On Monday Gibson made a pan of fudge to take to a Christmas party with friends. It turned out deliciously.
We didn't have a Hull Christmas concert series this year. With covid surging again (although you couldn't tell it was surging from watching people in our town) it didn't seem wise. We did visit our friends, Andy and Willie, and Helen and Gibson played beautiful music for us to enjoy.
When we got home we watched a Hallmark Christmas movie and played Christmas movie bingo. We (except Brandan) like Christmas movies anyway and adding bingo made it super fun since the Hallmark movies are extremely formulaic. Wearing a red dress! Drinking hot chocolate! Throwing flour in the kitchen! Kissing under mistletoe! Even Brandan played along.
Wednesday morning we went to Cakebar+Bakery for breakfast and made plans for our Christmas cookie party.
We invited friends over to make and decorate Christmas cookies on Wednesday afternoon. We made spritz cookies, hershey kiss blossom cookies and peppermint bark and decorated sugar cookies. This is a photo of Aunika and Helen figuring out how to use a cookie press.
The decorating was everyone's favorite part. If we have another cookie party, we will stick to just decorating, or maybe have one constructed cookie and then decorating. Jason took advantage of a broken reindeer cookie to make a rather gruesome, bloody cookie. It's on the bottom left of the tray.
Angel and Greg are expert decorators. Becky used our Utah state capitol cookie cutter to make 2 cookies because it's just too funny (nothing says Christmas like the capitol building?) and they turned one into a gnome and the other into a Byzantine cathedral.
Beka took this photo of all our friends. From the left are Becky, Aunika, Sofi, Helen, Abigail, Vienna (you can see her eyes peeking over the couch), Seth, Scott, Greg, Angel, Kate, Sam, Elsa, Jason, Alena and Gibson.
Later on Wednesday Helen and Gibson went to the Webers to exchange gifts. From the left are Aunika, Gibson, Helen, Alena and Abigail.
Then the kids came back to our house to watch another Christmas movie in their pajamas and play more Christmas movie bingo. Here are Aunika and Helen, Abigail and Alena and Gibson and Sofi.
On Thursday the kids drove out the the coast. It was a cold, rainy day at the beach and they had a great time. This is a photo at Secret Beach. From the left are Abigail, Jason, Helen, Gibson, Aunika, Alena and Sofi.
Another photo at the coast.
Christmas Eve gave some of us time to finish up Christmas presents. Gibson sculpted a niffler from Harry Potter out of clay for Sofi and 3D printed a soccer ball key chain fob for Brandan earlier in the month. He finished painting them in the kids' bathroom so Sofi and Brandan wouldn't see their presents before Christmas.
Helen handprinted tags for her gifts.
A big highlight for us was talking to Abe! He called us on his Christmas morning which was afternoon on Christmas Eve for us. He shared some of the highlights and challenges of his week along with things he's learned about Korea. It's a tough time to be a missionary (although when was it easy?) and we are thankful for the kind members and mission leaders who are looking out for Abe.
Our friend, Debbie, joined us for dinner on Christmas Eve.
After dinner the kids organized our nativity play. Sofi played Joseph to give Gibson a chance to be the angel.
Helen found a pirate hat while she was putting her costume together. Pirate Mary?
Besides the angel, Gibson also played a wise man. Brandan and Becky were inn keepers, shepherds and wise men. Gibson grabbed a gift basket off our kitchen counter to bring to the baby Jesus.
Debbie was our narrator and joined in with our good natured, slightly nutty and still sweet remembrance of Jesus' birth.
This is the photo that will go on our photo shelf next year to remember Christmas 2021.
Then Helen and Gibson played more music for us to enjoy. We're thankful for the time they have spent learning to play the piano, violin and cello for nights like this when they make it seem effortless to make beautiful music.
Then we enjoyed our Buche de Noel cake. All the seasons of the Great British Baking Show we have watched inspired Becky to experiment a little by adding raspberries to the white chocolate mousse filling. Delicious!
It started snowing in the evening. Helen made a snowman for Abe. Although it snows in South Korea, Abe hasn't gotten any snow where he lives in Tongyeong.
Sofi, Helen and Gibson slept under the Christmas tree. Brandan and Becky decided their middle aged backs would prefer a bed. Besides, it turns out their snoring kept some people awake last year, so them sleeping upstairs was a good choice for everyone.
We woke up to a white Christmas!
We opened presents and then Becky made breakfast while the others played Smash Bros on Gibson's Switch.
Sofi gave us a french press and taught us how to brew cacao beans. This delicious hot drink tastes like dark chocolate. It's not quite hot chocolate since it doesn't have any sugar or dairy. We felt quite fancy trying something new.
After breakfast Brandan installed the privacy screen he made for Becky in our bathroom upstairs. He based his design on the stained glass windows in the Sagrada Familia, one of our favorite places we've visited.
Gibson worked through the day to assemble the London legos Sarah and Joe gave us.
Our Christmas snow melted by the end of the day, but we woke on December 26 to a new layer of snow. The snow makes everything peaceful and extra Christmas-y.
