Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! 

 Our ward met with the other two wards we are a building with for Sacrament Meeting at 10 am.  Each ward had one youth speaker and Helen represented our ward.  She gave a great talk about what the birth of Christ means to her.  Brandan conducted the meeting and gave some closing remarks about Jesus being the Light of the World. 

 Brandan made a few visits after church and then was home the rest of the day.  He helped finish dinner including frosting our buche de noel.

We had our traditional Christmas Eve feast: vegetable pot pies, bacon wrapped dates, roasted asparagus, sweet potatoes and citrus salad.  Gibson doesn't like any of those foods so he had a grilled cheese sandwich.

We were super excited to talk to Sofi.  Her Christmas Day was our Christmas Eve.  We also talked to her companion, Sister Wu.  Sofi looked and sounded great! 

Abe spoke a little Chinese.  Sofi and Sister Wu corrected him.  It all sounded like Chinese to the rest of us.  We're so happy and proud for Sofi!  

Sofi asked the other kids to play their trio of Joy to the World for her.  They happily obliged.  It was hard to say goodbye to Sofi, but we'll get to email her next week and hear about her new adventures very soon.

 Gibson was the first one ready for our nativity play and had to wait for the rest of us.

 Brandan and Becky played Joseph and Mary.  Abe, Helen and Gibson were the narrator, angel, innkeepers, shepherds and wisemen.  New this year to our play were a bigger angel costume and a nativity outfit for the baby doll we use for Jesus.  Helen accompanied our singing on the piano which was also new and a great addition.  The objects on top of Baby Jesus represent gold, frankincense and myrrh. 

 It was Gibson's turn to put Baby Jesus in the nativity on top of our piano.

 We leave our manger empty in anticipation of Christmas Eve, to think about his long awaited birth and also his approaching Second Coming.

 We ended our evening with a family talent show.  Gibson did some magic tricks.  Helen played the piano and the violin, but not at the same time.  Abe played the piano.  Brandan's cousin from Australia, Murray, called during Abe's song and we took a little break to talk to him.  Becky and Helen played a piano duet together.  Brandan played the guitar.  We ended the night with Helen and Abe improvising some duets in with the hymns.  

 Our magnificent buche de noel, decorated with meringue mushrooms and gluten free Oreo truffles.  The chocolate cake is filled with chocolate mousse and we can only manage to eat the smallest sliver.

We opened presents Christmas morning.  Sofi sent us a giant card.  The Chinese characters say something like "give to you."  We love the cute characters and how big the card is.

Sofi filled the inside of the card with notes for all of us.  This is a Christmas treasure!

Gibson made Abe a bracelet out of paracord and Helen a keychain.

 Abe, Helen and Gibson all got a $10 bill in their stockings with a note.  We're going to see the musical Hamilton in Portland over Spring Break.

After presents we ate ebelskivers for breakfast.

Helen found an ebelskiver which Becky had forgotten to fill so she filled it with her own creation of chocolate sauce, cool whip and sausage.

Abe got another mini lego kit.  He now has a kit for each country he has visited.  Big Ben is for England, the Sydney Opera House is for Australia and the Summer Palace is for China.

 Gibson worked a bit on making paper robots from a kit.  Now he is plotting how to use the robot motors to build something else.

Brandan made Becky two wooden spoons.  There's only one spoon in the photo because she was using the other spoon to make dinner.

Another feast: ham, potatoes, rolls and a festive kale salad.

We've been learning how to play a new game today called Dominion.  We started with the simplest version.  The goal of the game is to buy the most land, but there are plenty of other activities which can help distract you from the goal.   

We're feeling relaxed and thankful for a wonderful Christmas season.