Christmas

We had a very quiet Christmas.  We joined the other senior missionaries for a potluck supper Christmas Eve and a potluck brunch Christmas morning.  Lots of good food.  After dinner Christmas Eve we sat around and sang for about two hours.  We had 4 very good guitar players there with 3 guitars, so a couple of them had to take turns.  It was a lot of fun.  We didn't exactly miss family because it was so very different from our usual Christmas that it almost didn't seem like it was happening.  Blaine and I spoke at a ward the Sunday before Christmas, and they didn't have a Christmas program.  I didn't do much cooking, although I made 13 dozen Christmas cookies, and one pan of triple layer fudge.  Blaine wanted be to make that many cookies, so he helped frost them.  We gave them to the people at work and the other missionaries.  I spent most of Christmas reading the December Ensign and over the last couple of weeks we watched about 6 of the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas concerts that I have on DVD.  We had plenty of time to contemplate the greatest gift of all that our Father in Heaven gave to us, the gift of His precious Son, so that we might repent of our sins and live with Him again.

This was the extent of our decorating and present buying.  The nativity is from Pomaire, the pottery town.