Christmas

 And thou shalt call His name Jesus: for he shall save His people from their sins. Matthew 1:21.  Did you know that the name "Jesus" means to deliver, to rescue"? Our greatest hope is that our children and grandchildren will grow in their faith of our Savior and accept Him as their personal Savior and Deliverer.  

Five days before Christmas we had tickets to take a bunch of the grandkids to see "A Christmas Story"  at Centerpoint Legacy Theater.  Roy and I were going to take them, but since we'd seen it, we offered the tickets to Dan and Jieun and they bravely accepted.  Caitlyn and Dallin went along as support.  

We brought Greta and Bridget down to go to the play.  They were going to stay from the 20th until the 26th.  Crista was planning to come down on the evening of the 21st.  The best laid plans often get thwarted.  Matt (in Logan) and Ruby and Greta (in Centerville) all got the stomach bug.  Roy drove them home.  We could have kept them, but they wanted their mom, (and I wanted my sleep :)  Greta was wearing this outfit handed down to her from Ila (Ila is one year younger than Greta, but obviously taller).  She put the hat on her head and asked me to take her picture. Then, of course, she wanted to see it.  

One wonderful tradition that we have implemented the last several years in our family, is to have the kids reenact the Christmas Story.  Crista has taken charge and helps the kids put it together each year.  This year we added a few actual costumes to the mix, but she still used some random towels and scarves.  Crista also found some masks and beards which greatly enhanced the enjoyment of the children in producing their play.

The three Wise men (Gunnar, Ori, and Hyeji)

                    Assorted animals in the stable: Greta, Avie, Dojin and Avie unmasked.

                     Shepherds, Finn and Ila.                                     Joseph, and Mary "riding the donkey"                                                                                       Yuna, Ruby, and Ollie)

And don't forget Effie, acting as a little piggy

The audience; Jennie, Camden, Todd, Roy;  Bridget

Before the play, we enjoyed a feast of crab, ham, rolls, salads, cheeses, and various other delights.  

Ila, Greta, Ruby, Avie, Effie, Bridget, Finn and Ori;              Crista and Todd

The Spread! and lots of Cooks in the kitchen

Ruby, Ori and Effie enjoying cousin time

Adrienne's boys adore their baby cousins.  Ori and Yuli; Finn and Yuli.

And finally--Time for presents.  This year was a nightgown and pajama year.  

And they all got aprons--made by grandma:

       Yuli's nightgown was a bit large.               I couldn't resist using this picture of Ila.

    The Jackson kids in their new aprons in Georgia.  As usual, the kids were very good to me and dad.  

Dallin, Caitlyn, Avie, Effie, Ori and Finn;  Todd and Jordon

These kids must love Christmas Eve because they get to open presents from grandpa and grandma, and also exchange gifts with their cousins.  Ila was so excited she could hardly keep herself from opening her present to Greta.  She also opened one of her presents under their tree--it was a sweater.  In order not to get caught, she put two shirts over the sweater and wore it until she got too hot--and caught!

Dojin

Matt with Todd and Bridget; Camden reading his new book

Avie and Bridget

Christmas Morning

Hyeji, Doyeon, Dojin and Yuna in their Christmas Jammies.  They all got screen time glasses (from Santa?)

The Nick Rasband family got a Karaoke machine;  Camden reading his book with Sara;
Nick eating panettone with Ori.  This picture was in response to Roy's text question: Which of my children have carried on our Christmas Morning tradition of eating Panettone?  I think all of them but Jennie and Caitlyn responded affirmatively.



We were fortunate to have Crista and Matt spend Christmas morning at our house.  It was fun to have children with us on Christmas.

Ruby bought these dolls for her sisters with her own money.

Finn slept with his two baby Yodas.  One from his Georgia cousin, and the other from Santa

Our last Christmas activity for 2021 was to drive down to Santaquin to see Grandpa Rasband.  He has been asking us for some time to do a musical program at his care center, so with Crista's help, we finally got one put together.  Again we had to deal with illness--Adrienne's family and Nick's family didn't feel well enough to attend.  Grandpa was pretty happy to show off his family.

Dan and Jieun with Todd;    Jennie and Crista singing together.

These kids led the audience in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  Bridget was doing a cute little twirling dance, but Ruby thought it was inappropriate and pulled her back to the group.

Jennie on the piano;   Catharine on the violin.  Adrienne and I were supposed to do a duet.  Crista and I improvised.  Luckily she had the same piece written as a solo. We played it on the fly--amazingly it went okay.

Doyeon played Jingle Bells on her ukulele

Crista on the piano

The Dan Rasband clan, Ruby, Bridget and Matt being very good to watch and perform.

                                                                             Hyeji performed on the piano

Here Grandpa is singing along!

At the end of the program, Matt supplied all the children with puns so they could go to each elderly person individually and read the a joke.  They loved it!  Both the children and the old folks.