The Sacred and the Profane

Hey there! In accordance with our tradition of month-long lag times in this blog, here are some pictures of our Christmas celebrations.

First, the relatively sacred part. Connor's little Joy School class has been learning about service, and spent several weeks preparing a Christmas program that they presented at a retirement home. They, plus a few older siblings, did a little Nativity Scene, then sang some Christmas songs and gave hand-made cards to each of the residents. Here are some of the moms prepping the cards with little photos of the class:

These are all the kids that participated. The Joy School kids are the first crooked row of four, plus the little girl at the top. (The others are older brothers and sisters.)

The kids shuffled roles alot during practices, and it happened that Connor got to be Joseph for the performance. It was pretty cute.

After the songs, the kids each personally gave out the cards they had made. There were slightly more cards than people, so Connor (the slowest) ended up gifting people who had already received, but they were very gracious and just fawned over all the kids.

After Joy School was out for the Holidays, we were able to get things ready for Christmas at home.

Oh, yeah, and Elise got sick. She's good at looking miserable, poor thing. (She was better by Christmas.)

We decided to stay at home for Christmas this year - it just makes things much more manageable and relaxing. Connor had a "Christmas chain" he took apart every day in December, so he was beyond excited when the day finally came. We had Christmas Eve dinner at the home of some friends from our old Ward, then I came home and stayed up until 2am wrapping presents (hey, I'm a procrastinator, okay?)

Anyway, now for the somewhat profane part. The materialistic gimme-fest! The kids woke up moderately early, and we all gathered in Elise's room before exposing them to the fruits of my late-night labors. What follows is pretty easy to understand, so I'll stop my boring narration for a minute.

Ryan traditionally makes waffles on Christmas morning, and he added an extra element this year by picking up a crate of berries at the farmers market downtown the day before. I made sauce and whipped some cream, and Ryan was so proud of the results he had to take a picture.

So, in case you couldn't tell, we had a great Christmas. The kids (and Ryan and I, too) received so many thoughtful gifts and cards from extended family and friends, we just want you to all know how grateful we are. Thank you!