It has been a very busy two days. Not so much for us, but for Bob and Delsa and all the missionaries. After we ate a fabulous breakfast Christmas morning, the kids opened a gift sent from one of the missionary's mothers. How sweet was that? Elder Wong is from Melbourne, and had written his mom about our family visiting, and she sent Pokemon cards for Mason and Katie, a stuffed koala for Andrew, a Mr Potato Head game for the kids, and candy for Ryan and I. She also sent gifts for Bob and Delsa as well. It's amazing to get gifts from someone who doesn't even know us.
After breakfast, we went to get the dry ice for the root beer, and then headed over to the church. Mason and Katie helped Santa Bob pass out gifts to the missionaries and I worked on the root beer. Katie's version of helping soon evolved into seeing if she could throw the presents at Bob. She was quickly demoted from Santa's helper.
I was pretty unsure of how the whole root beer thing would go, but I'm happy to say that I made almost 10 gallons of root beer, and it pretty much gone by the time lunch was over. The missionaries loved it and I didn't blow anything up. So that was a success.
After lunch, Ryan did a great workshop with the missionaries, and then we headed home while everyone else watched the movie "The Nativity". Andrew was asleep all afternoon, and Katie and Mason had been on their own. So we made sure to do a little family time and actually let them open up their presents. We only do one an hour, and we had missed quite a few hours as a result of lunch and passing out presents. They didn't seem to notice. If you've been reading the blog at all, you can guess what they had been doing.
We had a less than traditional Christmas dinner in the church gym with all of the missionaries. Baked potatoes, ham, salad, and rolls on plastic plates and with plastic utensils. Not quite like home, but we won't complain. Our kids were not in a great mental state to be in a crowded gym with lots of tables. Garrett had the fortunate spot of sitting next to Katie and watching her absentmindedly shoving an entire roll into her mouth.
We headed home after that and the missionaries had a testimony meeting. After putting our kids to bed, we had some quality time with Garrett, since Bob and Delsa were busy with the missionaries until almost 9:30. That gave us time for 2 games of Scrabble (both won by Garrett) and a game of Rummikub (a decisive victory for me). That was accompanied by a complete performance of Les Miserable by Garrett and I.
The funniest moment: Ryan came in with Andrew. He was having a somewhat frustrating night, and it showed in his furrowed brow. Andrew was asking for orange juice, as he does roughly 99% of the times he passes through the kitchen. Ryan was going to just tell him no, but I suggested grabbing a cup and just putting a little orange juice in the bottom for him. Ryan reluctantly conceded, found a mug in the cupboard, and put orange juice in it. The next thing we know, we hear a crash, followed by an explosively angry (Ryan gave me that description) cry of "Why did I listen????" Make sure when you imagine him saying that you have both of his hands balled into fists of fury. I turned to Garrett, who was busy beating me in our first game of Scrabble, and said, "Oh, man--I'm in for a serious beating tonight."
It probably won't make anyone else laugh, but let me tell you--it hit a chord with us. A lot of it probably had to do with the fact that there was a part of me that felt like I shouldn't laugh since Ryan was so angry, which always makes me want to laugh more. Either way, we laughed a lot. If it's one thing I can say about this vacation is that I've laughed a lot. And to his credit, Ryan neither beat me or continued to be grouchy. I love my Ryan.
Bob and Delsa eventually got home, and we opened the few remaining presents. Ryan got me a beautiful opal necklace (opals are mined here in Australia), I got Ryan promises of a new flat-screen t.v. for our bedroom, and I got Garrett a sweet "Adelaide Crows" jersey (they are the local footy team).
So overall, not a very typical Christmas. But definitely a memorable one.
1 comment:
Yeah, other people may not find that funny, but i sure do! I am in the computer lab at UVSC and just started busting up laughing. I may or may not have made a little scene. I quickly tried to control myself, which was relatively successful. The idea of you saying Ryan is going to beat you is just to much for me to handle!
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