Hendrickson House: Christmas Adventures

This year we spent Christmas with the Prince side of the family. That's my parents and siblings. We had all of the siblings together with all of the most important people in our lives there, with a few exceptions. 2 of my brothers are currently serving missions. Brad is in Costa Rica and will be home about July 2012, and Jesse is in Oaxaca, Mexico, he will be returning May 2013. We don't get to call them during the time that they are serving. We get letters every week, or at least most weeks, but there are only 2 times a year that we can phone and Christmas is one of them. It was so nice to say hello and to hear their voices. So fun to speak to them in spanish. Gabe was mostly cooperative. He even cooed on the phone with Jesse, but fell asleep before we got connected with Brad. It was such a great time to share in the celebration of Christ.

This year I had great ambitions to decorate and make Gabriel's first Christmas perfect, but somehow I ended up doing the exact opposite. I really wanted to decorate early and have it all done before the end of November. I was talking about decorating by mid Nov. and Ryan finally consented to let me go for it. But the busy-ness had already started. Chocolates. birthdays, baptism, pretzel dipping and all kinds of other fun family events got in the way. Plus we ended up getting one lousy cold that lingered in the house for about a month. Gabe still has a bit of a raspy throat at night. Anyways, I didn't get it done early.

Last year mom and dad wanted to get rid of an artificial tree. Of coarse, I volunteered to inherit it. So, we picked it up and put it away (we went to CA last year so we didn't set it up). Finally, I found the time and I was super excited to put up the tree. So we went to the garage and found the tree stand, but the tree was nowhere to be found. We pulled apart the basement and still no tree. Maybe we never did bring it home? So, I called mom. Nope, no tree there. So a whole day spent searching for a tree, with no tree to show for it in the end. Oh well.

Next I wanted to make gingerbread. I needed to boil the sugar and the molasses together. I thought that my pot was big enough, but I found out the hard way, NO it was not, as the boiling volcano of molasses erupted all over my stovetop, down my over and onto the floors. Wonderful!

In the end, there was no tree, the gingerbread wasn't perfect and the only decorating that happened involved 3 stockings and a nativity set. The lights stayed on the house all year, so I guess that counts too.

I have to admit that I really enjoyed having less fluff this year. The nativity set was all that I really needed to remind me what it is that we are celebrating. It is Christ. His birth, His life, death and resurrection. He is the reason for the season. I hope that amongst all of the fluff, you could still find our Savior ad Redeemer, Jesus Christ. I did. This year I received the greatest gift, the gift of a little boy sent to me from above. I am so grateful for our little Angle Gabriel and I am excited for the adventures of 2012.