Last-minute Christmas

Before we left Hawaii, I envisioned long days full of cold weather, hot chocolate, fires in the fireplace, Christmas carols, and plenty of free time for blogging. Now that we are in California, we have had lots of hot chocolate, (especially JD,) and there has been plenty of cold weather to encourage us to stay indoors, but somehow we have managed to fill our time with friends, family, movies, Christmas decorating, and some shopping. Oh yes, and lots of napping. But it wouldn't be a good vacation without those things, so the blogging has been pushed to the back burner. We have, however, been keeping up (sort of) with picture taking, so before the clocks pound out the last hours of the old year, and the wild bells ring in the new 2008 (at which point all these pictures and memories will become outdated and so last year) I want to record a few of the good times we have had.

When we arrived here, the house was noticeably lacking anything resembling Christmas, so JD and I took it upon ourselves to dive into the attic and pull out boxes of things. We put on some Christmas music, and (after I and Debbie cleaned the gift-wrapping department out of the living room) the three of us commenced putting up couch cushions, red and green candles, and various other yule-tidy things. Thus we passed a pleasant 10 minutes, until JD accidentally decorated a picture off of our dish hutch, and we decided that I would decorate while he and Debbie scavenged for more boxes and bags in the attic. They found some really pretty decorations, and after we were finished the house looked great, and only lacked a Christmas tree. Once Peter returned from BYU-Provo a day later, the four of us set up and decorated our artificial tree.

And, Debbie cleaned up after our tree's annual attempt at realism - it shed many of its poky plastic "needles" all over our carpet.

Lights, Camera, Christmas!

Saturday night found us at the Hilltop 2nd Ward's Christmas party. Some of the primary children sang some songs, and others in the ward participated as well. Debbie played the piano to accompany a soloist after dinner, and the rest of us watched and ate the delicious feast provided.
Christmas day came quickly, and we all gathered around to open our gifts!
JD and I received many wonderful and exciting gifts from the Quillen famlily, and from the Henderson family. It's impossible to pick favorites, but the following are some pictures of the whole bananza.

Some shirts J and I bought for Peter, a Family Favorites cookbook for JD from Mom Henderson, and lastly a sadly washed-out picture of Debbie, and an old filing cabinet JD and I cleaned out and cleaned up for her to hold her mountains of sheet music. At any rate, we loved everything we received, and we loved the smiles on everyone's faces whom we gave to. =)

We've also been blessed to be able to gather some furniture and other household supplies from my Grandfather and Grandmother's old apartment. My Grandfather is now in a nice home in Fresno, with good medical help for his Alzheimer's, and since my Grandmother passed away some time ago, my family is now getting the old apartment ready to rent out. Everything must go, and so JD and I have been able to look through it and store what we like in my mom's house. We have also been lucky to see some of my old friends - many of whom are between the ages of 1 and 12. We hope to see more of my old friends before we leave, and we wish everyone else a wonderful New Year!