Christmastime, Pandemic-style

Knowing that we, just the two of us, would be celebrating Christmas at our home in St. George, 

we still went through all of the motions getting ready for Christmas. 

After all, it is the celebration of our Savior's birth, and that, in itself, is worth all of the excited preparations! 

Last Christmas, we were in Phnom Penh, Vietnam, with Rick and Jodie's family, which is such a fun memory and probably the most unusual Christmas we ever had. This year, we wanted to do all of the traditional things, 

even though we couldn't be with our kids.

This is our Christmas card, 2020.

Front

     Back

We hung our stockings and put Christmas cards on our mantle . . .

. . . decked the halls . . .

This is the new light-up paper cutout Nativity scene 

we purchased at the famous post office in Phnom Penh.

. . . and made friends and neighbor treats. For the last several years we have shared our homemade granola. 

For many years, Steve and Barb Young have sent us this delicious English toffee from a small candy shop 

run by a mother and daughter. 

There was a note from the company that this will be their last Christmastime in business,

so I took a picture to remind us of this delicious treat!

Our kids are always so generous to us in their gift-giving. 

We had received our gifts from them and had them under the tree, then a surprise came 

on Christmas Eve from Stacy. It was so pretty and festive!

Dinner for two for Christmas 

was bone-in ham and ham sauce, candied yams, smashed potatoes and asparagus. 

We had some sour cream lemon pie from Croshaw's for dessert.

We chatted on iChat most of the day with our kids  - best part of Christmas!

We got a couple of cute dressed-up Sprite bottles for neighbor gifts.

We fixed a New Year's Eve King crab leg dinner for two with cremini mushroom and asparagus rice 

and fresh orange coconut cream ambrosia. Couldn't party, so we ate!

Dessert was a chocolate s'mores dump cake. It was pretty rich, but, hey, we had to celebrate!

New Year's Day feast was our favorite, wedge salad . . . 

. . . and grilled rib-eye steak with compound butter and baked potatoes.

2020 hasn't been all bad. 

We got some deep-dive projects done and others started, 

the Gospel studied more intently, 

and many new and tried and true recipes prepared and eaten. 

(The last thing mentioned has been both a blessing and a curse!)

My e-library bookshelf is overflowing with books I have read.

Now, if I just could remember the names of any of them; it was confusing going from one to the next, 

trying to not search for the characters in the previous book in the one I was reading!

Like so many have said, as this year wound up, I have learned to appreciate what is truly important 

and more fully cherish relationships with family and friends.

We are so grateful that Lois was able to celebrate her 95th birthday 

and we still have her to love and cherish 

and we added a new member to our ever-expanding family with Sadie marrying Joe. 

Life keeps going forward and we are grateful we are here to be a part of it!