Michael's Visit

My little brother flew in for a short visit over New Year's Eve. Connie, Michael and I snapped this picture at her house one of the evenings he was here. He and I are almost exactly 10 years apart. My sisters and I all sure wanted a baby brother and still think he is the best thing ever.

Henrie Family Christmas Party

Doran and Nancy were kind enough to invite the whole family over for a giant pizza party at their house. Devin didn't disappoint with the variety of games he brought to share. Nathan and Becca have made a card game with a werewolf theme that everyone enjoyed playing.

Devin, Bailey, Jessica

  Warren and Doran playing with the little kids in the toy room.

Careful if you fall asleep at the party.

Around the table: Wendell, Brittany, Riley, Spencer, Justin, Debbie, Annie

Christmas Day

Now that we have married children, we have to share our children on Christmas.

This year We had everyone at home. With no little children, we didn't get started until after 10.

Tyler, Melanie, and Jessica opening their stockings.

Melanie picked out most of her Christmas gifts herself. I wanted to make sure she had something that would be a big surprise. I was able to secretly with Connie's help put this together and get it all quilted and bound without her knowing.

Of course there were games when we were finished opening gifts.

Some of my Christmas gifts:  New pajamas (from Jessica and Clayton) and a new outfit (From Connie)

                                                                                                                                                   

Christmas Eve in Orem

A happy memory: When Tyler and Bethany made a video of their singing to Kara while she was on her mission.  This was Kara's first time seeing the video.

Dad, Jessica, and Clayton

Andrea, Graig, and Melanie

Melanie, Tyler, Bethany, and Ashlyn

Emily and Kara

Rosanne and Mom

Connie and David

Mary and Warren

Connie and her girls put together a Christmas Eve game to play.  They wrapped small gifts (paid for by Dad) into a saran wrap ball.  A roll of the dice decided how long you had to try and uncover a gift. 

Traditional Caroling to the neighbors. Graig was playing his violin.

Mom, Bethany, and Tyler hanging out by the Christmas tree while most of the rest of the family was chatting with Megan in Tonga.

It was a great night.

Holiday Fun

Melanie and Ethan came to hang out with Warren and I at the doTERRA Christmas party. The dinner was delicious, the comedian very funny, and I won tickets to take the family to see Mary Poppins over Christmas break.

We got a pretty good snow storm the middle of December. There wasn't a lot of snow on Christmas day but this storm sure got the snow season off to a roaring start.

I was asked to help teach the CTR 7 class during December. I let the children know about my love for nativities and brought a "show and tell" nativity from my collection each week. I just loved the opportunity it gave me to testify of Jesus Christ's birth each week. One Sunday we had just 20 minutes for a lesson and so I brought my live nativity kit and the children had time to act out the nativity story twice. I snapped this picture and we gave it to all of the children with a bag of white chocolate peppermint popcorn as a Christmas gift. Henry said that acting out the Nativity story was the best Primary lesson ever. (I'm not sure if it was the actual lesson he liked or the fact that our class was only 20 minutes.)

On December 19 we got to help welcome home Kara Atkisson from her mission in North Carolina. We met at the Atkisson's house for soup and hugs and catching up. I love to see that my children have a relationship with their cousins. I have very happy memories growing up and having my cousins be very good friends.

On December 23, the first Presidency of the church encouraged us to invite someone to a special 1-hour Sacrament meeting celebrating the birth of Christ.  I invited Melanie and Tyler to come and watch me sing with the ward choir and they came. (That meant a lot to me.) When our church was finished, we ran up to Draper to attend the Atkisson's sacrament meeting where Kara was giving her mission report. I couldn't think of a better way to spend the Sunday before Christmas.

Joyful and Truimphant

I took the challenge offered on one of the podcasts I like to choose a word or phrase upon which to base my Holiday Season. Bonus points if it was in a Christmas song so that it would be all the more memorable. I choose the phrase:

Joyful and Triumphant

from the song "Oh Come all ye Faithful".

I really enjoyed deciding how to use my time during December based on the test of whether or not the activity would help me feel joyful and Triumphant.

I listened to a version of "Oh Come all ye Faithful" everyday and it just so happened that the ward choir sang that song for the Christmas Sacrament meeting program. (One of two songs we sang as a choir.) The song was even spoken of in the First Presidency Christmas devotional. (Faithful leads to joyful and triumphant)

I was determined not to get wrapped up in a craft for the neighbors this year. Then I realized that coming up with a craft and lovingly putting it together was something that made me feel joyful. The best part was that Melanie spent hours working alongside me helping with the design and implementation.

When looking for an idea, we walked around Hobby Lobby.  I saw a block with this message and fell in love with the message.

My very talented friend, Sarah Brown, designed me a new logo we cut out of vinyl and Melanie and I experimented with mod podge, wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, paint, ribbon, and bows.

 Melanie spend an afternoon making some lovely and festive flower arrangements for us to give some really special people. We got to keep one for our table, as well.

Warren and I have a large number of neighbors and friends we want to show our love with a small gift at Christmas.  In addition to the "Jesus is the Gift" blocks, I also made many batches of peppermint white chocolate popcorn. The popcorn got great reviews.

Melanie shopped for most of her gifts this year. I wanted to make sure there was something under the tree that would be a surprise.  She made it known, even though she didn't go away to college she still wanted her t-shirt quilt finished. My sweet sister Connie took hours out of her day to help me layout and sew into rows the many t-shirts. Once I had the top put together, Connie machine quilted it with minky on the back. Melanie was thrilled to have it finished and I did manage to keep it a secret.

 My quilting day with Connie we took a break to visit the Festival of Trees. Emily was performing. There were some very clever displays with a nativity theme.  These are two of my favorites.