(warning ... long post)
A picture is worth a thousand words ... so I will skip the wordiness and just show you the picture. Here is how Christmas feels from our front porch:
For the first time we acted out the Nativity with our children. Molly was the angel (she also played Silent Night for us on the piano).
Jill was Mary, Elliot was Joseph, and Dave was the donkey.
Anna was the baby Jesus, but to tell the truth, she was a little rowdy.
We had a lovely Christmas Eve dinner with all of Dave's family. I made this pie (not to brag, but isn't it
awesome!?!) Not only did it look pretty but it tasted really good too.
Anna enjoyed her dinner from head to toe.
We were so glad to be able to spend Christmas with Grandpa Randy and Grandma Nancy and all the Smith aunts and uncles.
The kids were so excited to see what Santa brought on Christmas morning. Their
enthusiasm even brought Uncle Jason a little bit of the Christmas spirit.
One of my favorite presents under the tree (thank you to Andrea for telling me about it) was a pop-up Cinderella book. As you can see this book is
waaaaaay better than your usual pop-up.
Uncle Jason and Aunt Kristin were so fun to play with. They built an amazing fort down in the girls bedroom and rough-housed and played scary monster.
The day after Christmas we went ice skating at the Rockefeller Center. It turns out that Grandma Nancy is a pro-skater, she can even do twirls! Aunt Sarah started out by holding on to the railing the whole way around the rink, and ended by jumping a triple
lutz! She was amazing. I had to finagle a little with the manager to skate with the stroller, but I finally talked them into it and Anna loved it!
Jill and Molly were excellent skaters, thanks to their lessons this summer. Even Elliot skated on his first try.
One of the very fun presents we received was a membership to Discovery Gateway. This present is fun for the whole family, never gets broken, dirty, or lost, and (mom's favorite) doesn't have to be cleaned up after! We went on Saturday after Christmas and plan to go back very regularly. Here are Molly and Anna playing in the water table.
And here is Dave climbing the rock wall. (Notice the sign...
haha)
Just FYI; you are now entering the adult section of this post.
If you have a weak stomach, please don't continue reading!
But if you were crazy enough to keep going...
Now you can see what I gave Dave for Christmas:
And here's what he gave me:
We totally didn't plan that! But, if you were wondering, now you know why we have so many kids!
Merry Christmas!
Today Dave is in upstate New York for the funeral of his Grandpa Killian. This is the first of our grandparents to die. Dave was very close to his Grandpa; it has been very emotional to say goodbye. Dave and his Grandpa communicated quite regularly through phone calls and email. Grandpa Killian's death was very sudden and surprising. One day he went to the hospital with a bad stomach-ache and 4 days later he had passed on.
We had been praying everyday for him while he was in the hospital and when he died, I told the kids. I said it was a sad-happy day. Sad because grandpa had died. I asked them if they could think of any reasons why it was happy. Molly said "Well at least his stomach doesn't hurt anymore." I was so proud of her for being so thoughtful. Elliot said "Because we still have Grandma." True, we are all very grateful for Grandma Killian.
I told the kids that it was a happy day, because of our faith in God and his eternal plan for us. We believe that there is life beyond death, where families are central, just like they are here. We believe that through ordinances performed in temples, families can be sealed together forever. Grandpa Killian believed it too. He and his wife were the first and only (besides their posterity) members of their families to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
(This picture is them visiting with one of their missionaries, nearly 40 years after their baptism.) They were sealed in the temple, and later both of their children were also married in the temple. But for Grandpa Killian, that was not enough. He spent tremendous amounts of time and energy searching for his kindred dead. He built a huge database of names and then sent them to a temple to have their ordinance work done by proxy. To me, this is one of the great principles of my religion. We believe that all people have the same opportunity for God's choicest blessings. Members of the church worldwide are busy doing temple work for people who have already died and never had a chance to hear the gospel preached or enter a temple in their life time.
Right now it is hard for those of us that are left. We will miss him so much. But we know that he is in a happier place, surrounded by other family members. I like to think that there is a long line of people waiting to shake his hand and thank him for the blessings he bestowed upon them while he was alive. That's why it's still a happy day, too.
We love you Grandpa Killian!
