Christmas 2008

We had a really neat Christmas! It actually started early. Andy gave Yvonne several of the attachments for her Kitchen Aide for Christmas. They made preparing our Christmas Eve dinner much easier.







Sarah (our daughter) and Brian (our son-in-law) came over and we had butternut squash soup and bread and cheese for dinner. Afterwards Andy participated in our family gift exchange and then baked cookies for us (last post).


Here Sarah's taste-testing the cookies!

Finally, we lit the candles on our Christmas tree and watched them for a while.

On Christmas Day Nicole Thomas (USS Carl Vinson) came over and joined us for Christmas dinner. We baked a ham, and Nicole helped with the preparations by making the mashed potatoes. Nic jumped right in and did the dishes after dinner! What a help these two were.





We went into the living room and lit the candles on the tree again. I asked Nic if she had ever seen real candles on a Christmas tree before, and she said she had. I was surprised and asked where? She said at her grandmother's. Her grandmother had been from Germany and brought the tradition with her from there. When I asked Nic if her grandmother was still living she said no, she passed away in October. It made me feel good to think we shared a family tradition with her that was a pleasant reminder of her grandmother and actually part of her own family tradition.

I read the Christmas story from Matthew and Luke and then shared the Four Spiritual Laws Tract. Then we prayed. Yvonne made a cheese cake for dessert, and before she cut it she had us all sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. It is His birthday after all!

Nic had to go back to the ship because she had duty, while the rest of us watched the movie "It's A Wonderful Life!" with Jimmy Stewart.