Merry Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

2008

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

You can click on any picture to see it enlarged

Christmas 2008

Here we are after church on Sunday the 21st. We celebrated "Christmas" with the grandbabies that day since they will be taking their turn with Grandma Sue this year. It was so fun!

Holiday fun

Cookie baking: family style! And for all the hours we baked and baked they sure went fast!

"Christmas Morning"

Here we are enjoying our pre-Christmas celebration with the granddaughter's!

Tradition...

We're traditionalist's...we don't start the Christmas decorating till after Thanksgiving. And the first thing Friday morning, is to have Dad and Brian put up the lights!

It's tradition!

I BELIEVE

My thougths captured by Adri

...I think that believing in something that seems unbelievable can be the first step of faith. In cultivating the idea that someone really does watch the good things you do, someone really does notice when you make good choices, I believe we are planting the seeds that can, with age and increased knowledge of the Plan, develop into faith in a loving Father in Heaven. Traditional characteristics of St. Nick parallel many attributes of our Heavenly Father: He “knows if you’ve been bad or good,”[1] He is giving and He cares about His children as individuals.
Santa Claus is not a person so much as he is an idea. He personifies caring, love, service and miracles. It was wondrous to my young mind that a red-clad jolly old elf would slide down my chimney to deliver gifts; it is even MORE wonderful to my adult heart and mind that my Savior would “descend from His throne divine to rescue a soul so rebellious and proud as mine.”[2] Both scenarios are beyond comprehension: miraculous and special. That the life of my Savior is also sacred is testimony that came to me AFTER a childhood of believing in things I couldn’t yet understand. In my mind, the idea of ‘Santa’ found its true root in Jesus Christ.
So, I will continue to encourage my young Santa believers. When they are older I’m certain to tell them the real story of Santa: the legend born from the life of a charitable Saint. But, I hope that their willingness to believe, exhibited as small children, can grow into FAITH in that which is even more wondrous and sacred: the mission of Jesus Christ. I hope that the practice of believing can translate into active faith: faith in the love of their Father in Heaven, the eternal and redemptive power of the Atonement of the Savior, and a desire to create ‘Santa Claus Magic’ in the lives of those around them through service and good works.
I BELIEVE it will.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------[1] “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” by J. Fred Coots and Henry Gillespie, 1934[2] Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 193, “I Stand All Amazed,” by Charles H. Gabriel

Merry Christmas update

Make a scrapbook!

*DON"T FORGET TO MUTE THE MUSIC PLAYER AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE*

Visit from nana & pop-pop

Nana and pop-pop came into town for a visit through the holiday's. It just so happens that their anniversary and nana's birthday are just 2 days after Christmas, so a celebration was in order.

Christmas 2006

Enjoying hot cocoa over at the Johnson's house

Nothing better in the world than to have family close for the holiday's. As the years go by and the children grow up I know this will be harder and harder to achieve, so it's nice to enjoy it while we can!....Be sure to check out our family homepage for all of this years updates in our newsletter.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!