Christmas Eve we headed to Provo, picked up Panda Express, and met up with Ben for a Christmas Eve dinner and activity.
The sun was just setting as we waited to get in. Clouds and sunsets are an unbeatable combination!
We ate, did a puzzle and played Uno plus ate snacks--after all it was Christmas Eve.
Our Christmas Eve selfie---
When we got home, we watched a movie and read the Christmas story before doing our traditional Christmas stocking train---
but we had no stockings (I couldn't reach them through our stuffed storage room) and no fireplace to hang them on. Fortunately, Jena is a good sport and liked our make shift stockings out of bags. She even commented that Gary and I had the same "pattern" as our actual stockings are also the same. She liked that!
It wasn't until the next morning that I realized that we had forgotten one of the treasured "Hall" traditions. I had forgotten to give Jena her Christmas pjs.!!! After 37+ years, there were no pjs opened at our Christmas Eve. (However, our grandchildren were able to open theirs so the tradition lives on!)
I pulled this little tree that usually sits in our kitchen to use for our tree......
and we hung our stockings on the kitchen peninsula
Christmas morning, I headed to Provo and got Ben and brought him to our apartment for Christmas morning (which happened around 11:30) complete with cinnamon rolls and juice.
The lineup--youngest to oldest to head to the family room
As usual, Jena had some creative name tags for me....this was one of my favorites: "Father Time"...
And this was what was inside of it--a clock! It made me laugh out loud!!! So clever.
Gary had commented on a commercial a few weeks ago about the extra large mug they were using and said he needed one for hot chocolate. I found him this one, which made him laugh....
although it says it is "G" for Giberson, not Gary. It should have been an "H." Works for me, either way!
Ben gave us each a few gifts which I later found out were the gifts he had been given at the state hospital for Christmas. Each Christmas volunteers in the community donate gifts for the patients. When I asked Ben why he didn't keep them, he said that it was more important to him to give us gifts and that is what he had to give. It made me cry. Ben has a tender heart.
Our TV was playing Pandora with Christmas songs and it made an interesting design behind our little tree. I don't know if you can see the red and white candy canes, but Jena made these for Gary while we were at Thiot's home in Texas. They will always be a memory of our mission Christmas and the trip to Texas.
We made a quick trip up to Syracuse, so Ben was able to visit with Jessica and Elessia and the kids all who haven't seen him since September of 2020. We then went back to our house and had Christmas dinner before heading back to Provo to drop him off. Ben did fairly well considering the variety of things we did and being in the car a lot during the day. We were also able to talk to Scott and Tosha and their families over the weekend. Good times!
Not a traditional Christmas, but awesome in its own way and one we will remember.
Merry Christmas, dear family, and a Happy New Year!
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