Christmas Day!

CHRISTMAS MORNING 2013

Andrea was the youngest one at home.  You can imagine that we slept in!

We were grateful when Janna "face-timed" her to share some of their 

Christmas energy, excitement and general Christmas carnage.

 We were all finally up and ready to open gifts about 9:15 a.m.

 Colton, Malea and Andrea were own only company. 
Notice Andrea's faux-fur blanket. 

One of Dad's first gifts was an auto-darkening welding helmet from Andrea.  

We finally had to turn off "The Little Mermaid" so he could focus.:) 

Our new 47" screen is mesmerizing. 

Malea got new boots! 

 Andrea got new shoes,  (oxford pumps)
but they were not a fit for Malea!

 Scott and Janna sent us 50 pounds of almonds for Christmas. 

 That is 12 gallon bags full!

Andrea got a three screen picture with little hooks from Dad and Mom.

This is Andrea's main gift.

It was a very nice, three-piece set of Samsonite Luggage.  

Mission or honeymoon?

We used the BIG bike sack our TV came in to gather up the garbage.  

Mom was on garbage duty.

The load got heavier with every step...or maybe it was just the drama that got heavier. 

You know you are in rural Utah when you can burn your own Christmas garbage. 

Where are you Christmas?

Later in the day, about 4:00 p.m., the Mellor clan showed up for Christmas dinner.

Grandpa had to show them our new train first thing. 

 Kaleb and Dallin enjoyed the new toys
Grandpa and Grandma got for Christmas.

 Tyler was thinking about all the I-pod accessories he 

got for Christmas for the I-pod that didn't arrive yet.

 Mellors gave Dad and I this book for Christmas.

 Tyler is a star in this book.

 Potters gave Mellors a snow cone machine for Christmas.  

Hayden was ready to try it out!

 This is Hayden with his new B-B gun.

 This is Kaleb with his new Tigger. 
He had Tigger slippers, too.

 Dallin discovered that his new airplane is a snow plane! 

 Grandpa and Hayden decided to go try out his new BB gun.

Hayden had carefully filled four cottage cheese cartons with water 

to use as targets.  Then we added a different color to each with food coloring.

After filling the chamber with BB's, Hayden cocked his gun. 

 Then he took aim and fired.

 He let Grandpa try his new gun.

 Then Tyler joined them with his single shot 22.

 

Tyler took aim and fired!

 Aunt Andrea took Kaleb and Haylie for a pony ride. 

 They headed for Uncle Marv's house to avoid the target practice area. 

Kaleb, Haylie and Andrea on a chilly, Christmas evening.

 When it got too cold, the boys came in and played WII.

The Girls painted nails!

 Haylie was the first in line.

 Then she wanted to paint her mom's finger nails.

 Oops!  She got just a little in her hair.

 

These are Andrea's toes designed by Malea.

These are Malea's toes designed by Andrea.

Sadly, we didn't get a picture of Brenda's. 

This is the Grinch who helped us take Christmas down 

and put it away a few days after Christmas!

Pre-Christmas surprises

We enjoyed some extra fun pre-Christmas surprises this year.  Our good 

friends, Richard and Joyce Johnson, invited us over for a wonderful Mexican 

dinner after Church on Sunday. 12/22/13.  Their living room was like a mini-train 

Christmas museum.  Below are some scenes from their Christmas village.

 

Little did we know, Potters, Mellors, Wilkins, and Shirleys had gone in 

together and purchased a scale model, "Polar Express" train to go around 

our Christmas tree.  It was the updated version of the one Johnson's have.  

After our special Christmas Choir program that evening, we came home 

and the Potter's who orchestrated the purchase, insisted that we open it. 

You can tell I was distressed to be opening it before Christmas!

 
BUT......we did it anyway!:)

 

After a little bit of assembly....

 Colton and Dad were ready for the maiden voyage.

The engine on this train has some serious gravity
and all parts are moving, working parts. 

 

It has a remote control that controls the bells, whistles, 

and call to board and present your tickets.

Below is the "Polar Express" racing around our tree.

Notice the little figures that were included in the set.

 

This little train can blow smoke rings!

Another Pre-Christmas surprise came on the morning of Dec. 24th.

 There was a BIG package in front of the entertainment center with 

a letter attached.  With the letter was a small sleigh-bell from Santa's sleigh!

 Andrea quickly checked out the contents of the bright green envelope.

This is the letter we found in side.  Amazingly, we
could tell this letter was written by the same elf that wrote our
Christmas letter the year Santa came on Christmas Eve
to our family because Dad had to work Christmas Day. 

 

We were fortunate to have Colton and Malea here...

 

Because....inside the BIG package was a 47inch LED wide screen TV!

 

Malea and Colton wasted no time in getting us set up. 

 

Dad was Colton's assistant and tech support. 

Here they are figuring out how to assemble the TV stand.

It couldn't have been a snugger fit.  It was perfect!

 The first blue-ray movie we watched was "Oceans."
The 2nd was The Little Mermaid." Wow!
The resolution and screen size are impressive!

Later on Dec. 24th, Andrea and I had a special assignment 

from  Bishop Brooks, who was working closely with Santa.

We got to take Makenze Williams, a 15 year old in our ward
on a shopping spree.  We had $100 to let her shop for her own Christmas. 
Her family circumstances have never been great, but
are especially challenging this year.  

 

As you can see, all Kenze had for a coat, was her Dad's old grey sweat shirt.  

Finding her a cute coat in a size  2 or 3X was a challenge.  Our effort lead us to several

stores & took the better part of the day, but Andrea never faltered in making Kenze feel 

that there was no one more important than her and that there was no where we 

would rather be.;)  In the end...our mission was accomplished!! We even found her 

some new boots and a furry blanket for her bed.  Malea wrapped the gifts up and 

Dad made a quick "knock and drop" delivery that evening.  It was a privilege to be a 

part of adding some holiday cheer to Kenze's Christmas this year. 

We passed the tabernacle Temple site and you'll notice the work is coming slowly, but surely!


 CHRISTMAS EVE!

 

We had our traditional "Shepherd's Dinner" on Christmas Eve.

Andrea had to work at Macey's ):, but we got Grandpa and Blake to come down.  

Boyd Jolley joined us, too. We were so glad to have Colton and Malea here as well.

The meal featured the fish Dad brought home from Idaho and it was tasty!  

 

We traditionally use the Currier and Ives dishes I inherited from Grandma Davis.

 

This is the gift Dad opened that evening.

 Thanks to Aunt Sheree and Sarah Hunt, we have an 11X14 of this hanging on our wall.  

It certainly makes Dad's Priesthood authority real after studying this.