Christmas Eve

(Eventually, I'll get this week caught up! I'm doing one day at a time, though!)

For Christmas Eve, we went to the Worltons. Mom had made Roast Beast for dinner (beef and ham). How very fun! She also made yummy mashed potatoes, broccoli, a spinach salad, her world-famous rolls, and a banana cream trifle for dessert.

After we all pigged out, we had a white elephant gift exchange among the adults. The funniest moment had to be Paul with his Christmas boxers. Karen ended up sporting some major bling.

We had a Family Home Evening where a member of each family shared an impromptu talent. Then we opened a gift. We had brought our own to open, because we have the tradition of opening jammies on Christmas Eve.

This year, Charles and I had very little wrapping to do on Christmas Eve, unlike years past. We stayed up late on Christmas Eve Eve to get it done. We were a day early this year. I guess next year's goal should be to have it done two years in advance. :)

Swedish Christmas

This year, we celebrated the Wren family tradition of Swedish Christmas on Sunday the 23rd. It's supposed to be done on the 24th, but since we want to be able to spend time with the Worltons on Christmas Eve day, we've switched it to a day earlier. So we eat Swedish meatballs with lingonberries, 'pigs feet', boiled potatoes, Swedish cucumbers, salad, cheese and crackers.
Then Julburglar (he's supposed to be Jultomte, but he always comes dressed like a scary winter burglar!) comes and delivers all the presents from Mormor. After that, we had our fourth of Advents and ate lots of cookies. God Jul!

Christmas thoughts

It's that busy time of the year, and as a result I'm way behind on my blog! A few comments--

Nate has been asking when he can be in the Nate-tivity again. He really loved being a shepherd this year!

Jon was able to go on his first temple trip this past week. Ben wasn't able to go because he had a band concert. Jon had his concert the night before. Here's a video clip from Jon's concert:

Sweet little boys

I went to wake up Tim and Nate one morning, and this is what I found. They have bunk beds. Tim tells me that when he wakes up early in the morning (possibly from Charles leaving, since the garage is right under their bedroom) he climbs in bed with Nate and goes back to sleep. He says Nate doesn't mind. I suspect Nate doesn't even know.

Today while posting, I resized some photos to email them. I noticed a photo in the resized pictures folder that fits nicely in this post! I could probably have pictures of each of my boys sharing with Nate, because they all adore him and rarely ever fight with him. It might be because, as he tells us, he is so cute, or it might just be because he is four and hasn't yet started a mean stage... Anyway, here are Nate and Greg.

Winter is here

Despite what the calendar officially says, winter is here in the burbs. We have had snow, sleet, freezing rain, and low low temps. Charles stayed home from work last Monday because after 30 minutes of driving he was not quite 10 minutes away from our house! (Slow-moving traffic, not bad weather. Although I suspect the storm from the night before did slow the traffic down!)
The three boys "helped" me shovel on Monday, but when I shoveled on Thursday, I was on my own. This morning when Jon went out the front door to catch the bus, the front porch and the sidewalk were sheer ice. He had a spectacular slip and fall. Ben followed him in the same fashion a few minutes later. I felt so bad for them both! I made sure to throw salt out later in the day, although by then it had mostly melted.