Christmas

We had a very nice Christmas this year.  Some of the things we did this year I really liked and would want to do again in the future.

Food and Family Experiences:

We had a very nice "Christmas dinner" Sunday before Christmas. We originally planned this because we thought we wouldn't see Pete and Jessica on Christmas day. It was really nice to have this on a day before Christmas.  It made Christmas day less stressful and it was nice to hangout without the stress of other things needing to happen.    All of the liebers came and all the Dahlquists that were in town. We had ham, cheesy potatoes, salad, green beans, sweet potatoes. The only tricky part about it was that our church goes until 4pm so it was hard to have dinner on the table at 5 and house clean, etc.

Another evening we had wings n things and then the kids decorated upside down ice cream cones as Christmas trees with green frosting and M&M's. Bob and Kari brought two Costco sized bags of m&M's for us! Lol.

On Christmas Eve we went to Coronado beach and then to moo time ice cream for lunch. lol. very healthy lunch!  For dinner we had a frozen lasagna. Not very fancy but everyone was starving from not really eating lunch and happy to have a hot meal after a long day. Dave was supposed to be off Christmas Eve but ended up doing a surgery in the morning so he met up with us in the afternoon for ice cream. He and Calvin rented a video game and borrowed Dan's PlayStation and spent a happy afternoon playing star wars video game.

Christmas day we had a yummy breakfast: yougart bar with fruit and granola, quiche from marie calendars and home made cinnamon rolls. Everyone was happy with it!  After opening presents and breakfast we went to see Star Wars with all the kids.  Clare and Lexey cried their eyes out at a certain part in the movie.  Dave started chuckling to himself and Jo, who was sitting on his lap, thought he was crying too. She kept saying, "dad, why are you crying? Stop crying. I am not even crying right now!" This made him laugh even harder. The girls sobbed for so long that at one point he thought they would just have to leave the movie.   We went to the movie with our entire family, plus pete and dan, (parker was going to come as well but wasn't feeling good).  

After the movie we met Bob and Kari + Manny, Lois and Shianne at China Fun. It was great. The kids did waaayyy better than expected, didn't complain and tried new things. Jo and Lex ate really well. Calvin sat quietly , Clare ate white rice. It was fun going there with Bob. He is like a celebrity in that store. Everyone was happy to see him, hugged him when he came in, etc. I guess he goes there a lot and it is quite a novelty to have a middle aged white man who speaks mandarin.  The food was super yummy and how great that nobody had to cook! Win win.  A Christmas dinner I would love to repeat.

Music Experiences - music is  such a great part of the holiday season and really brings the spirit of Christmas. I enjoyed all of these music events and look forward to years in the future of making music a special part of the holidays.


Bob and Kari took Lexey and I to the symphony Christmas concert downtown San Diego. It was a super concert. The orchestra and choir did a great job and chose excellent music for the program, including Do you hear what I hear? Somewhere in my memory (by John Williams, from Home Alone)

One day Holly Franz took all of her piano students to her husband's (Joe Franz) acute rehab center. Each child played one Christmas song. This was not a recital, songs were not memorized or polished like they usually are for performances, but it was really fun to see everyone play and a delight to do some service.  The people at this rehab center are very ill; it is not like a retirement community with high functioning older folks, these were people old and young , who needed 24 hour nursing care. I was proud of the girls for hugging and shaking hands with them afterwards. jo was there in her PJ's and  as the youngest and most adorable little person present, she got lots of hugs and kisses. She was a good sport. Visiting with everyone afterwards was out of Clare's comfort zone. She agreed to talk to two people.

Stake Christmas program. I took Clare and Lexey to the stake Christmas fireside. It was a good program as always. We were sitting about the 10th row of the overflow area. The girls eventually snuck up to the last row of the chapel to squeeze in with Marc, Karen and Lauren Davis, for better viewing!

I took Lexey to a family Christmas fireside one evening at the home of the Gueruera family. They have 8 kids who all play violin and piano. it is quite a sight. Lexey, who has been begging to play violin for years, was awe struck. It was fun to see all the different size violins and their mom even let Lexey try them out. Lexey would be a half size right now.  The Jorgensen family (7 kids) and gueruera family (8 kids) did many musical numbers together. It was a great program. They sang glorious, a rock n roll type Rudolph, jingle bell medley song (have a very happy holiday), o come o come Emmanuel, what child is this, walking in the air.  It was all great. I felt a little like an underachiever as a parent watching this concert.

The activity days girls sang a song in sacrament meeting. The Nativity, written by Toni Thomas. They did a great job. It is a sweet song. "one little shepherd, two baby lambs. Three noble wise men, with gifts in their hands.  A shining angel watches above, I wish I'd been there to give Jesus my love. Quick to the stable, shepherds make haste, a star in the heavens, the wise men will chase. And down from heav'n came angels to call. So I too will seek him the Savior of all."

Another Sunday I was part of a quartet that sang another song Toni wrote, called "As Sudden Angels Filled the Night". It was beautiful, both the music and the words. I was singing with formally trained and stronger voices than mine but I can sing in tune and blend so hopefully I wasn't too much of a weak link.  I love the message of the savior as a baby and then as the hope of the world.