Christmas Time

When my children were very young I remember the sweet feeling of knowing that they were all safely tucked into bed and all was well.  They have grown, left and multiplied now, but there is still such a sweet feeling when we are all back together again.  We came close this Christmas, as we gathered to California to celebrate together.  We missed son Gerald and his Frances, but everyone else was there! 

Layne, I and the kids drove to California last weekend and met up with Chris and daughter Jessica, where we stayed in a rental, in Mountain House, together.  Here are the Gendreau kids and Angelica in our rental house.  Seated:  Gemma, Miles and Peyton.

Our California days were filled with fun events.
Sunday:  Bethlehem Dinner at Reed and Dorothy's, after Church.  In spite of all the activity, there was still time for some people to indulge in a little media!

Monday:  Gingerbread houses at Ben and Jessica's.  Miles and Gemma are working on their unconventional masterpiece.  

Even the older kids got into it.  James and his wife, Alejandra, are hard at it.

All this lovely fun was provided by Ben and his Jessica, who baked all of the gingerbread herself!

I was in charge of Christmas Eve.  I planned it all out in my mind and it went so well there.  I warned myself to prepare for things to go not at all as planned.  With all those little people about, how could one expect all to go smoothly?  In my mind, the teenaged children would read a script of the Christmas story while the "littles" would portray the manger scene.  To my absolute surprise and delight, it all went pretty close to how I imaged it!  The teens did a great job of reading their parts and the "littles" stood their ground, in their proper places, the entire time!  Layne played Santa at the end and gave everyone a small flashlight, to symbolize being a light to the world, as Jesus would have us be.  Add a few carols and it all turned out rather well.  

Here are our readers:  Timothy, Vincent (who played Satan), Zachary, Miles (who was Jesus), William with his head down, Seth with his head up, Abigail, Peyton, Angelica, Alexis and, hidden on the right, Jacqueline.  In front is our nativity characters:  Olivia the angel, Jonathan as Joseph, Tia as Mary and Bruce the shepherd.  

After the nativity presentation and Santa's appearance, Christmas Eve gifts were passed out to all the kids.  Christmas pajamas; its tradition!

Tuesday, Christmas Day:  After individual Christmas mornings, some of us went to Audrey and Cliff's for a breakfast buffet.  It was almost the only get-together with them as they missed most of our activities because Rayne's hub Dom was hosting his family, visiting from England.  Later we met up with everyone at Reed and Dorothy's for Christmas dinner.  Wow.  Dorothy didn't take a chance that there would not be enough food.  She had enough for twice our number.  And it was so good!  

Of course we pigged out all during this happy California time.  After dinner, we had a family talent night.  Most of it involved the piano, with most of the grandkids having various levels of piano lessons.  I am proud of this sweet collection of children and grandchildren; their goodness, and their talents.  Layne and I even sang a song with Seth and Angelica.  They were less than enthusiastic about singing with us, but it turned out pretty well as we divided into parts to sing, Mary Did You Know.  I am almost over my nervousness in singing in front of other people.  It is still not my favorite thing to do, but I can make it through now.  Here's Zachary, playing his memorized piece.

Having us all together makes for lots of talking, laughing and all sorts of bonding.  It was all happy, noisy chaos and we loved it.  

Wednesday:  We visited several people, returned to Ben and Jessica's for a "group date" that Ben's Jessica arranged.  She got all the 16+ year olds together, along with dates, so spend the evening at their house.  She had all sorts of activities arranged to keep them busy and talking and it seemed to turn out OK.  While that went on, we met up with Audrey and Cliff, Reed, Chris and Jessica and went to dinner.  Picking the kids back up and driving back to Mountain House made for a very late night.  It is an hour's drive between Palo Alto (Ben and Jessica's home) and Mountain House (Cliff and Audrey's home and our rental), so traveling between places was a bit of a pain.  Traffic in the Bay Area has become pretty bad; there doesn't seem to be a good time to be on the road.  It just is always packed with cars.  

But it is magical to have so much family nearby and together.  I miss it here in Idaho.  We drove home on Thursday.  After 11 hours on the road, we were so happy to be home again.  I thought I felt pretty energetic throughout all these happy events, but Friday I crashed.  This old girl needs her naps, it seems.  Friday morning we awoke to new snow.  I love the snow!

More and more I realize how precious it is to have a family.  I cannot find the right words to express how happy I feel in being with them, and having them in my life.  I see more and more why the Lord emphasizes the importance of family.  That sweet feeling that came to me long ago comes back when I am with family.  I feel overwhelmingly blessed to have one!

  

Thanksgiving, Plus!

We spent this Thanksgiving at home.  It was especially sweet, as we had family with us!  Reed and Dorothy came, with their family, including son James and his wife Alijandra and son Alex.  Isaiah and Allegra drove over from Rexburg.  Gerald was here too.  We had quite a lovely collection of family.  I cooked just about everything the week before Thanksgiving and froze it. That made for a much less hectic holiday.  Spending enough time with Reed and Dorothy to be able to have deep conversations was especially nice.  Sometimes I feel starved for time with my children.  Of course they are busy with their own families, but that does not mean I don't miss them.  You may say that I brought this separation upon myself since we are the ones who moved to Idaho.  And you would be right.  But, again, that doesn't change my heart's longings.  Here is the Thanksgiving family.

Reed and Dorothy were here for about 5 days.  Vincent, who is now 17, asked Layne to give him his Patriarchal Blessing while they were here.  Layne did a beautiful job of it.  Being a Patriarch was not his favorite calling, as, he says, it requires "revelation on demand."  I can understand his struggle with that.  But the Lord always comes through.  I could feel the inspiration behind what he expressed to Vincent.  We all gathered to witness it and felt a lovely presence.

Here's Vincent just before the blessing.

Our time with Reed and Dorothy was a busy, happy time.  They are currently thinking that they will move to Idaho this coming summer.  My dream is to have family close by again, but I'm not counting on it until I see them on the Idaho horizon, packed for a move.  Things can change so quickly!  Little Alex is one year old now and so cute.  James is working hard on a degree that will lead him into being an actuary.  Allegra and Isaiah both seem to be happy in school.  It is a joy to have Gerald here as he spends tons of time with his kids and runs them to their various activities.  We have had some great conversations too.  It is good to be able to see a little way into the minds of my children.  I so enjoy what I see there.

Alex playing patty-cake.

Me with Reed and Dorothy.

We are set for Christmas now.  The house is full of decorations and holiday anticipation.  We had our first snowfall December first.  There is more snow today.  My heart is full of gratitude at this moment in time, even if Gerald leaves for Taiwan tomorrow.

Our first snow.