathew from the scriptures on my iPad. There is Kaley in the background following the dialog on her iPhone, Mike hooked me up to a loud speaker so I could read above the din. (With so many Apple computers, iPads, iPhones and iPods given out at Xmas, our network was overloaded!) Anyway, it is always a sacred time to read from the scripture about the birth of the Savior and all were respectful.
We had a huge cast of players including Tommy with an impala hide on his back as the donkey. Shining stars, Angles, Wise Men and Shepards were all there and it was a great time. We sang Silent Night (I always sing it quietly in German) and it was on to the next event,
Becca and her family celebrated Christmas morning with us and opened gifts. Mom got an iPhone 5 and is having a ball with it. I got a belgian Waffle maker and have used it to feed the hungry horde. We went to Suz for breakfast brunch and later went to Cathy's for evening Fondue. We were pretty bushed after this. I slept for 11 hours straight. It has been non stop family fun blast and it is still going on!
Merry Xmas to all, Mom and Dad
No comments:
Post a Comment