Ryan & Jeannine: Christmas 2012 part 1

Christmas was pretty wonderful this year. Sadly, I do not have pictures of our annual ball in this post. Those may or may not come later. It was, I must say, a blast.

The night before Christmas Eve, we had a sleep over under the Christmas tree. "Under" meaning we spread out into the next room over because there are so many of us, now! My little niece exclaimed over and over, "This is the best sleepover ever! This is the best sleepover ever!" So, here are some pictures of the best sleepover ever, which it was. Matthew and Becky are brushing their teeth. Of course.

Little Brother, Sam, in this one. I guess he was taking the picture above.

Sam is a little entrepreneur. He has been making boffer swords and selling them. He does pretty well. I don't know how long he has been in this business, but he makes the swords himself and then takes them around in his peddler's pack and sells them door to door. Christmas Eve is apparently a wonderful time to sell these items. One lady was getting in her car, in her driveway and he asked if she would like to buy one. She was so grateful that now she didn't have to go to the store to get her son his last Christmas gift.

At another home, all the young married adult children were home for the holidays and they were so excited about the swords and having no cash with them, they begged their mother for money to buy them. They bought 4! When Sam came back, he was covered in snow and all but one of his swords were gone.

Here is the little Master in his workshop after finishing the Christmas Eve batch.

Our tradition is that on Christmas morning, we get ready for the day, then wake up our parents with a Christmas carol. We are not so diligent or traditional in practicing this since some of us have married. Anyway, I was almost ready to come in, but not yet, when these mischievous men (okay, yes, on is very young) came into the bathroom, picked me up, and carried me into my parent's room! I was NOT ready. But it was fun, anyway. We had a lovely Christmas morning with lovely gifts from each other.

Here we have one featured. My dad received a painting called "The Bishop's Team." It is a painting by President Boyd K. Packer of the 12 Apostles. The story behind it is something to the effect of this; that someone came to tell a lady that her horses were in the field, but no one was with them. It is like the life of a bishop, who leaves what he is doing and sacrifices so much to help those under his stewardship.
My dad is a bishop, right now. In some ways it is a real challenge, but it brings many blessings to him and his family. He was very touched and grateful to receive this gift. It was probably the best Christmas gift he has ever received.

There are some Packers that live close to us and I don't know how they are related. (A son or grandson or something.) Anyway, the ones who live close to us made a sculpture of the horses in the painting and I guess they sell in pairs; the sculpture and the painting. So, that was my Dad's Christmas gift and here are some pictures of how happy he was to receive it. :)

Christmas Eve:
We have a Jerusalem dinner, to remember Christ. Here we have flat bread, veggies, Mediterranean Chicken, St. Peter's Fish, fruit, pomegranate juice, goat cheese and some potato pancakes that my Grandmother made. Everything was good!

We did somewhat of a buffet style dinner and then went to sit on the floor. Grandma and Grandpa sat on the couch. We talked about the Christmas story and read it in the Bible. It is beautiful. We talked about the importance of following Christ and what it means in our lives to do that. We talked about his miraculous life and ministry and atonement, and that through him we can become like God and come unto God. Only through him.