Celebrating Christ's Season, 2016

Our Christmas card, 2016

(front)

(back)

One of the best parts of celebrating Christ's birth every year is the happy mood most people are in - 

the warm smiles and hugs at church, the laughter at Christmas parties, 

the exhilaration felt when hearing the familiar strains of the Hallelujah Chorus 

and Bing Crosby singing White Christmas. 

There is a "good will toward men" feeling 'most everywhere you go. 

Our December celebrating began on the 1st 

with attending the Chamber of Commerce's Christmas party for volunteers.

It was really also a farewell dinner to all of the volunteers of the Chamber 

because the St. George Chamber is combining with the nearby Washington Chamber, 

moving out of the old historic Courthouse to across the street to a newly renovated building on 1st East. 

The Visitor Information Center, part of the Chamber where I volunteered, 
is combining with the one in the Dixie Center 

and will be moving to a larger place on Main and Tabernacle and state employees will work there, no volunteers.

We were served a nice dinner at the Courtyard Marriott, had a white elephant gift exchange 

and received a thank you gift basket from the Chamber for our service.

I will miss my Tuesday afternoons there. 

I enjoyed meeting tourists from all over the world, 

extolling the many wonderful things to do and see in and around sunny St. George.

Early the next morning, we drove to Mesa 

to attend a performance of the East Valley Millenial Choirs and Orchestras, 

to bask in the magnificent music, 

which delivered Christmas Spirit in abundance.  

 The title of this beautiful night of music summed up that feeling that I talked about 
and with which we all left.

After we arrived at Ryan and Emily's home, we enjoyed a delicious dinner that Emily prepared for us, 

her family and her mom and dad before the concert.

We are so proud of Ryan and Emily's Ben, who sings in one of these choirs.

Proud grandparents Susan and Paul and Roger and I with Ben, his parents and sister, Anna

Ryan with his two sons, Pete and Ben

Pete brought a cute date and Aunt Stacy also came to the concert.

Next morning we got to see Anna perform in a Christmas dance recital . . .

. . . and see Sarah and Becca play in their soccer games.

That evening it was Pete's girl ask boy high school Christmas Dance 

and our grandson looked so handsome posing for pics in front of their home before the dance.

Ryan took us to dinner at a great restaurant in Scottsdale that night, where we met up with Tom and Stacy.
Wish we got a pic. 

Emily was on parent duty helping with the Millenial Choirs Concert, which is performed for two nights. 

We attended church with Ryan, Em and kids next day, then Emily made a tasty dinner for us 

and Stacy and Tom's family that evening.

Again, wish we had a pic.

Their precious family treated us like royalty while we stayed with them and we LOVED being with them!

We transferred over to Stacy and Tom's home for a couple of more days, 

originally planning to help them prepare for a huge party they were asked to host, 

which mercifully got cancelled (long story!)

Anyway, it was a good excuse to get to hang out with their cute family for a while, 

and they, too, are so very good to us, and we love to be around them. 

Stacy treated us to sushi at their favorite sushi place.

To die for!

silly selfie

Another night, Stacy made a yummy dinner of their favorite chicken pasta and Caprice salad.

Night before we left, we got to see Anna cheer at the jv basketball game.

She is a darling cheerleader!

And following that game, Londyn cheered at the varsity game.

Both girls are outstanding gymnists!

We did some other fun things before Christmas, for which we didn't remember to take pics.

We attended a really fun NAI Christmas party at the Cliffside Restaurant, 

where we exchanged nice white elephant gifts AND I won a $50 gift certificate at Cabela's (are you kidding?) 

playing NAI's version of Jeapardy.

The Heritage Choir's Christmas Concert with guest tenor, George Dyer, was beautiful.

Roger and I were so excited to hear George again. 

What a truly gorgeous voice he has.

He sang the part of Christ in Lex D'Azevedo's, Hosanna, in Jerusalem when Roger and I traveled to Israel 

and I sang in the choir for that production. 

He also volunteered his talent in a fundraising concert for SGMT, where Roger and I got to interact with him. 

He is such a kind person.

Our INSTA-CHOIR sounded really beautiful with over 40 singing in our Christmas program on December 18, 

in Sacrament meeting. 

We sang, O Come, Come Emmanuel, which I was inspired to pick after hearing Michael Ballam talk about it 

at BYU Education Week last summer. 

We had a very fine talk following our singing of it about Christmas hymns and it being the first Christian Christmas hymn on record (originated somewhere around the 8th Century), 

and it had a tenor solo within it. We sang a reprise of it following the talk. 

We also sang, O Come All Ye Faithful and Silent Night, with a lovely soprano solo on the first verse.

Rick and Jodie invited us to spend Christmas In SLC with their family.

Our whole family were all together at Thanksgiving, 

which means that our kids' families spend Christmas with the other side of their families.

Jodie's family lives in Ogden, so they always have Christmas morning in their home, 

then go to the Nilson's Christmas party in the afternoon.

Jodie had the house decorated beautifully. This cute tree was put up in our bedroom, which was Josh's room before he left for BYU, then his mission to Hong Kong.

The morning after we arrived, Rick took Roger, Sadie, Katie and Abby skiing at Snow Basin. 

Roger had not skiied there since before the Olympics, 

when they put in two different gondolas to take you up the mountain. 

