Christmas - really? Doesn't quite feel right!

THOUGHT:  "Born in a stable, cradled in a manger, He came forth from heaven to live on earth as mortal man and to establish the kingdom of God. During His earthly ministry, He taught men the higher law. His glorious gospel reshaped the thinking of the world. He blessed the sick. He caused the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear. He even raised the dead to life. To us He has said, 'Come, follow me.'

"As we seek Christ, as we find Him, as we follow Him, we shall have the Christmas spirit, not for one fleeting day each year, but as a companion always. We shall learn to forget ourselves. We shall turn our thoughts to the greater benefit of others" (Thomas S. Monson, "In Search of the Christmas Spirit," Ensign, Dec 1987, 3).

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2014 -   Merry Christmas everyone!  I want you all to know that I am so grateful for you - each of you individually- and for what you have done to bless my life!  Being down here in Mexico has helped me to see even more of how blessed I am!  I have the most wonderful family and friends!  I hope that somehow you can understand what treasures you are in my life!!!

I have also had a lot of time to feel Heavenly Fathers spirit.  I know He lives and loves us and wants us to be happy in our lives.  Some days that seems hard to do, but if we look around at all of the blessings we enjoy every day we will soon come to realize His influence in our lives!   I am learning how to dwell on the positive things in my life and that is helping me to see the blessings easier!

So now that being said - Christmas was so  l - o - n - g!  For two days I kept looking at my watch and thought it was broken cause time didn't move very fast!  I really didn't need to worry - which I have also learned doesn't help! My kids really took over and helped and supported each other!!  I am so proud of them and their efforts to make me happy!  It was so fun to see my house with boxes, bows, kids and toys spread all over!  That is my favorite picture!    Thanks to you that worked so hard to make everyones Christmas great this year!!

Our Christmas schedule included...  getting up fairly early to make cinnamon rolls.  That took a lot longer than usual due to the fact that everything is bitty and had to dealt with on a smaller scale!  I could only make one batch of rolls.  The oven is nuts here so some of the cinnamon rolls were a little doughy on the bottom!  Everyone seemed to enjoy them anyway!  We delivered the rolls to all of the couples and had a nice visit with them!  We went to lunch at Vips down the street.  Vips is like a Denny's in America!  Dad had a hamburger and I had chicken noodle soup!  We delivered more rolls after lunch and had to prepare our funeral potatoes for the Christmas dinner on Christmas day!  We were invited to the Sandbergs place for a traditional Swedish Christmas dinner of creamed rice with cinnamon and sugar, ham and sweet rolls and cookies!  They eat this every year on Christmas eve!  I love learning about new traditions!  That was lots of fun!  We had to hurry back to our place to get on face time and watch Santa come and deliver presents to all the family that were there!  My brother Jim came down from Montana and his two daughters came to dinner also with their family.  The kids managed everything perfectly and had a great time!

Hopefully a good time was had by all!  I had a hard time watching that and not being there, but I made it and life goes on!!!

Christmas morning was just as peaceful and quiet as Christmas eve.  I guess that is what the biggest problem is...  I don't like peace and quiet!  I love the craziness of having the kids and grandkids around me!  That is where the fun is!

We had a nice breakfast casserole with the Andersons.  We were included in the Newman Christmas morning which was a blast!  Santa sure was good to them and I sure love face time!  We started watching White Christmas with the Andersons but didn't get to finish!  We will have to do that today!The Senior couples all planned a progressive dinner that started at 2 pm.  We went to the Sandbergs for appetizers, our place for salad, the Toblers and Rices for main course of ham, potatoes, corn, broccoli and homemade rolls!  Then on to the Olsons for dessert of homemade pies and cheesecake!  The dinner took us 3 1/2 hours to complete.  It was such a fun afternoon! We had to leave to go back to our house because most of the kids all met together to open the presents we got for them! It was fun watching everyone open their presents from us!   Rachel made peach pancakes for dinner afterwards that turned out great so now I see they can do it without us!

Life is good!  Christmas is over for another year.  Happy New Year!

Nothing quite like a little Christmas Eve shopping!
How do you like this octopus with one eye looking at you??
I wanted to get Greg this for Christmas, but he didn't think that was a very good idea!!!
Ungrateful!!!

This is our Christmas selfie!
Greg is almost smiling!
Merry Christmas to all!!!