Christmas Morning: First Stop -- Stockings!

      Getting ready to go get stockings and presents!  Only poor little Jenna woke up with a fever and sore throat and slept most of the day. 

 

 

 

Christmas Eve!!

Yesterday in church Janika sang "The Nativity Song" and all of the Primary kids signed it.  It was so sweet!  Christmas was different for us this year because we decided to stay in St. George instead of going up North to Salt Lake and Ogden for Christmas like we usually do.  This is the first time we haven't been with extended family on Christmas the whole time we have been married (18 years)! 

Christmas Eve day was spent cleaning the house -- fun fun!  We had a lovely meal mid afternoon of ham, cheesy potatoes, vegetables, and salad.  After dinner clean up we dressed up and then walked to "Bethlehem."  We were originally planning on going to a cave up the canyon and making a fire, but it had rained last night and would have been muddy and cold.  So we decided to make the "cave" in our basement instead.  I think it was a good call -- especially with little kids.  We dressed up and went for a walk down the street.  We ended up back at our house where we were turned away at the Inn but we were led to the place where we could meet baby Jesus.

The kids packed their food to bring -- goat cheese, prunes, nuts, beef jerky, and pita bread.  Rick read part of the Christmas Story from the Bible and the kids meet baby Jesus, brought their gifts, and then ate their food.  Then we roasted marshmallows (I don't think that is part of the Christmas Story, but it was fun anyway)!   Then the kids got to open one gift (pajamas) and then we watched the Westra family slide show on our computer.  The three oldest kids wanted to help put out gifts.  I stayed up for a couple of hours writing a letter to each of the kids (which has been a Christmas tradition of mine). 

 

 

 

Letter from Jase!!

 

Gingerbread Houses and Treats!

Jared's Letter to Santa

Dear Santa:

I was good this year.  Well, maybe I was kinda bad...okay I was bad this year.  I am still going to tell you what I want for Christmas.  A Unicycle.  I want a unicycle or else I will never be able to ride with joy ever again.  So sad, like that is never, ever again.

I need a unicycle because I need people to see me ride it.  Movie Directors will say, "Oh, he can ride a unicycle.  I need him for a movie."  Well, the movie is a hit and I become rich and famous...but to do that, I need a unicycle.

Another reason I need a new unicycle is my old one broke.  I loved that unicycle.  It is almost impossible to ride because my seat falls off every time I ride it.  That is not joy, Santa.  I need to ride a ride-able unicycle.

Last reason, every kid needs to have fun some time in life.  Riding my old unicycle, I realized I had a ton of fun.  When it broke, I was sad I couldn't ride it well.  It is hard for me to have fun when I ride my old unicycle.  I'm crying right now.  Those are my tears.

Santa, in return, I will give you Ms. Lees homemade milk and cookies.  They taste really good.  Like I am talking good.  They are the best cookies ever. 

From your favorite bad kid,

Jared Jensen

P.S.  I like unicycles.

Tragic

I finally brought myself to go on-line and read through all of the profiles of the innocent children and women who were brutally murdered in Connecticut.  As I read about them and saw their sweet pictures, I cried and cried.  Later on when I went to Josh's first grade activity of decorating gingerbread houses and looked around at all of our own sweet six year old children, I had a hard time holding back the tears again.  So sad. 

My ASL Class!