I'll Be Home For Christmas...

At least the Chinese delegation made it home to Utah and we were excited about that. After long hours on the plane and at airports, Will, Taylor and Jen arrived from China. They have been plagued with jet lag throughout the week but they preservere and work at keeping a full schedule.

The evening they arrived we had Jen's parents and brother, Ben, for dinner.

The next day they spent quite awhile organizing their jean collection. I just call them the "jean machine."

Taylor and Jen spent Christmas Eve with Jen's family. We headed north to Hilary and Adam's.

We tried not to overindulge on Rueben sandwiches, shrimp dip, potato salad, wassail, etc. but we just couldn't seem to help ourselves. Once again, "we ate too much."

Grandma P read a couple of Christmas stories. Then we read Luke's account of Christ's birth and sang our favorite Christmas carols.

There were a few people who opened up some Christmas Eve gifts which surprisingly turned out to be pajamas. The girls even received matching outfits for their dolls. They were so cute and cozy. Adam insisted that Hilary open a package too. Wow, pajamas!

When the kids were off to bed, the next phase of the evening began. The neighbor texted Hilary right after Taylor and Jen pulled into the driveway. "Can I come and try on jeans? I just can't wait. I'm so excited." She arrived within minutes. Shortly thereafter her husband arrived. She tried on jeans. I continued to wrap gifts for all, including the jeans. Her husband and Taylor do the "Tim Tam slam." It turned out to be a very late night for all especially Britton since he couldn't get to sleep until almost 3 a.m.

The kids were up by 6:30 but the parents managed to hold them off until about 7:15. Everyone except Will helped create a giant paper mess.

Fortunately Will slept in a little longer. When he woke up, we were able to focus on him. He was so fun.

Korinne loves her new outfit with a matching one for her dolly. Adam tried on the sweater and didn't take it off for hours. I guess he likes it okay.

I put the wassail back on the stove to warm up while we opened presents. It boiled over so we took turns working to clean up the mess throughout the day. Hilary and Adam are working hard to convert us into Aggie fans so Steve has a new hat, which he loves. I have a new Aggie tee-shirt.

Hilary kept trying to clean up the paper mountain while the kids took a break from toys to watch a cartoon with Will. He got to watch in English this time. He usually watches his cartoons in Chinese.

Hilary creates her yummy 7-layer Mexican dip. We also had our traditional breakfast ring earlier in the morning. Adam's super duper delicious rolls are pretty much the most important part of the Christmas dinner.

We couldn't resist the urge to barbecue since it was sunny and warm for northern Utah--in the mid 40's. So Steve barbecued ribs. We've never had ribs for Christmas dinner before, but they were so-oo good. Jenna's comment was "It's just like spring out there." With only a few random piles of snow, it felt almost like spring. We wore coats for our walk earlier, but by lunch time, Steve grilled in his shirt sleeves.

Taylor's enjoying the ribs. Jen's going for the yams. Everyone loved the twice-baked potatoes and Adam's special Christmas jello.

Nice color, texture, variety and Polish pottery.

We left at sunset for our drive back home. The next day was our last week with our cherished sunday school class. Only one of our students is staying with us next year. The rest are moving up to the next class. We will really miss them. They are great kids.
The next day after church we drove south for a family Christmas party with my Dad, Ann and their posterity. Even with a lot of people missing, it was a good-sized crowd. Here Jon reads the Christmas story from the bible. Grandpa and Grandma K and a lot of the little ones dressed in costume.

Here my siblings and spouses make fools of ourselves with a Rudolph game devised by Eli and Vanessa.

Some families came quite a distance--Jon and Shalane from Long Island, NY and Tay and Jen from China. There were lots of new babies. It was fun to see them all and fortunately they were angels. None of them fussed or wailed.

Sugar Cookie Creators!

I believe that this group of kids makes the best sugar cookies in Idaho. They certainly have fun doing it.

Here they are hard at work--cutting out, decorating and eating, of course. Notice that Janzten's left arm isn't blue anymore. He got his cast off on the 20th. Hooray!

On Sunday, the 19th, Steve and I combined a little work with a lot of pleasure and drove to Idaho. On the 20th, Steve worked, the kids went to school, Heather took kids to appointments, etc. and I cooked. I made dinner for our birthday celebration after Brinley's violin concert. Jackie drove up from IF and both sets of grandparents attended the performance and gathered for supper and the birthday party afterward.

Tanner, Brinley and Anna all have December birthdays so we decided to have a celebration we could attend.

Since it wasn't Elsie's birthday, she wanted to show us her presents under the Christmas tree.

Brinley did an amazing job in her violin concert. It seemed absolutely perfect to me. We were very impressed. Keep up the good work, Brinley. You have lots of talent and feeling for violin music.

As you might have imagined, Jackie had Quinn's friendship in no time at all. That is impressive because Quinn takes his time to check people out and doesn't warm up easily. Jackie has the touch with children. They seem to sense her love for them almost immediately. It was fun to have her join us for the festivities.

At ll:30 or so on the night of the 20th, there was the beginnning of a lunar eclipse of the full moon. Apparently this phenomenon is rarely visible. Tanner, Aaron and I watched various phases of this. Tanner and I enjoyed watching until it was completely eclipsed. I tried to take photos, but am not good enough to get good night shots. It was a very neat thing to see. Aaron said there will be a partial eclipse visible in 2017, but one like this one won't occur for another 370 years. It was fun to share this special experience with Tanner. Jantzen and Brinley saw a brief glimpse too but were too tired to last for the whole thing. By 1:45 we headed to bed, sleepy but happy to have seen it.

