Alpine Lodge: Christmas Day

This has been a wonderful Christmas. I love that Christmas fell on Sunday this year. This is the perfect way to really reflect on our Savior and the role he plays in our lives. Being able to celebrate his birth along with the rest of the world helps to keep the real meaning of Christmas in perspective. We attended church this morning where I was able to sing in the choir. I was also part of a small group of women who sang "Gesu Bambino". I thoroughly enjoy singing and listening to the sacred music of Christmas. I am so grateful to know that my Savior lived and died for me......that He made it possible for me to return to Heavenly Father through His atoning sacrifice. I am so grateful for family.....and that we can be an eternal family. Nothing is better than that! And, as part of an eternal family, I want all my grandchildren to know who the Savior is. Several weeks ago I started teaching Colton to recognize pictures of the Savior and repeating "Jesus" as I pointed to pictures. It was a thrill for me to have Dave walk Colton over to this picture of the Savior in our home and ask him who it was. Colton promptly answered "Jesus". That is who is most important at Christmas time. That is who we should and need to focus on.

I loved the nativity set that John brought home from Bethlehem for he and Angelica. It is really quite beautiful. I have always enjoyed nativities and have collected quite a few. He brought me one from Bethlehem, too, but it is not quite so elaborate.

Having said all that......I also enjoy the Santa part of Christmas! Traditionally, in our family, the kids come wake us up and Dad tells them to go brush their teeth while he gets up. They return, usually to find that Dad is still in bed, which causes LOTS of yelling at him to get up. They are not allowed to go in where the Christmas tree is until he tells them it is okay. Dad finally gets up and tells the kids to stay out while he goes in and fights the Evil Elves to make sure all will be safe when the children come into the room. The fire is usually roaring and Christmas music is playing. The video camera is set up and the kids are finally told they can come in. They line up and file into the room to see what Santa brought. And, depending on how many kids are home, the Christmas packages are piled way out into the room! We try to have the kids open the gifts one at a time so we can see what they get, but that doesn't always happen. When Elizabeth is here, she like to hand the gifts out to each person until we all have gifts piled around our feet. This year we had Bobby, Holly, Elizabeth, Robert, John, Angelica & Vaughn with us for Christmas morning. (And, of course, Grandma Nash)

It was fun to see the stockings on the sofas.....and the kids' original stockings hanging by another fireplace in the library.

As the kids came into the room....little Robert was so excited to see the red car...just for him! In fact, he didn't want to open presents for awhile because he was enjoying the car so much!

And Elizabeth was so excited to get the "Bop It".....I didn't know what it was....but I soon found out!

I'm not sure Grandma knew what it was either!

Elizabeth was so excited to see that Santa ate most of his cookies and that the reindeer got through most of their carrots!

John brought gifts back for everyone from the middle east. He demonstrated one of the scarves.

When we got back from church, it was only a little while before Dave, Deborah & Colton showed up. Grandpa and the daddies decided to take the kids for a hike up the mountain behind us to pass the time. Of course the dogs (Bosco & Blondie) had to go, too!

I like the picture of Bosco eating Colton :) Both dogs LOVE to hike with the family.

When they got back we had Colton open a few of his presents. I think his favorite (or Dave's favorite) was the tractor.

FINALLY, we got Paul, Amy & Clara there! They had stopped at the airport to pick up Kayli, Clara's birth mom. We enjoyed our time with them so much!

First....we had dinner together. There were 17 of us. We had kids at each corner with baby Vaughn in his bouncer behind John & Angelica. We had ham with Grandma Nash's famous raisin sauce. She also made what we call "Aunt Gaye's potatoes" but what the rest of Utah calls "Funeral Potatoes". We enjoyed green jello (with cool whip mixed into it), broccoli salad, rolls with homemade raspberry jam, and Martinelli's.