Christmas 2010

I love Christmas. I love the decorations, the smells and the music of Christmas. As the kids have grown alot of our traditions have gone by the wayside and we are finding that we have to reinvent Christmas at our house. Which is hard with the kids growing up and moving on with their lives, but hopefully we can create some wonderful family traditions with the grandchildren. When the kids were small we rarely made it out to the Moon's Christmas Eve party, but this year we grabbed Taryn and headed out to Duchesne to have dinner with my family. We gathered at the resturant so there would be plenty of room. I had to get a picture of Navyie with Taryn since they both had the hair decorations. This is the only picture I took, I put down the camera to get some food and forgot to pick it back up. The food and company was great and I really enjoyed having a soda fountain. We drove back home and opened our Christmas Book and then tried to watch Elf. Taryn lasted maybe 10 minutes and after about 30 minutes I had to go to sleep.

Christmas morning I was awake at 5:00. Not because I was excited but because my body thinks that is when I should wake up. Steve got up around 8:00 and we skyped Heather and Kevin and the girls to see what Santa Claus had brought them. Braelyn showed us all her gifts but Berkley was obsessed with the make-up kit she had received and spent the whole call putting on make-up. Thank goodness for modern technology so we can see the girls.

Opening up gifts didn't take long with just 3 of us. When I was shopping in Sedona with my friends we found this cute store. I loved the jackets but knew I had to find a small one with extra long arms to fit Taryn. We searched for awhile and finally found this one. I can't believe it fits and neither can she.
Greg and Lauren came over around 10:30 and we watched them open their gifts.
A couple of years ago we started a tournament on Christmas and the winner got to keep the gold trophy for the year. Taylor won the first year and Taryn last year. Poor Taryn had to move that trophy 7 times last year. The first year we did a WI tournament last year we played ping-pong and guitar hero and racko. This year I choose games that I thought everyone would have a fair chance at winning. The first game was 9-ball. We played 5 games. Lauren won one, Steve won one, Greg won one and I won two of them. I think Lauren was the most shocked when she knocked the nine-ball in and won.

The next game was Ker-plunk. This was a game both me and Steve played as children. We decided that the loser would be out. It came down to Lauren and Steve playing for the championship.
It was funny watching how intense they became. Lauren was the winner of Ker-plunk. The last and final game was Mexican Train. We decided that we would play 3 games and if we needed a play-off then the winners would play a game to determine who won. I won the first round, Greg the second and Taryn the third so we played a fourth game. Taryn only had one tile left when Greg laid a double. That caused each of us to draw several new tiles and totally threw Taryn off and I won. So I'm the winner of the golden trophy and it has a special place in my curio. Grandma Roberts came over to spend the day and after all the teasing Steve gave her I don't know if she will ever play Mexican Train again. Of course the highlight was the phone call from Taylor. Steve talked with him for a few minutes in Spanish and said he sounded great. He loves his mission and hopes to stay in Compton for along time. I'm excited because we only have 2 more phone calls and he will be home. We had a lovely Christmas dinner and it turned out to be a great day.

Tuesday morning I woke up again at 5:00 and just puttered around the house when I went up to the rec room and looked out the window and this what I saw.

It was horrible, I started screaming at Steve and we both got dressed and ran outside and down the street. We were joined by half the ward and we all stood in horror watching our neighbors house go down in flames. It took awhile to get the water on the house, but the fire was so intense I don't know if anything could have saved it. We watched the garage cave in and then the second floor fall down. Soon it was just the frame of the front door and window and then they collapsed. The house was destroyed in less then an hour. Luckily they were in California visiting so nobody was hurt.

Usually when you see houses on the news that have burnt you still see the shell of the house, but there is nothing left of this one. They both bore their testimonies in church today of what is truly important and of God's plan. Yes they will miss alot of stuff that is gone, but he brought up an interesting point. He said the things they will miss the most are the things that have no value as far as money is concerned. I totally agree with him. Hopefully something good will come of this fire for them. Christmas is now packed up and ready to go next year. It is exciting to see what 2011 holds for us.