Won't You Let Us, Archuletta?

Later that week we were part of another miracle. My brother, Steve, miraculously received tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Concert with David Archuletta. There had been over 1.5 million requests for tickets. He left Utah County around 5 p.m. but traffic was so heavy that we didn't arrive at the Conference Center until 7:25. The doors were closed and people were walking back to their cars. We talked to the volunteers and found out that there was overflow seating in the Tabernacle. We ran over there and were able to get in and get a seat in the balcony. We watched on huge monitors. It wasn't quite the same as being in the Conference Center, but it was still excellent. I felt very blessed that we were able to see the performance. Thanks to my brother for including us and to my husband for knowing how to negotiate the back roads and to other divine assistance. You know how much I love those concerts. This one was outstanding!

Chinese Miracle!

Yes, we feel so blessed to have witnessed the Lord's hand in building up His Kingdom in China. On Dec. 14, 2010, we accompanied Corey and Vicky Zhao as they took out their endowments and were sealed together for all eternity in the Logan LDS Temple.

The story begins in the summer of 2008 when Corey came to the US for the first time. He is an employee of Icon and Taylor was asked to pick him up at the airport. He arrived on a Sunday afternoon so we had him to dinner at our home. As we were all visiting, Taylor showed him our Tawianese wall hanging depicting the Tree of Life from the Book of Mormon. Corey was very interested so Taylor asked him if he would like to see Temple Square. Corey said "yes" so Taylor took him to Temple Square and got him a Chinese copy of the Book of Mormon. Corey completely read the book in the week he was in the US. When he got back to China, he read it at least 4 more times. He and Taylor made arrangements to take a business trip to Taiwan. Once out of China, they could talk freely again so Taylor arranged for missionary discussions and baptism in Taiwan. Now as a member of the church, he could share his religion with his wife. She was later baptised in Singapore where they met. A couple of months ago, Corey was called to be the branch president of the Chinese Shanghai branch.
Here we are with a few other friends from Icon who were privileged to witness the temple ceremony. We all feel that Corey and Vicky are pioneers of the church in China and that we are privileged to know them and support them.

The next day, Steve and I had the privilege of showing them some of the sights in Salt Lake. We took them up to Heritage State Park to see where Brigham Young said, "This is the right place." Vicky told us that when she was in middle school, they read about the crickets and seagulls in their lesson books. That is how she heard of Salt Lake City and Utah. It did not mention the religion but told how the seagulls came and ate the crickets.

We took them to the Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg and they saw the movie of Joseph Smith's life and martyrdom. We were all moved to tears.

We had lunch in the Garden Room overlooking the temple and then we arranged for a tour of Temple Square.

We requested a Mandarin speaking tour guide because even though both Corey and Vicky speak English, we didn't want them to miss any important information. It happened that the Mandarin speaking missionary was a sister from the same province of mainland China as Corey. She had left the country to work in Cambodia and had joined the church there. She was thrilled to meet the branch president from Shanghai. So many little miracles happen each day, but often we don't recognize them.
Corey and Vicky both have strong testimonies. They face many challenges ahead of them in China. Their phones and emails are monitored and Corey has to inform a government official of every activity and meeting that takes place in his branch, but the Lord's work continues to grow in China. This is the beginning.

December Delights!

Steve loves to spend a few minutes at the end of the day enjoying the lights of our little Christmas tree and the poinsettias which give our living room a cozy, holiday feeling.

Steve K. helped decorate the mantel and tree and it's never been prettier. Thanks, Steve. Last Sunday night we took dinner down to Dad and Ann. We had a pleasant visit. Ann's recovery from knee surgery is slow but steady. This past week Steve traveled to Wisconsin for work but was happy to arrive home on Friday just before a big snowstorm hit the midwest. The snow actually caused the dome over the stadium in Minneapolis to collapse just a few hours after he left that airport.

Both of us are glad that I finished my Sub For Santa shopping and delivered all of the gifts last week. Here Steve loads the last of the bags in the car.

Each of us participated in a few Christmas celebrations. We cooked ham and potatoes for the ward Christmas party on Saturday. Then I went to my Broker Network social and a dinner and book exchange for my Murray bookclub both on Tuesday. I'd prefer to spread out the yummy meals but as it went, I just had to pass up some of the food. I couldn't eat anymore. Maybe popcorn, but that wasn't an option. I always seem to have room for popcorn.Here I pose with the Broker Network Group fashion diva, DeeDee. Don't miss the shoes.

I love my monthly meeting with friends from our old neighborhood. I also love the excuse to read lots of fascinating books. Kathy, one of the new owners of our last home, has also joined the group. She says she just loves our home. We happy that she is enjoying it.
The day before Steve came home, I spent most of the day and over half of the night sewing for Christmas. At least I've finished step #1. These gifts aren't fancy but they are made with lots of love.

I almost forgot that Steve and I went to a charity concert featuring Steven Sharp Nelson on his cello. It was amazing and so well done. He's very talented. I love his CD's and often give them away as gifts. I'm so glad that Steve and Julie sell them directly to me now. It's better for both of us that way.

I've been making lots of carmel popcorn and baking cookies too. It's fun to have a little treat to give away to friends, neighbors, and sisters that I visit each month. I even put one of my listings under contract this past week. It was a delightful week!