It shall ever be known that I love Christmas. I love times devoted to remembering the very first Christmas through scriptures, music, stories, and special decorations. I appreciate sending and receiving Christmas greetings, especially when the envelopes include written messages and personal pictures. I enjoy the special holiday recipes and family traditions. I cherish all the memories of Nativity Pageants and visits from Santa. I am grateful for family and friends to share this special time of year in person, by phone, by mail, or by Zoom. I love remembering times shared of Christmases through the years.
A sample of the Christmas trees we've had:
1967 - In the home we built in St. Johns.
1978 - Sam cut this tree in the pasture over west on the farm.
1984 - Our first artificial tree (ordered from Montgomery Ward catalog).
1995 - Love having the grandkids share Christmas with us. (Carson, Marisa, Kyle, Trent, Brittney, Maggie, Sarah, Trevor, Judd, Seth)
2005 - Ready for Santa to come. Our new artificial tree for the higher ceiling in the "great room." It took a long time to attach each branch and add the rows of lights, but it turned out very pretty.
2008 - Our small tree in our apartment in Moscow on our mission.
2011 - Home from Russia back on the farm.
2012 - In our new home in Spanish Fork. Where to put the tree? The first year it was put by the patio glass doors.
We left our bigger tree at the farm, so now had a smaller tree again.
2013 - Mrs. Santa came, as Santa was busy. She shared a story about candy canes.
2016 - Tree near the patio doors with a couple of the bears nearby.
2018 - Our green Irish Santa by the tree.
2019 - Our tree this year featured framed photos of Christ by Liz Lemon Swindle. We have been fortunate to have Santa come to our home on Christmas Eve through the years while the children are still up to receive a gift from him before going to bed, with Santa "returning" to bring more presents and fill the stockings later. We love having this "real deal" and look forward to his returning Christmas 2022. (He has told us he will be retiring after this year, and he will be hard to replace.)
2020 - We only put up this one small tree this year, but I did decorate the rooms on the main floor of our home even though no one but Sam and I would see our decorations this Christmas due to Covid-19 keeping us isolated in our home.
2021 - Although numbers of Covid cases were still high, we had gotten vaccinated for Covid in February, and we were happy to have family and friends invited inside again as we celebrated this special time of the year.
2021 - Our small tree downstairs decorated with Russian ladies in their native costumes.
2021 - Celebrated with family and friends making more happy memories.
2022 - And ready to celebrate with family and friends!
