Happy Birthday Warren!

Melanie told him he was too old to have 48 candles.

 We had a small family party and then took the kids to see "The Hobbit" before they went to their New Year's Parties.  I'm glad he was born.  I'm grateful for the exemplary life he lives

Warren got a new garage door opener for his birthday.  (The old one could no longer pull up the garage door.)  He and Tyler and Melanie installed it on New Year's Day.  Maria gave him some chocolate bars.

I'm glad he was born.  I'm grateful for the exemplary life he lives.

Snowmen

All three of our teenagers were pretty excited about the snow.  Maria really wanted a white Christmas and she got her wish.  The pipe Melanie's snowman has in his mouth was made from a toothpick and a peanut shell.  She used candy for the eyes.

 Tyler and Maria's favorite place to hang out is Tori's house.  They made this snowman one day after their swim workout.

Christmas Trains

Maria wanted to make sure she participated in as many America Christmas traditions as possible.  She wanted to make a gingerbread house but when she and Tyler went shopping for a kit, all they could find was these Christmas trains.  They found time to put them together this afternoon.

Henrie Family Christmas Party

It is always a fun party when the Henries get together.  We played card games, had a taco bar and an ice cream Sunday bar.  We also just took time to catch up.  Next time we get together will be Jessica's homecoming.

Tree of Life in Draper.  There was a beautiful light display in one of the Draper city parks.  We heard about it on the internet and decided to stop by on our way home from the party.

White Christmas in Neola

We decided to take our Christmas on the road this year and spend it in Neola with mom and dad Henrie.  We new it would be a lonely Christmas for them without any of their children.

Before we left, we let each of the kids open one gift.  Not all of the gifts would fit in the car and so we left a few under the tree to open at a later time.

The roads were really good and we made good time getting to Neola.  By the time we did our Christmas Program for Warren's mom and dad and then sang some Christmas carols, they were ready for bed. 

Melanie was excited to begin working on the paint by number given to her from Maria.

 Tyler and Maria went to work on the doTERRA puzzle I got as a gift at my company party.

Looking at their stockings Christmas morning.

Melanie got another paint by number.

Maria showing off her new photo album with her adventures in America so far.

One of the best parts of Christmas was getting to see the smiling faces of Jessica and Graigry on Skype.  They both seem really happy.

It snowed during the night on Christmas Eve and so Maria got her wish for a white Christmas.  We left the day after Christmas to head back to Lehi.

Christmas FHE

We were planning to head to Neola on Christmas Eve and so we got together with the g'ma and g'pa Anderson and the Atkissons on Monday evening for a Christmas FHE.

We had a delicious turkey dinner with lots of yummy dessert.  Most of the family went downstairs for a game of "blow pong" to work off their dinner.

We then moved to the living room where we did our Christmas Program for the family.  The Atkissons then sang some songs for us.  We passed out presents and had an early Christmas.

We ended the evening by singing every Christmas song we could think of.

Family Christmas Program

A family tradition that didn't happen last year is back!  We even recruited Maria to participate.  Our first idea was to do the symbols of Christmas program from a few years ago but it didn't feel right.  In light of the "share the gift" campaign the church is doing we decided to stick with the basics, each of us is reading a part of the Christmas story from the Bible.  

"Silent Night" v. 1 & 3 

accompanied by Maria on the guitar

sung by Warren, Mary, Tyler, and Melanie

"Little One"

accompanied by Mary on the piano

versus sung by Melanie, chorus by everyone

"Angels we have Heard on High"

by Melanie on the flute

"Shepherd Boy"

accompanied by Mary on the piano

sung by Warren and Tyler

"Oh Holy Night"

by Tyler on the bass

accompanied by Mary on the piano

"We Wish You a Merry Christmas"

sung by the whole family

We did six programs tonight for some of our favorite people.  Watching us do the program made Zina Gifford cry because she remembered how much her husband Myron liked it when we came to do a program.  It also made Peggy Williams cry.  She thanked us for bringing the spirit into her home.  She has some health problems that keep her from coming to church.  The picture is at the Williams home.

Christmas Choir Program

Today was my second favorite Sacrament Meeting of the year.  (The first is the annual Primary program.) The ward choir sang "Oh, Holy Night", "What Child is This?", and "Silent Night" as the traditional finale with Missy Arnold playing a descant on her flute and Joyce on the Organ and the congregation joining in on the third verse.  In a terrifying moment in the program (because I was the accompanist) Tyler and Warren sang a duet, "Shepherd Boy".  Their singing was beautiful and they got lots of compliments.  The primary children sang, "Little One" and we Henrie's helped them out from where we were sitting in the choir seats.  The Terry family were the speakers.  Jason gave a great talk on how he decided he will be more obedient as a gift to Jesus.  Jilaire talked about how well Christ used his time on Earth.    I don't think I can remember a time in my life when I watched a ward Christmas program from the audience.  What a blessing it is to join my voice in the choir to sing praises to God for the gift of his Son.

Ward Christmas Party

The ward party began with a visit to Santa Clause.  Maria had never sat on Santa's lap and was very excited for her chance.  Neither she or Tyler could think of anything they wanted to ask Santa to bring them.

 After Santa they had breakfast for dinner.  Ward members brought egg casseroles and the YW and YM cooked pancakes.  There was a service project where ward members could write a letter to the missionaries serving from our ward and they collected goodies to send to the missionaries.  The missionaries who are teaching in our area joined us for part of the party and we took a picture with them.  Brother Jason Willes had a family feud style game that we all played as a ward.

LHS Fine Arts Concert

I love Christmas Concerts.  This was #3 for the season.  It was fun to see the LHS fine arts groups do a combined concert for Christmas.  My favorite orchestra song was Sleigh Ride.  Tyler looked pretty handsome in his Dad's suit.