After Christmas Silliness

 

Mikayla sent me this with a "HELL YEA!" attached.

Sing 2

Today, in the company of a great many DeMartinis and a few Mercers, we went to see Sing 2. It was darling with lots of singing and dancing. In fact, there was lots of singing and dancing on screen and lots of singing and dancing in the audience.  Frey and Thea spent most of the movie dancing in the aisle in front of their seats, and I heard a fair amount of singing, too. At one point, I laughed at something that tickled my funny bone, and Kal, from two rows down, said, "Grantie Kake! You think that's funny?" 

From two rows up, I responded, "Yes! I do!" I figure that anyone who goes to an animated movie must expect that children will be there and they will have things to say. So I don't feel bad responding to the small people I go with. 

It was terrific to be with all these people I like so well.

Christmas Breakfast Roll

Yesterday early evening, Aaron dropped off a Christmas breakfast roll Cammie made for us. Merlynn made these cinnamon rolls for neighbors as Kent was growing up and are a Barrus Family tradition. We do crepes for our traditional Christmas breakfast, so I don’t make the breakfast rolls. But we do love to eat them and I should make them from time to time. Today we gleefully devoured the roll Cammie made for us, grateful she has carried on the tradition. Yum! Yum!
 

Christmas Day

We had a very nice Christmas Day. Blythe came in at 7:00 and asked if we could start Christmas. Groggily, we asked her to give us a bit more time to sleep, especially as Brandt wasn’t awake. She reluctantly agreed. At 9:20, I rolled over and looked at the clock, surprised but delighted that it was so late and no one had awakened me.

The children eagerly opened presents. Blythe was especially pleased with new pillows and an extra soft blanket. Brandt was thrilled with a new gaming/office chair. Kent and I are both happy with new books. We had crepes for breakfast, then got a bit more put together for the day, prepared lots of food, and around 2:00, headed over to Mom’s (Blake’s) house for Christmas munching and gaming. Everyone was there, we had lots and lots and lots of food, and we played lots of games, some with the kids. Mikayla insisted we play all the games. We did charades and helped the kids act out their words. Brandt, Luke, and Eugene gave the little kids horsey rides around the living room, and there was much festive noise-making throughout the afternoon and evening. 

 

We called Mom and talked to her. I miss her!! It wasn’t the same having her away and strange to be at her house without her there. We were super sad that no one invited her and Sister Keen for Christmas anything, and she sounded as sad as we were. Her comment to me was, “It’s over now, so we can move on.” SOB SOB SOB They were with other missionaries at the mission home yesterday, so at least she had some Christmas festivities. Maybe next year we’ll go to California for Christmas and celebrate with her there.

 

All in all, it was a terrific day.

The Soft Hug Monster attacked me.

I wish said Soft Hug Monster attacked me every day!

Blythe loaded up all her presents and hauled them, Santa-like, up to her room.

Brandt apparently was a rough ride.

Thea seems to be having a hard time staying on.

We played Code Names.

Collin is hoping we are going to guess the words he's given us a clue for.

Christmas Eve Silliness

 

Christmas silliness in the time of Covid.

Christmas Eve

Somewhat irritatingly, I worked today in Heber after working there yesterday, too. Two days in a row! I knew it was going to happen that way when one of my fellow Retail Supporters told me he was ditching his Christmas Eve shift and going home. He was supposed to work in Heber and I was on call. I knew they would call me, and they did. We only had to work until 3:00pm, but I still wasn’t home until 4:00 and we had to leave almost immediately to meet the Barri in Sandy for Christmas Eve dinner and fun. Work was slow, we had four people, we all sat around because hardly anyone came into the bank almost certainly thinking we had the day off (we should have). We did get out of the bank at 3:05, but I was still bugged that I had to drive home from Heber.

In my absence, Kent and the children made salad and wrapped our white elephant gifts. When I got home, we loaded up the car and headed to Sandy for our annual Barrus Family Christmas Eve Extravaganza. That’s what I’m going to call it from now on. We always have lots of people, lots of food, and lots of fun. 

This year we had fewer people than in years past, but still good food, fun, and a joyful time with those who were there. We normally have a large contingent of children to help with the nativity, but this year we only had six under-20s: Micah, Brandt, Blythe, and Brandon’s kids Scott, Caleb, and Katelyn. We managed to enlist all of them to participate and with help from some adults, we were able to fill the cast. Blythe was the innkeeper, Brandt was a Wiseman, I was the angel Gabriel announcing good news to both Mary and the shepherd. It is always good to be reminded of why we actually celebrate Christmas; we were happy to read the story and sing the songs of Christmas. Jonathan and Micah are singing in church on Sunday, and they sang for us. They have very nice voices. 

Mary and Angel Gabriel

"You're going to have a baby!"

"If you say so."

"There's no room at the inn. Look someplace else."

Shepherd abiding in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night.

"Fear not! For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.

Go to Bethlehem to see the baby."

Encouraging everyone to join the heavenly host in singing

"Joy to the World"

The shepherds worshipping baby Jesus.

We had no sheep, but we did have a very small dog.

Wisemen in the East (on the east side of the room, too) 

Sharon also brought stuff to do a photo booth, so we took silly pictures. 

We had a riotous white elephant gift exchange and ended the evening with much joy in our hearts.

Whatever someone just opened, Amy doesn't like it.

 

Because I was off work last week because of Covid, I had practically everything wrapped and ready for tonight. Kent and I brought down presents and finished up a couple of little things, stuffed stockings, and were in bed at a reasonable hour. Christmas is only one sleep away!

All is calm,

All is bright.

Christmas Adam

Working puts a crimp in my life. All the things I’ve been available to do whenever we wanted to do them must now be rearranged because I’m at work. Christmas Eve is one of those days. We have gathered with the DeMartinis in the morning for breakfast and presents, then with the Barri in the evening for dinner, nativity, and white elephant gift exchange. But I work tomorrow (why be open on Christmas Eve?!) so breakfast doesn’t work. Instead, we gathered at Christopher and Tysen’s house for breakfast for dinner and presents today, Christmas Adam. I tasked Kent and the kids with preparing monkey bread and loading the car and told them to not wait for me. I worked in Heber today didn’t get on the road until 5:30, so I knew I would be late for the 6:00 start time.

 

Dinner/breakfast was delicious. Being together was wonderful. Christmas excitement was magical. Having Mom gone was sad sad. Brandt received a Snuggie and Blythe received a bullet journal. Mikayla and I distributed family photobooks. We were all happy to be together. And Christmas is only two sleeps away!