Merry Christmas!

The Saturday before Dave and I left for India was very hectic. I was racing to finish the last of the errands and trying to enjoy the warm chaos that being the mother of five children brings. We had seen Santa the night before at the ward party, something I thought would accomplish the all-important "request moment" for the kids. But Santa completely forgot himself and didn't even ASK the kids what they wanted. I was seriously considering a trip to the mall to secure the kids that their wishes were known, but how to fit one more thing in? Then as I began unloading the groceries, who should pull into our drive but Santa himself! He came in, took a photo with us, asked each child what they wanted and generally was in no hurry to leave. I count this as one of the blessings we acquired for obeying the Spirit. Visit with Santa: check!

We got home four days before Christmas. The night we arrived a HUGE snow storm hit! We must have gotten more than a foot of snow. The kids went out and created a gigantic snowman, taller than 6'. I intended to take a shot of it, but trust me, it was impressive. Our little engineers built a ramp to load the heavy middle and large head ontop of the bottom. It was hard to imagine that the day before I was warm and cozy...

Parker gave us a couple intense days leading up to Christmas. It all came to a head Christmas Eve when he was demanding to know if Santa was real. I felt led in our conversation as to how I should respond. I challenged him with questions: what are you really worried about? Are you worried that he isn't real or that you are not going to have Christmas? Do you have to see and understand something for it to be true? Finally, I asked him to play "what if" with me. What if Santa is real? Then he always was real and things will continue on pretty much as they always have. What if Santa is not real? Then he never was real and things will continue on pretty much as they always have. The impact to Parker is null. Would you know, that little bit of logic spoke to him and we actually had a little bit of peace where there had been very little.

Christmas eve was spent with the Bramwells up in Layton. Mom, who is still recovering from her knee surgeries, had been hustling around the day before doing too much and fell... hence she required a little more R&R than she had anticipated for the event. But we had a very nice, simple dinner of soup, salad, and rolls. I brought up the confections from India and everyone really enjoyed tasting the selections. The kids put together and presented the nativity ON THEIR OWN with Ben reading the narrative from Luke. Then we all sat around and sang Christmas carols. We are starting to sound full and good as the kids grow up, we even had harmony. I enjoyed the evening so much that I forgot to snap any pictures until the end when all the kids had gone in to convalesce with Mom.

Aleah was the first one up Christmas morning. I remember trying to pull myself out of sleep to understand that she was ready to go down and open her present. She was concerned a little that she had two and maybe that was too many. She was patient, though, and waited a bit for everyone else to reach consciousness.

Discovering what Santa brought is always fun.

While we were in India, Katie and Johnny helped the kids draw names to give to, and took them out shopping for their gifts. THANKS GUYS! I thought it was particularly sweet that each of them opened the present from their sibling first. They are getting a taste for the joy of giving. Incidentally these are not necessarily the presents they got for each other, just shots of each child I liked best.

Wes and Anna brought our presents down and we had a nice visit and listened to a disk they gave us. After they left we finished our food assignments, Dave went to sip a hot chocolate with a lady in a care center, and then we headed down to Christmas dinner with them. It was only us there!!! We got off synch the Dave's siblings at Thanksgiving and so we had a quiet time with the Parishes. The food, of course was great. They had given us Apples to Apples and we had a good time playing that together. We watched the Sissel Christmas DVD, the Gordon B. Hinckley documentary, and finally a Christmas Carol.

It's hard for me to believe, with all the events of this week, that we have been home just a week. I cooked Indian tonight and had Wes and Anna over on the spur. They enjoyed the evening and looked at our pictures and let us share our trip. I love this break in the year when everything slows down and we are able to connect with our family at heart. And we have one more week of it!!! Merry Christmas everyone! My heart is full of love for you all.