Christmas, Christmas!

They say Christmas is a season, right?  And so its only appropriate if it is spread across the days and weeks of the month.  And so, in our family this year, it was!

At the beginning of the month our house was all neat, clean, and calm.  Just the way us old folks have come to like it.  But then, we started decorating.

Its always  messiest right before its done.  And so, the place was a mess for a while.

But then it was done.  Put the Christmas music on and it was a great start to the holidays!

The plan this year called for us to be out of town on Christmas day but we still wanted to share Christmas with as many of our kids and their families as possible.  So they came in waves.

Maulbeere and hubby were the first.  They came over for an afternoon.  An afternoon that included gift opening and a nice Christmas dinner.

Himbeere was in on the festivities.  No surprise here, he was happy with what he got.  He's worse than his Mom about finding out what he's getting.  We got some of this stuff for him several weeks ago and he managed to find out in advance what most of it was.  So, of course, he was pretty happy to finally get it.

So to make things interesting, we made him work for at least one of them.  After wrapping it in nice, pretty, festive wrapping paper, we encased it in packing tape.  Layers and layers.  He got to spend lots of time unwrapping it.  Had lots of fun with it.

We all opened the presents and then sat down for yummy food.

Good food with family - what Christmas is all about!  At least, some of it.

A little later into the month, Blaubeere and her kids came over to help us continue the celebrations.

Our concession to exterior decorations is one of those lights you shine at  your house, that lights up the whole exterior with some Christmassy themed lights.  We got it last year but it suffered an accident and needed some repairs before it was up to working this year.

This light pokes into the ground in the front yard with a stake.  But last year the stake got broke so we had no way to poke the light into the ground.

In order to use the light this year we had to figure out a way to stick it into the ground.  Himbeere figured it all out.  He acquired a pipe the right size and, with his new grinder, cut it down to length and put a nice point on it.  With a little help, it was soon ready.

So the pipe went into the ground.

And the light went into the pipe. That was a group effort.  When it was all done it worked quite nicely for the whole Christmas season, lighting up the front of the house very nicely.

Once the light was up and ready the festivities moved inside.  This visit was our baking day.

There's one young lady that likes to bake cookies.

Maybe the mixing beater has something to do with it.  In any case, she enjoys making cookies.  All parts of it.

Cookies, cookies, and more cookies.  We made several kinds and ended up with lots of cookies.

We made what are called "Cowboy Cookies".  Is that appropriate for Christmas?  Of course!  I grew up with a Mom that made Christmas cookies by the dozens, and dozens of varieties.  We had an enclosed back porch and she'd store them out there, in the cold, in five gallon tins, two and three such tins, all full of cookies.  We had to have permission to get any out, but of course, there was always snitching going on.  Yummy, cold cookies.  As fun to make as they were to eat!

We also made chocolate chip cookies, everybody's favorite.

And last, and funnest, we made sugar cookies.  They are so fun to make, especially cutting out the different shapes.

Everybody got involved in the sugar cookies. Everybody loves picking shapes and cutting cookies.  We have a large collection of cookie cutters.  Blaubeere brought her collection as well, which is pretty good sized. Some of the shapes were not particularly Christmas themed, but it was still a lot of fun picking and cutting. And funnest of all!  Once all the cookies were cut and baked, then comes the frosting!

Lots of colors and sprinkles.  Can't leave out the sprinkles!

Creativity unleashed, that's what decorating sugar cookies is.  Pure, unadulterated fecundity of the mind!  I love it!  Creations, colors, decorations, limited only by the imagination!

Everybody had a lot of fun with that part.

Then we left the mess in the kitchen and went into the other room for another round of gift opening.  More fun!

Always fun to decorate a kid or two as the wrapping paper came off the gifts.

Its so fun opening gifts with grandkids.  Kids are what make Christmas gift giving fun.

Another round of gifts, another mess of paper.  But it was fun, a good time!

As the time to hit the road approached, we still had not opened our gifts to each other or the gifts that had been mailed to us by kids that we weren't going to be able to see.

So on the last evening before the leaving, Brombeere and I did that.  It was nice, although there was no one to wear the wrapping paper.

We were all packed and ready, the car was as loaded as we could be - there was some stuff we'd use in the morning getting up and dressed.  But then everything would get thrown into a suitcase, which would be tossed in the car and off we'd go!

