Christmas 2024

On Christmas Eve we celebrated with our Christmas around the world Peruvian dinner night.  We had many extra guests which made it extra fun– Kyle and Sari Bowser, our renter- Liberdee Propst and Cody and Jesse ( Truman’s friends) were added to Monson’s family, Addison and Poppy ( Geo, Bre and Alf were home sick) Me, Wayne, Tru,  Laila and Markus.  Wayne was very excited about the food and made Lomo Saltado ( A beef stirfry ) got empanadas from the Argentine bakery, salad, french fries, rice, shrimp, ceviche ( that we ordered from a Peruvian restaurant)  and Alfahores for dessert. And as per usual we ALWAYS have Kentucky fried chicken just in case, for people to eat…because it’s served all over the world. We talked about Peruvian Christmas traditions, almost all happening on the 24th of Dec… including placing the baby in the manger at midnight and opening all of your presents then too.  The youngest in attendance placed the baby, so we had Elsie do it, and then we sang Silent Night in Spanish with Wayne accompanying on the guitar.  We tried to show our vacation Machu Pichu pics on the big screen throughout the night but our internet was shaky and wasn’t having it… oh well.  Our one chance to trap everyone and show them our pics ( haha)    We played Bank and LRC– with Sari Bowser winning all of the quarters.  It was fun to have everyone here enjoying each other.  

We have been doing Christmas around the world since 2015– the year my dad died and doing our old traditions that we always did with Mom, Dad and Marcie were just too painful for me…so we came up with this plan.  Here are the countries we have done so far:

2015:  Mexico

2016: Germany

2017: Denmark

2018: Japan

2019: Italy

2020: France ( just me and Laila and French food….she wouldn’t eat…so we went to McDonalds drive-through and got french fries which I ordered in a french accent) 

21: Poland

22: Israel 

23: Brazil

24: Peru

Kyle and Sari Bowser, Lexi , Monson, Addison,Wayne, Truman Jesse, Cody, an Liberdee

A Rice Kristpe treat first thing on Christmas morning is the TASTE of Christmas.  My mom always did these for us growing up but also added on the wrapped the silver foil -curly ribbon so they looked like little packages.  I did them for my kids growing up as well...so I still do one for everyone in the family for Christmas morning.  

Truman brought me gorgeous roses. ... He does this often, and I really appreciate it.

Laila was excited about her Christmas underwear

The duck statue at the duck pond is in its Santa outfit

ON Christmas day we had a roast beef with all the fixings lunch at the Buzellies– gorgeous china set table with gold flatware ( Grandma butters)  Alex knows how to set a LOVELY table…he would make my mom and Grandma Butters so proud.   We opened gifts.  Wayne and I ended up giving our kids with grandkids another year of Grandkid Game night the 2nd Friday of each month.  They loved it!  AND we also gave everyone money for Christmas… I don’t love this..because it’s not like we can give them a lot to make any real difference for them, or to get them excited about the sum…and I would much rather give experiences… so we included a list of 100 things we love about you with it.  This 100 things list was easy to create the first 30-50– but then after that you have to get really detailed and it’s tricky.  But it was fun for us to spend the time to do this and really think of each of our children and in-laws and their couple relationship and what we love/appreciate about it.  It was sweet to have them read it and decide who of the couple we were talking about… or if it fits both of them.  Tru got all 100 just about him.  

 Our children gave me 5 more pieces of my favorite Fontinini Nativity that I inherited from my mom.  These pieces are hard to find and at this point are on eBay or auction.  I also got a Jesus walks app– that tracks my walking with Jesus ministry.  Pretty cool.  Wayne got an electronic bird feeder with a camera and an app and an anti-squirrel setting on it too.  It’s the perfect gift for him.   Wayne and I gave each other an Alaskan cruise this next summer.

More Birthdays!   Andrew turned 18!  Christmas Andrew was great as we celebrated this.  Andrew is such a good person and he has an unexpected, quiet confidence.  He knows what he likes, who he is, and isn’t ashamed or afraid to just be himself.  I’m really proud of him.  He has many musical talents and continues to work on his instruments and practices a lot.  

Sunday we had Monson’s birthday celebration with a big family dinner…roast beef, rolls and mashed potatoes…Monson’s favorites.  We went around the table and said what we love about all of our December birthday people– Andrew, Elsie and Monson.  I think this is really good for the birthday person to hear the good things about them, even when it’s uncomfortable, and it’s good for the rest of the family and little kids to have to come up with something to say about that person.  It’s good to stop and reflect on this and think about other people and not just yourself, even when it’s uncomfortable.