Merry Christmas to All

First and foremost, we want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas! We hope you are enjoying your holiday. We certainly have been enjoying ours. We've been able to spend a lot of time with both of our families and much fun has been had by all. Here are a few highlights from our Christmas Eve.

In the morning, we participated in a Christiansen Christmas tradition: Graham Carcker houses (Graham crackers are much more easy to work with than gingerbread). Here is our final product:




We spent a bit of time just getting the main structure up. Lisa did some great work in building it. After doing that and the roof, I think both of us weren't wanting to spend too much more time adding lavish decorations. I contributed the path and the gumdrop trees, while the snowman and wreath were Lisa's creations.

That evening we were part of a somewhat new tradition: acting out the Christmas story. I always get the part of Samuel the Lamanite (a prophet in the Book of Mormon). Here I am in character:



As most of you know, at the end of Samuel's prophesying, the people become very angry and cast stones and arrows at him. God protects Samuel and no one is able to hit him. We reenact this part, as the little kids are always eager to throw things at someone. Unfortunately for me, our reenactment does not include the inability of people hitting Samuel with stones and arrows. I did a pretty good job dodging them this year, but this part is never portrayed 100% accurately.

After some more Christmas activities, we headed over to Lisa's parents' house and participated in the Fisos' Christmas traditions. We got to eat some more delicious food, and talk more about the Christmas story. Fortunately, nothing was thrown at me there. They all then got to open a present of PJs and a book, a tradition Lisa and I will be carrying into our family. After all that, we watched Despicable Me. Lisa and I had seen it before, but still enjoyed watching it with the family.

After all these fun activities, it was time to head home and get to bed. It was a very good Christmas Eve, and the good times continued into Christmas. We have had a wonderful holiday season and hope you have as well.