A month before, when we had been visiting Heidlebeere and helping her get moved, I had been talking to her oldest about the trip and how we were going to get to see her cousins.  She had liked that idea and wanted to help so she made me a ticket, to help me get there.  Fortunately, I had hung onto the ticket so I was all set.

So, morning came; we got up, got dressed, threw the bags in the car, and hit the road.  After driving and driving and driving and driving we made the trip in record time.  It was so nice to be there and have all the driving done.  We had left our house Saturday morning and arrived at Moosbeere's house in time to go to church with them Sunday morning.  That had been the goal, to get to church with them, because the kids were singing in the Christmas program they were having.  Little kids are so fun to watch sing in church, all the surreptitious little waving, squirming, and wiggling that goes on, some of it not so discrete.  Very entertaining.

One of the communities decorates their city and county building every December.  Lots of lights, a very pretty display put on by both the city and local merchants.  So later in the evening we went and walked around the grounds to take a look.

While it was chilly, it was not too cold.  It was actually a very pleasant time walking around, seeing the lights.

Lots of lights, it was a very nice time.

We'd been able to make such good time on the drive out because the weather had been clear and, for the vast majority of the way, the roads had been dry.  But over night that night it snowed.  Everything was covered with a blanket of fresh, new snow.  It was very nice to wake up to.

And you know kids and new snow.  They had to get out and play in it!  Moosbeere lives on a hill side so they have their own sleigh hill right in their own back yard.  So after making and decorating a few snowmen, they got the sleighs out and hit the slopes.

Everybody got into the fun.  At one point, as the kids were coming down the hillside, Moosbeere ran across the yard and took a flying leap over the top.

We managed to preserve his graceful leap on film!  Lots of fun going on!

Then, when everyone had their fill of cold and snow, we all went inside and started baking stuff.  Yay, more baking! A Christmas tradition we've observed for years has been to make candy cane bread.

We hadn't done any of this while at home so we did it here, with Moosebeere's kids.  Little kids are so fun to bake with.

Its a fun part of Christmas, partly so because we always manage to have kids and grandkids around to help.

Candy cane bread, a delightful tradition -  a sweet bread, with some kind of fruit or chocolate filling, covered with a glaze.

And the candy cane bread wasn't the only goodies being made.  We also had cookies and truffles.

The truffles were made of ground cookies, coated with chocolate.  Some whole cookies also were covered with chocolate.

Lots of good, quality help.  Or at least eager help.

We worked and the tray of goodies began to fill up!

Pretty soon there were goodies all over the place.  That was good because the plan was to make plates of treats and deliver them to neighbors.  Let them share in all those calories, right!?  Then, it was back home, kids in jammies, read the Christmas story from the scriptures, and put the kids in bed quick so Santa could some.  Or something like that.

What really happened after the kids went to bed, and to sleep, was the grownups did all the assembly work that needed to be done ...

... and laid out all the gifts and stockings.  From one generation to the next, the tradition continues.  No wonder parents always resist early Christmas mornings.  They've been up all night.

Finally, a little after 1:00 am, everything was already for the morning and the grownups could go to bed.  Its so nice to take a last look at Christmas Eve, all ready for Christmas morning.  And then to bed!

And Christmas morning, three very excited little children were up way earlier than the grownups wanted to be.  Little kids are so fun to watch.  The excitement has been building for days and weeks and now the big day is finally here!

Little kids get distracted by the gifts they're opening and sometimes have to be reminded that there's more than one gift to open.

They want to open everything right now and play with it.

Parents, meanwhile, are trying to contain the mess and keep the festivities moving.  Little kids make Christmas so much funner!

One of the last gifts the kids opened was a undersized basketball.  They puzzled a bit over that one until someone suggested they look in the basement to see if there was more to it than just a small basketball.  There they found a couple more balls and a backstop.  That was a lot of fun.

And, as with all the other gift openings, there was a mess of wrapping paper.  We had done a fairly good job of keeping it contained as we went this time so clean up, while lots more paper, was still easier.

The rest of the day and the next were pretty low key.  We just hung out at the house and played with all the new stuff.  Then, Thursday, we ventured into town again.  It had snowed a little each day so the canyons and the mountains were real pretty as we drove into town.

