I had a wonderful Christmas day with my family. We are so blessed.
Ray, Amy and I had Christmas at home.
I missed Jay filling the stockings but tried to keep all of our traditions.
Ray and Amy both came with wrapped presents to put under the tree.
The first thing we did was to have Christmas burritos for breakfast.
We then saw what Santa left in our stockings.
Amy had a lighted key chain, pens, lotions, harmonica, toothpaste, socks and various other things.
The stocking was full of good things plus some candy.
Ray had similar things in his stocking plus a puzzle and yoyo.
We enjoyed talking about each item in our stocking.
My stocking also had things in it.
To keep our traditions the next thing we did was the Christmas races.
We raced out the front door and around the house and into the back door where we could see our Christmas tree in the Sun Room. Ray had a time of 23.58. He has a bad knee this year.
Amy's time for the races was 23.41. My time was 34.52.
Amy finds a big lantern under the tree like she has been wanting for her home.
Ray found a big clock with his name on it.
They both were excited with their gifts.
Amy gave me a lantern for my patio.
Amy gave Ray some containers to keep food in.
I was excited to open the gift from Melvin and Tami.
They gave me a nice winter coat.
Ray gave me some gloves and a scarf. Now I will really keep warm when I visit cold places.
Melvin and Tami gave Ray and Amy BYU hoodies and shirt.
Ray also gave me a Bean Bag Game toss to play with grandchildren when they come over.
Amy opened the big package from Ray and was excited to find another lantern. She said that she wanted two lanterns for her home.
Amy gives Ray a big hug to thank him.
She was very surprised and excited.
Amy also gave me some lotion and soap dispensers for the guest bath room.
We still had more gifts to open from under the tree.
Ray shows a landscape calendar that he got.
Miriam gave me this nice canvas painting of Jay and I when we were missionaries. I found a gret place for it in my office where I spend so much time and can really enjoy it.
Rauna gave me a musical clock that plays carols every hour.
After opening our gifts we went over to Mark and Marlene's home to see what they got. I gave Ryan the "cast in the hat" hat.
Marlene opens the leather deluxe Book of Mormon that I gave their family.
Ryan got some new legos to make things with.
Kyle got a new cell phone.
Ryan shows me some of the things that he has already made.
I read the letter that they wrote to Santa and the reply.
They arranged to call Jaron on his mission in North Carolina at 10 am.
The missionaries are allowed to call home for 40 minutes on Christmas Day.
Everyone gets around the table for their turn to talk to him.
They called on the phone the family members that were gone so that they could talk to him too.
They also got to talk to Rebekah who is serving her mission in Guatemala.
It was so good to hear their voices and to talk with them for a few minutes.
Our next stop was to Fred and Rauna's home.
I gave Parker a package to take to Utah for my friends up there visiting from Indonesia.
They were still opening their gifts.
They got lots of books and tapes. Last night they each got a quilt and pajamas,
It was Jamie's turn to open her gifts.
Ray is looking at some of the books they received.
This is t he first time in about five years that all of their children are home for Christmas.
Parker got a BYU sweat shirt for Christmas.
Carinne is ready to open her gifts.
She also got lots of nice gifts.
Nathan gave all of his brothers and sisters nice jackets for Christmas.
He was very generous with his gifts.
Dantley and Erin arrived with their two little ones.
Everyone was anxious to watch them open their gifts.
Maland got a construction set from his grandparents.
These two little boys bring lots of joy to this home.
Koen tries riding a toy.
I saw this sign on the door going into their garage.
Rauna opens the gift I gave them.
They said they would enjoy the Book of Mormon and the pages to keep their family records.
This is Nathan's first Christmas home since his mission.
We went back by Mark and Marlene's home on our way home. Mark and Ryan were running the remote cars. Ray enjoyed playing with them.
Michelle and Vanessa came over with Amy. This is the first Christmas that Michelle has not been with her parents.
Amy played "Jumbling Tower" with Vanessa.
This is another game that Ray gave me for Christmas.
Ray treated me to the musical "Les Miserables". Lat er in the evening we went back over to Fred and Rajna's for game night. They ar playing the "Ticket to Ride" game.
Maland lines up the letters.
We played a "Upward " word game. This has been a wonderful Christmas spent with family.
The day after Christmas I went to the temple.
I wanted to give a gift to those family members that died without hearing the gospel.
