This Christmas was extremely memorable. It was Brad and Olivia's first Christmas at Stone Hill and every one of their children (they say they have 12 children, but got that many the smart way: raised 6 of their own and let somebody else raise the other 6 until they married in to the Anderson family) and grandchildren were there!
It was really a lot of fun with Nigel this year because he was so involved with everything. Brad and Olivia decorated a small Christmas tree in each of their children's bedrooms so we could each have our own little Christmas with our family before we all came upstairs to exchange gifts with all the siblings, cousins and Mom and Dad Anderson.
Nigel was lucky enough to open his first nativity scene from his Lola (Sharon Canlas) that we will use every year with him and any other siblings that pop in to our little family. She also gave him some books that we hope will help him be reverent during the sacrament. Thanks Lola!
He was also lucky enough to open a spider man toothbrush from Santa Claus and a a truck and a McDonald's happy meal toy from his parents. If only Christmas could be this easy every year. What's better than gifts you can drive through for... and you get a snack too? (Note that I ate the happy meal, not Nigel. He's not allowed to have gross "food" like that.)
Later that morning he was also lucky enough to have an original story read to him by Grandpa Anderson. Nigel was a character in the story and at one point he had turned into a lamb. Grandma and Grandpa gave him a little stuffed lamb to help him remember. I hope he always remembers that story because the little lamb in the story just kept sleeping and sleeping. (Our little Nigel still doesn't sleep straight through the night.)
Even later he was lucky enough to receive a "Nigel-sized" broom and dust pan from his best dude cousin, Massey and some super cute hand-made monster finger puppets from Aunt Britta. Without even talking to each other about it, Ruth and I had wanted to give our sons the same thing for Christmas: a toothbrush and a broom :) Jordan and Ruth also gave the whole family a gift that you just can't top: Brad and Olivia's 14th grandchild.
They will have their baby (which we know will be a girl because of the yet-to-be-proven-wrong-in-our-family gold ring test) probably in August of 2009 only a few short months after Hannah and Jeff's baby is born in March. I have to admit that I felt like joining the pregnant club again when they made their announcement. Callie, Christine, Hannah, and Ruth are all expecting again and Sarah and I are the only ones from the 2007 pregnant club who aren't expecting. I guess only time will tell because we aren't saying anything!
The entire Christmas day was so wonderful. It was perfect to have the little Christmas with just me and Micah and Nigel - Micah gave me one of the best gifts ever, by the way: shaving every single day in 2009! Woo hoo! He's getting a lot more kisses this year! - and then have all that time with the whole family. We woke up to a white Christmas. We got to have wonderful food all sitting together at the same table. We got to watch some movies that were gifts and really just enjoy the whole day.
I can't figure out what to write that helps explain how joyful it was. The house turned out to be perfectly accomodating for all those people and the feeling of being together was priceless. I'll always remember that the prayers offered that day were for gratitude for our extremely fortunate circumstances and for the revered traditions centered in celebrating the birth of the Light and Life of the world, Jesus Christ.
