Christmas at the Farm

With only five days left in 2010, we are left with a quiet house and many happy memories of our Christmas at the farm. The size of our group was smaller than we had at Thanksgiving, but we didn't lack for good times or good food. The Smith family from Mitchell and Derek and Sarah from BYU made our Christmas special. They arrived on the 23rd and were here four days, leaving today after church in Rosebud.

Derek, Sarah, Marla, Haley, Curtis, Maren, Maggie

Decorating Christmas cookies is a fun tradition.
(Derek watching Maggie, Maren, Sarah, and Haley)

I had wondered how things would be on Christmas Eve with no tiny ones eager to sit on Santa's knee to get a gift or dressing up in costumes for the nativity pageant, but it was a fun time. Roy, Barbie, and Steve joined us for the evening. We had a variety of cheeses, crackers, dips, shrimp, etc. to go with the chili and an assortment of candies and desserts to follow.

After eating, I'm glad we still had our nativity pageant. Sarah as Mary required a bigger size dress than our usual child Marys of the past, but costumes were soon put on and Steve began the narration. With nearly everyone in the pageant, the only ones left in the audience were Roy, Barbie, Sam, and I.

Curtis, Haley, Marla (wise men), Maggie (shepherd),
Steve (narrator), Maren (angel), and Sarah and Derek as
Mary and Joseph (holding the Baby Jesus' birthday cake)

Sarah and Marla had planned some fun games for the evening. Our group was quite evenly divided into three teams having a dad, a mom (but not married to the dad in the group), an adult child or grandchild, and a younger grandchild. The first game was a series of Christmas trivia questions. The second game was a timed challenge to put colored paper Christmas lights into the required sequence by following detailed directions. For the next game, we had a shopping list of available gifts for people with specific likes and dislikes while keeping within the budget allotted. It got rather tricky meeting all the requirements. The last game involved listening to a CD with Christmas music where we had to provide the title of the song and the next line of the lyrics when the music abruptly stopped. All ages had a good time and the team scores were very close.

We remembered to take the obligatory pictures by the Christmas tree even though we missed having Santa pictures.

Roy, Barbie and Steve


Sam and Narene


We enjoyed having Derek and granddaughter, Sarah,
celebrate Christmas with us.

Some new games added this year to our assortment are Wit and Wagers for the Family, Say Anything, and Rummikub; and they seemed to be a hit. A new puzzle with 500 pieces didn't take long to complete, but the 1,000-piece Greg Olsen puzzle was more difficult with so many similar colors.

Making progress on the Greg Olsen puzzle:
Derek, Maggie, Haley, Maren, and Sarah.


Sam got a Kindle for Christmas and is checking it
out Christmas morning. The first gift I opened was
a new Canon camera.

The weather was warmer than at Thanksgiving time, but we didn't have enough snow for sledding. They did go ice skating one afternoon at Bad Hair, and Sam went with Derek and Sarah pheasant hunting.

Oh, yes, we watched Inception together, and I'm glad Marla had seen it already and clued me in from time to time.

Now we are left with too many sweets, nuts, and home-made candies; so we need you to stop by and save us from overindulgence. :-)

Thankful for Family

The temperatures dipped down after family members came to spend a week with us for Thanksgiving, but we had a good time together in spite of the cold weather. We have much for which to be thankful.

Grandpa Sam playing with the grandchildren.
(Brynlee, Grandpa, Kate, Isaac, and Jamon)

Todd and Beth's family arrived first from Utah on November 20th, followed a few hours later by Doug and Shannon's family also from Utah. Jeff and Rochelle's family arrived from Arkansas the next afternoon. Curtis and Marla's family got here from Mitchell on the evening of the 24th and had to leave the next evening in order for Maggie to be to her show choir practice the day after Thanksgiving.

Kate, Rebecca, and Isaac seem to be
wondering why Grandma wants them to smile.

There's the smiles I wanted:
Kate, Isaac, and Rebecca

It was great having the grandchildren join our branch's Primary for the Children's Sacrament Meeting Presentation on Sunday, November 21. Patti was out of town being with her ailing mother, and four of the Primary children didn't come; so we were glad for the extra voices and help. Beth's twins, Amanda and Megan, and Jesse Allen accepted the remaining speaking parts; and the grandchildren from Utah joined in the singing. This is such a good experience for the children, and I was pleased with the program and how the children performed.

We had 38 for Thanksgiving dinner and had the traditional meal with all the ladies helping. Four tables were set up downstairs and two in the utility room with 12 eating at the main table. We had both turkey and ham plus the trimmings and had a nice variety of desserts with 14 home-made pies.

There was lots of good food from which to choose.


Joshua and Brynlee waiting to fill their plates.

There are a lot of pheasants this year, and the guys went hunting several times. The first day was very cold, and the younger grandchildren who went with them didn't think it was too much fun. Jeff came back with the tale of being without ammunition when a huge bunch of pheasants flew up right in front of him, and all he could do was simulate virtual shooting.

Getting ready to go hunting.
(Doug, Zack, Jeff, Jared, Todd, and Jacob)

It did warm up somewhat two days later, and some of the grandchildren were willing to go again with their dads. They came home with nine pheasants and had also gotten nine pheasants the day before.

Jared, Todd, Ethan, Zack, Jeff, Doug,
Jacob, Jamon, and Joshua
and nine pheasants from the day's hunt.


The granddaughters stayed inside and had fun putting
together outfits from the collection of dress-up clothes.
As you can see, they get quite creative.
They also enjoyed trying on my old cheerleading outfits.

It was fun to have a combined cousin birthday party for Maren (Nov. 22), Rebecca (Nov. 24), Weston (Nov. 25), and Jamon (Dec. 8) on Thanksgiving, which was actually Weston's real birthday. Shannon decorated the cupcakes with footballs for the boys and flowers for the girls.

Jamon, Weston, Maren, and Rebecca
with their birthday cupcakes.


Yum! Rebecca enjoyed her birthday cupcake.
(Turned 1 year old on November 24.)


Isaac enjoyed celebrating the cousins' birthdays,
especially the cupcakes. Do you think he liked
the cute football decoration his mom made on top?


Weston turned 9 on Thanksgiving day.


Rebecca's lst birthday was the
day before Thanksgiving.


Although Maren's birthday was three days earlier,
she also got to celebrate with her cousins.


Jamon (blue shirt) was pleased he got presents, too, even
though his birthday was not until December 8th.


An appreciative audience of parents and older cousins
enjoyed the original Thanksgiving play featuring
Pilgrims and Indians.
(Rachel, Kennedy, Ethan, Zack, Jamon, Weston, Austin,
Brynlee, Jacob, Joshua, Megan, Amanda, and Maren)

Beth took the pictures of the birthday celebrations as well as many other photos recording our Thanksgiving day. Thanks, Beth!

* * * * * * * * * * * *

I thought I had better get this entry posted before we are in the middle of celebrating Christmas. Sarah and Derek and Curtis and Marla's family will be here tomorrow. We're thankful they are coming to spend Christmas with us. Brent and Tauna's family have gone to Utah to spend Christmas with Tauna's family, and others who came for Thanksgiving are staying home for Christmas; so we won't have a lot of stockings to hang Christmas Eve.

We are appreciating the cards and letters we are getting with Christmas greetings. Our home is ready for the celebration with decorations in all the rooms, Christmas music playing, and the Christmas spirit in our hearts. Well, I haven't gotten all the baking and candy making done yet; so I had better get busy.

Merry Christmas to all!
(Narene & Sam in Cairo, Egypt - February 1, 2010)