After serving the homeless dinner on Christmas Eve we went home and had canned soup for our dinner. We then watched Joy to The World LDS Christmas video and sang carols and said a prayer. Christmas morning Karisa tried to wake us all at 6:30 but her brothers wouldn't get up. But then Eric's girl friend called so he got up and went to her house for a quick minute to watch her open his gift to her. He had woven her a head or neck piece out of green yarn and had glued on a pink silk flower. He also gave her a cute band thing for her ipod. Then he came home and we got up and went to our livingroom. Santa did come. Keith was asleep on the couch by the tree. Our stockings had goodies from our trip last summer to Omyjawayah or China town in Seattle. Some gifts were "I owe yous" for tennis lessons for Eric or a game for Keith. Karisa didn't know what to think of a skirt from Value Village. (Its hard to find a pretty skirt this time of year) Kieth didn't care for the suspenders from the fashion police. But I think they each got something they liked. Karisa liked her Harvest game and new coat. Keith got a professor Layton game. Dad even got Mom a polished Ellensburg blue agate that she wanted. Dad got an electric razor. He laughed at the track phone. He hasn't joined the 21st century yet with a cell phone until now. We had a nice breakfast. Then Mom made pies and cooked the turkey. Scott and Jeannette watched the Snowball Express from Disney. The kids tried out thier new games or slept. The turkey and pie were great. It was a nice day.

Here we are having Cristmas Breakfast. cinnamin rolls, special hot cocoas, pomegranite, vienna sausages, Karisa's special scrambeled eggs, oranges etc.

Here is what our house looked like Christmas morning.

This wasn't Christmas, but a pretty sunset near Christmas from our yard. Thats Mt Adams in the background.

HEre's our Granddaughter, Julia, in her Christmas dress we bought her at Thanksgiving time. This picture is at Scott's folks' house.

This is actually a Thanksgiving dinner leftovers night with all our family at Scott's parents' home.

Winter Holidays 08

We stayed in Yakima this year for Christmas. The roads seemed yucky. It was easier and less stressful. I was a little sad not to see the grand daughter. But the kids and Scott wanted to help with the church "feed the homeless" project on Christmas Eve. Scott was sort of in charge. We ended up with more youth wanting to serve and help than there were homeless people needing serving. There are 3 emergency shelters in Yakima. Our church brought a ham dinner with baked potatoes, green beans, rolls and pie to the shelters. We got to go to the one downtown that serves men. We put on table cloths and center pieces of candycanes. There were a lot of youth crowded into the kitchen. We were warned to stay in buddies to serve the men and not wander alone amongst them. One room was there eating and tv area. Another room had 20 cots set up. They loved being served the meal. We also went out and served pie and took extra butter and drinks. One man said he just liked being served even though he didn't need any more butter or pie. Cold air blew in when the door opened. After dinner the men began going to the cots and covering up with blankets. That was at 7pm. At 6:30 Christmas morning they would be given a bag of breakfast then sent outside again. It was humbling to us all.