Wednesday, December 25, 2013

          Merry Christmas, Everyone!  We hope you had a wonderful day.  It was very quiet here with only five couples in the entire residence building.  We met together for a Christmas dinner at 1:00 in the cafeteria and had a very nice meal together.  I made Idahoan Potatoes from Lewisville, ID, and they were great—creamy and cheesy—pumpkin sheet-cake with cream cheese frosting, and cookie-pudding salad.  Others brought rice, chicken, ham, scones, and apple pie.  There were alterations to my recipes since all of the ingredients were not available, but everything turned out fine and it was good to share a meal with these friends.  We walked our three miles this morning and should have walked again tonight after eating all the yummy food available at dinner. 

It made our Christmas to Skype with our kids and was fun to do it in a group.  We love and miss everyone, but know that the blessings are flowing and it was so good to talk and share in person.

          Glade and I played Yahtzee tonight and are ready to turn in a little early since we go back to the temple early in the morning.  There is already one small bus here and at least one other excursion is scheduled to be here tomorrow through Saturday.  It will be “business as usual.”  Good Night!   

We walked outside just before midnight and looked out over the city.
The fireworks started early in the evening, escalated to their peak about midnight,
and then tapered off in the early morning hours.  

Starting the food line for our Christmas dinner.
Glade went to get a pillow for his back so didn't get in the picture
and then I forgot to take more.