It was nice to be back in the mountains again, even if we weren't right up in or on the mountains. Just seeing them all around us was nice.  It had been too long.

The evening began with meeting up with my sister and brother and their spouses for dinner.  Unfortunately, our oldest sister hadn't been able to make it over.  She lives out of state but closer than we do.  Still, she hadn't been able to get the time off work to come play with us. So the rest of us met up for dinner, lots of gab, and a generally good time visiting and catching up. Its unfortunate that we live so far away that we're not able to see them any more often.

Then we went over to Temple Square to see the lights there.

I must admit, I thought these were better.  Much less commercial.  Just a touch more class.  Or maybe its just the setting.  And it was nice to hear the Temple  Square missionaries singing Christmas carols and primary songs while we were wandering around.  In any case, I was really glad we made the time to go see them.  Its been far too long.

Too soon the visit was over and it was time to head back home.  One last look at the mountains as we drove out of town and we were on our way home.  And so we drove and drove and drove again.  Only instead of going straight home, we were headed to Heidlebeere's house.

Hundreds and hundreds of miles later we arrived.  The plan was to celebrate New Years with her.

It was fun.  Heidlebeere had planned several games.  She'd made some shooters and we had a marshmallow war.  The dog loved that, lots of goodies to mooch off the floor.  Everyone had a good time with that one.

Toilet paper toss games.  All while waiting for midnight to watch the ball drop.  Everyone had a good time.

Even the dog enjoyed the chaos.  Alas, New Years morning we had to hit the road for the final trip home.  I had the next day off but Brombeere had to be to work on the 2nd of January.

Each time we had to drive we were blessed with good weather and good roads. Plenty of snow in between but during those times we had to drive, the roads were good and we made good time.

Our Christmas spilled into January this year.  The weekend after we got back Schwartzbeere and his family came over.  Maulbeere also came back again to get in on the fun.

Once again, the house was full of little kids and all the fun that goes with them.

We had another round of excited little kids and gift opening.  This little man was getting to be an expert at ripping paper and wrapping off gifts.  That's almost as much fun as what's inside!

Little kids, so much fun to watch.

Pretty soon the room was deep in paper and boxes, definitely the sign of a good time.

Before long everything was open and everyone was settling in to enjoy their gifts.

This is what happens when you leave a two year old unsupervised with some M&Ms.  Proof positive that M&M do melt in your hands, as well as your mouth.

And so it was that the Christmas season at our house was spread out over days and weeks and more than a whole month.  Well into January the tree and decorations stayed up. We were observing Epiphany?  Maybe the Gregorian equivalent of Epiphany, which is January 19th instead of January 6th?  Nah, it was partly because of our busy schedule that made finding the time difficult.  But it was largely the fact that it was nice to have the decorations out, the gentle light when the Christmas tree lights were the only lights on in the house.  The cheery feeling of the season lingering.  It was nice.

But eventually it was time to put it all away.  First to go was the light in the front yard.  It had done a fine job of lighting up the front of the house all season but it was time to take it down.  Taking the light off the pipe was easy enough but the pipe itself was frozen in the ground.  Solid.  There would be no pulling the pipe out until spring, when the ground thawed out.  Ah, well.

Then the boxes all came upstairs so we could start taking decorations down and putting them away.

And then, at just over seven weeks from when they went up, it was time for the decorations to come down. 

We spent an evening taking decorations off the tree and gathering them in from where they had spent the season scattered all over the house, including a few in the kitchen and bathroom.  And that's not counting the Christmassy kitchen towels that had hung in the kitchen all season. 

At the end of the evening the tree and pretty much all the decorations were down, boxed, and hauled back downstairs to the storeroom.  There is still a little of the regular home decor to put back out, but the Christmas decorations were gone.  We actually had "pine needles" to clean up, even though we have an artificial tree.  And some lazy bum dumped their real tree in front of our house so we'll have to hang on to it until the city comes around to pick them all up in the spring. I don't think there was ever a Christmas in my whole life where the decorations had stayed up as long as this year.  It was nice in a lot of ways.

This was a good Christmas season.  We got to see a lot of family, we traveled like crazy people and were blessed to have been able to travel safely over thousands of miles, with storm after storm lining up just right so we could drive on good roads in between.  We had a good time, a very good time.  The Lord was good to us.  So was our family.  We are blessed.