Christmas Eve 2016

After Jeremy hurt his arm yesterday, I knew I'd be able to LIGHTtheWORLD according to today's theme (I wish we didn't have to this way, but we do).  "Jesus cared for His loved ones and so can you."  Jeremy's limited in what he's able to do right now so some of our plans and traditions had and have to be changed a little.  Because of having a better attitude toward Christmas this year, it's not so bad.  It reminds me of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (by Dr. Seuss).  Even after the grinch stole all the Whos' toys and presents and food for their feast, Christmas still came.  It came without ribbons, it came without packages, boxes, and bags (paraphrasing here).  Jeremy told me he didn't know if he'd be able to wrap presents for me.  I told him that didn't matter.  He did manage to wrap presents by himself.  He even helped get a few things ready for dinner.  The kids all chipped in helping with dinner as well, from clearing and wiping down the table to peeling eggs and rinsing lettuce.  There was definitely service happening in our home today.
We had some visitors give us service as well.  We had a few people stop by to bring us Christmas gifts of various sorts, including a gift left on our doorstep.  It said, "Merry Christmas Telford's From the North Pole."  Thank you so much for the paperware and envelope.  It is greatly appreciated.  You know who you are.

I'm very grateful for all the kindness shown to us by so many people.  I'm very grateful for friends who came to give Jeremy a Priesthood blessing this morning, who took time away from their own Christmas Eve morning to perform that service for us.
This afternoon, Jr. Jr. got to sprinkle reindeer food out on the lawn.  He got it from school.  It had oats and glitter in it.  The package said, "Magic Reindeer Food  Sprinkle on the lawn at night, the moon will make it sparkle bright.  As Santa's reindeer fly and roam, this will guide them to your home."

We weren't able to have one of the dishes Jeremy was going to make for dinner.  Since we didn't have it for Thanksgiving, Jr. had his heart set on it for Christmas.  He had a very good attitude about it when we explained that Jeremy wasn't able to make it.  We still had plenty of food.

After dinner, Jeremy told the kids a special Jackerina (defender of the Telford family) story while I made snickerdoodles (thanks for the recipe, Kelly Quilter) so the kids could put out milk and cookies for Santa later.

Then the kids hung up our stockings by the fire and we had our last Countdown to Christmas scripture study and bore our testimonies.  Then we went around telling about ourselves for a video like we do every year. 

Then the kids got to open up presents from Grandma and Grandpa Telford (new pajamas) and put them on. 

 Aaaah!  My hair is on fire!

Then Jeremy and most of the kids went to bed while I tried to organize some music because the choir is singing in Sacrament Meeting tomorrow for Christmas and I'm the choir director.

Our 3-year old would not go to bed, so finally I went to bed for a little bit.  Eventually he went to bed and now I'm up again writing this blog post.
I told Jeremy, with his hurt arm in Sacrament Meeting tomorrow, it will be like Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol.  It will be good for people to remember on Christmas who made lame beggars walk and blind men see (paraphrasing again).
Merry Christmas.