Merry Christmas! Our sacrament meeting today was a highlight of our Christmas season, with lots of music and beautiful talks. Here's a photo of the kids in their Christmas finery.
They could be mistaken for Christmas angels, although Gibson is mischeivously pretending to eat an ornament.
Our ward collected new pajamas, socks and underwear for foster children at our ward Christmas party. Becky got to deliver the clothes to the agency that needed the donations. This photo represents about a third of the donated clothing. The agency wasn't surprised because they have learned our church is very generous.
We started our Christmas concert series this week. We shortened the number of concerts we're doing since the kids didn't get out of school until December 21. Our first stop was a foster home for the elderly. Our neighbor's husband lives here. It's hard to say how many of the residents were paying attention to the music, but a couple of them seemed to enjoy it.
Our next concert was at an apartment building for low income senior citizens. Several of the residents are Brandan's patients and/or members of our ward. Here's a sample of our concert this year. Helen starts out by playing Have a Holly Jolly Christmas on the violin.
Next, Gibson plays God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen on the keyboard.
Brandan plays What Child is This on the guitar.
Abe and Gibson play a duet of O Come, O Come Emmanuel.
Then Helen plays something Christmas on the keyboard. She likes to mix it up. So far she's played Deck the Halls, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear and Good Christian Men Rejoice. We end by singing Christmas carols together, accompanied by Helen. Our program lasts about half an hour.
Here's a photo of the audience. Everyone joined in the caroling. We love how festive the community room looked. All the residents help decorate it.
We also played for Jeanie and the DeKortes. Brandan and Abe minister to Jeanie and the DeKortes minister to our family. Both of them invited family and friends over and made a little party out of the concert. Our Christmas concerts started in 2010, with Sofi playing the keyboard, Abe playing a ukulele and Helen playing the violin. The kids have all grown as musicians and the concerts are still a great way for the kids to show love for our elderly friends and neighbors. We have a couple for concerts lined up for today and then we'll be finished for another year.
The 8th graders at Helen's school had a Christmas dance on Friday. The dance was pretty low-key, just the last hour of school, but Helen and Clara had fun dressing up in holiday clothes and curling their hair for it. It was their first dance and they had a great time.
Our Christmas countdown puzzle is almost complete. The kids are impatient to finish the puzzle and sometimes threaten to open all the envelopes and put the rest of the pieces in at once. For Becky, it seems the puzzle is going together very, very quickly! Two days until Christmas!
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