Merry Christmas to All

The last week has been filled with Christmas cheer and festivities, starting on Saturday. The Hunt clan was invited to gather at our house for a pre-Christmas party. My mom, so thoughtful and creative, presented to each of us some homemade gifts. The first was an apron, with a note explaining that it is a symbol of a shield or armor (like an apron is a shield for our clothing against everyday messes) and the aprons strings are to remind us that we have loving family ties. The second was a yellow handkerchief, representing the ensign Brigham Young raised as a standard for virtue. Thank you, Mom for making these tangible reminders of your love and faith. And thanks to Dad for keeping Mom from being lonely while she worked on her masterpieces.


Ally brought Paul for over for a brief visit Tuesday evening. It will probably be the only time we'll get to see him between his transfer from London to San Jose. While they were here, they helped my kids put together a pre-cut gingerbread house. "That's got to be the ugliest gingerbread house I've ever seen," Ally commented. She followed up with, "But it has to be the funnest ever!" as the walls tumbled, like the foolish man's house.

About midway through the day on Wednesday, I called my sister-in-law Lari. We decided that if everyone felt up to it (no commitment), we would head over to her house for a Christmas Eve bash. Duane's reading of the nativity story reminded me of my favorite part of Christmas Eve growing up--my dad reading from Luke 2 and realizing the miracle of Christ's birth, life and resurrection. The serious part was followed by fun. It was almost midnight when went dashing through the rain in our 8-seat minivan, trying to beat Santa's sleigh to our house.


It wasn't any surprise that Cami was the first one up (and second and third and fourth throughout the night) on Christmas. Can you believe a 15-year old still gets so excited? Fortunately, she let Darren and I sleep until just after 7.

Griffin left a letter out for Santa. In spite of his written request for "sox" and "see moncees" (sea monkeys) reasoning that he "did so much jobs," he was thrilled to get a DS (think upgraded handheld Gameboy).
Makenna could hardly wait to read her new books, and she's made lots of movies with her little flip video camera. And who would have dreamed that the girl who refuses to wear clothes embellished with flowers, hearts, ruffles, lace, ribbon, etc. would want bracelets and sparkly nail polish?












Always enthralled with Lego contraptions, Emmett loved his new beach house set (even though his face lacks the appropriate enthusiasm in this picture--he's probably trying to figure out his first step in building).


Cherise and I found some slippers that look like those old-fashioned sock monkeys. We thought Cami would be jazzed to have a pair. Instead, she said they were scary, so she gave them to Makenna (see bottom left corner of picture below).

Fortunately, she found other footwear more satisfactory.













Cherise got the Jordin Sparks CD and robot shirt she wanted (quirky fashion sense, huh?)

As for Darren and me, the best thing was probably the long (okay, not-long-enough) winter's nap we got. And the rain. And happy kids. And good parents. And the true meaning of Christmas.

Oh, and it has been rather nice to be a stay-home mom for a few days and get a few out-of-the-ordinary things done...like this blog, for instance.