Christmas 08

The treasured tradition of my dad playing Silent Night on his harmonica was experienced again this year for Christmas Eve. Even though my dad is still weak he played through the song twice. We had my moms delicious enchiladas prepared by Angie, tacos, chips, mango salsa, refried beans and salads to eat. The children dressed for the nativity scene with Gene and Destenee as Joseph and Mary. Lyndee's Toree was the baby. Thomas was the shepherd and Isabel was disappointed not to be chosen as Mary. Mike read the Christmas story from the Bible. We sang Christmas songs together and recieved our generous gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Martin. The traditions become more dear to me each year.

Christmas morning with Gene was exciting. He was happy about everything especially the candy. He played with every gift and in the middle ran down to play fooseball again!

Our dear children surprised us with a Year of Romance for my husband and I. They gave us a booklet with a whole year full of dinners, movies and desserts for us to use. We love going out together especially when we don't have to pay for it. It makes it soooo much sweeter for us! Thank you for the perfect gift!

We got a phone call from Troy on his mission in Virginia. It was nice to hear from him in the short 40 minutes allowed to talk. He sounds excited and he is striving to do his best and learn all he can.

After the turkey was finally done we traveled Christmas day to the cabin. The drive was breath taking beautiful. The snow plopped on each tree wherever it could fit. The river was flowing with the rocks covered in white. The roads were clear until we reached the road to the cabin. It had been plowed to the first house. We took several attempts and finally the Land Rover made it through.

We ate our Christmas dinner and relaxed inside. The turkey was especially tasty because we had smelled the aroma the whole way up. Gene was surprised to see the animal heads on the wall! He showed them to all of us. We put together a puzzle of Time Square New York until 3 in the morning. We got that particular puzzle because David, Leticia, Gene, Mike and I were there together this year.

The next day we played in the snow. It was deep and fresh and soft. Even Leticia, Dad and I went sledding. When we got too cold we went in to warm up but David and Corden stayed out longer having contests of various brother competitions. The snow plow came and blew the snow in the air with Gene giggling and shouting about the tractor and the snow flying!