Christmas 2013

We had Grandma and Grandpa Elder over for Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

On Christmas Eve we did the traditional reading of scriptures and singing Christmas hymns and primary songs.  The kids all slept in the basement.  We set up the tent for them but it smelled bad so we took it down and they slept on the floor.

Here is the tree on Christmas Eve.

This is the only picture I took on Christmas.  Joshua was so excited about his Iron Man masks he was speechless.  When we opened apple juice from Grandma Eli did several fist pumps.  We enjoyed, as always, the kids opening gifts from each other.  Erica gave Joshua a hug after opening fuzzy socks from him.  We all got many nice things.  The girls tried on clothes and the boys played with toys after the gifts were all opened.  After lunch we rearranged the kitchen to fit in the new dishes Charles got.  It is nice to have matching dishes when we sit down to a meal.  We are still adjusting to the rearranged kitchen.  Each of us goes to the wrong cupboard or drawer occasionally.

During the break from school we went to a restaurant to eat, went bowling, played the new games we got and put together puzzles.  For New Year's Eve we invited Curtis and Marianne to play games and have snacks.  Cherilyn and Allison went to a dance for most of the evening.

For Thanksgiving this year we stayed home.  We enjoyed the time together.  On November 16th we went to my parents.  My mom and her sisters threw a 55th wedding anniversary party for my grandparents.  It was fun to get together with family for a short time.  Seeing my grandma literally bouncing up and down was priceless.