He couldn't get over how nice it is and how much he enjoyed that day of skiing!

Our precious grandkids under their beautiful upstairs Christmas tree

These decorations remind me of a Christmas Wonderland.

The Nativity in the entryway is so lovely!

I took a pic of this pretty arrangement on their front porch.

Jodie had their dining table so beautifully set.

Roger and I were so happy to be with them to spend Christmas!

On Christmas Eve, Rick treated us to a delicious sushi/bento box meal at Mikado, 

after we had all gone to see Disney's, Sing.

When we returned home, it was time to open a few presents, including jammies and family games.

Blakey really got into it!

This was probably his favorite Christmas yet!

Our favorite part was singing the Christmas songs with Blake.

He would sit on his dad's lap and Rick would ask him, "What do you want to sing?"

He would tap and hold his chin with his two fingers, saying, "How about . . ."

Then he would say the name of one, which ranged from, Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" 

to Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer to Deck the Halls 

to Away in A Manger to

 I Am A Child of God.

When we finished each song, we would all cheer and clap.

He/we LOVED it!

After Blake went to bed, we returned to the living room and played some fun games, 

the girls read out loud and showed pictures in a beautiful book about the Christmas Story, 

then we each shared one of our favorite scriptures and talked about it. 

There were lots of tears of joy as we felt the love for our Savior and for each other.

What a truly special Christmas Eve it was!

Next morning we all gathered in the family room downstairs and Blake passed out presents to each of us. 

Jodie would hand one to him, 

tell him who it was for and he would excitedly bring it to him/her and help them open it. 

The three sisters showing their gifts to each other

Rick took care of the wrappings as each gift was opened, one at a time

It is so very appropriate that Christmas was on Sunday this year. 

Following a delicious Christmas brunch Jodie served of two different breakfast casseroles, 

we attended Sacrament meeting (the other two meetings were not held on Christmas) 

where Rick was able to attend his own ward since being called into the Stake Presidency 

and attending different wards in the stake every week. 

The choir (Katie sings in it) performed a lovely program, after which Rick heart-warmingly spoke at the end.

Singing songs on my iPad with Blake

After church, Rick, Jodie and kids went to Nilson's and we drove to have Christmas dinner 

at Roger's mom's in Ogden. 

She cooked a turkey breast and a ham with ham sauce and lots of good side dishes (Susie made funeral potatoes and 24 hour salad). Grandma made rolls, pie, peanut brittle and corn pops. 

This woman is amazing!

What a treat it was to be with her on Christmas Day!

One of her highlights of the Christmas season was receiving this book from Steve Young via Stacy.

Stacy gave an autographed copy to each couple in our family at Thanksgiving and sent one to Grandma.

Here is the inscription in Grandma's, and boy, did it tickle her! 

She said she couldn't wait to show it to her Club girls!

Several of Scott's and Susie's kids and grandkids came to Christmas dinner 

and they were all excited to talk about Steve's book and also loved the inscription 

and seeing how pleased Grandma was.

We had to hurry and be back at Rick's because Elder Josh was going to call at 8 pm from Hong Kong.

Oh boy, were we all excited!

This pic speaks for itself!

It was so awesome to see his smiling face and hear in his voice how very happy he is!

Towards the end of the hour-long conversation, Josh told us he received a call 
from the mission president the day before and he asked him 

to be his AP - 
Assistant to the President.

He has served in Macau, the New Territories, Macau, and now he will be transferred to Kowloon 

to live in the Mission Headquarters across from the Hong Kong Temple.

Now the family is complete for the pic!

Immediately after disconnecting iChat, 

there was a huge collective sigh, then everyone burst into tears!
Of course they are happy tears, but we all miss him!

This is his tough sister, Sadie, who says all of the time that she never cries!

On the 27th, we drove up past Huntsville to John Rees's home for the annual Houseboat Gang's Christmas Party. 

It is usually at Jerry's in Deer Valley, but this year he invited Steve Young's extended family, 

(they have traded favors) to stay there through New Year's Day.

So Stacy and family were just arriving there as we were partying here.

Kind of a funny twist!

John had a delicious roast beef catered dinner ready for us.

I just grabbed a quick pic of some of them as we were leaving.

I love Roger's classmates and we always have fun getting together.

Rog took a quick pic of me with Carol Gibson and Liz Taylor.

We stopped to see Mindy, Jeff and kids on our way back to St. George on Wednesday. 

Mindy said there is a pic of Rog and I by Fiona's bed and every morning she wakes up 
and asks where Grandma/Grandpa Twinkle are.

I guess that's our new name because she loves for me to pull up the cute version of Twinkle, Twinkle on YouTube 

and sing along with it.

The kids got to stay in their jammies all day if they wanted to because it's Christmas vacation!

To cap off 2015, we got to attend this annual event, which is an amazing food fest 

at Lorin and Kathy's every year 

and the entire branch plus all the neighbors in our neighborhoods are invited!

Roger and I went over a couple of hours before it started to help and we just barely 
got everything ready in time.

The Nielsens are so kind and generous to do this every year and everyone loves it - well over 100 come every year!

Kathy, me and new convert, Holly,
who joined the church with her husband after they moved into Sunbrook

So to end the world's longest post,

Roger and I wish everyone a Happy, Happy New Year with lots of love, laughter and good health!