Christmas in Parowan
After leaving the mortuary on Christmas Eve we all congregated at Grandpa Pug's home. It made me tear up a little when Daphne climbed right up on the fireplace beneath all the stockings with the names of all Hazel & Pug's descendants. So many lives changed for good.
Originally I was super bummed that none of my siblings would be at home in Logan for Christmas. Since it was the "Bush Year" I really wanted to be with my Bush side of the family, but in hind sight I am grateful for how things worked out so that we could be with the Adams family at Christmas during Grandpa Pug's passing and to be with Brett on his last Christmas before he leaves on his mission.
We were so worn out and clearly not hiding it very well.
Christmas Eve was a somber day as the morning was spent at the mortuary and then Alan and Marie had to drive to Las Vegas to pick up Aunt Janice from the airport. That night was the annual party at Aunt Holly and Uncle Doug's house in Cedar City, but there were only a few of us there and everyone was obviously trying to be cheerful, but not doing a very good job at it. Grandpa Pug has read from Luke 2 during Urie family nativity for Burke's entire life and many years longer and the void he left in his absence was gaping and hollow. Daphne hadn't eaten all day (she's in this horrible phase of refusing food) and had only slept for 30 mins, so she vacillated from insanely active to holy terror and I was ready almost as soon as we got there to go home and get her to bed. When we finally went to bed that night, I was fearful that this was shaping up to be the worst Christmas of our marriage.
Daphne with Santa - Christmas Eve (She kept whispering, 'Santa? Ho ho ho!')
At 2 AM Daphne woke up crying and inconsolable. We tried everything we could think of to quiet her down. We were both exhausted and our tempers were rising when I made an executive decision that we were getting out of the house STAT! We threw on our coats over our jammies, wrapped Daphne in a blanket and plunged into the frigid night air. Settling Daphne in his arms, Burke refused to buckle her in her car seat and the 3 of us drove slowly around the snowy roads of Parowan. I was pretty ticked for about 2 minutes until I looked over at my sweethearts and I got a huge lump in my throat. It was Christmas morning and I was with my two greatest loves. Sure, we were tired and grumpy, but we were together and, after all, Jesus Christ had been born into the world this night. Wasn't the whole reason for this trip to celebrate his birth and to remember him and his perfect life? He was perfectly loving and perfectly patient. Couldn't I try to be a little more like him too?
Pictures I've been meaning to post of our little family tradition of reading a Christmas story by the glow of the tree every night in December as a type of advent.
So I snuggled up to my family and we sang a few Christmas carols starting with, "It Came Upon a TWO-AM-NIGHT Clear!" And I felt the spirit of Christ enter into my heart and bring peace to my soul. Daphne pointed with delight at the twinkling lights suspended above Main Street and finally allowed us to put her to bed 30 minutes later.
Christmas Day turned out beautifully. Alan read the story of Christ's birth from the New Testament and we went around in a circle, expressing what "gift" we would each give to Jesus Christ in honor of his birth that year: Alan to be more organized, Marie to study the gospel more in depth, Kristen to study the Doctrine and Covenants and serve others more regularly, Brett to turn in his mission papers by the end of January, Burke to do 100% home teaching, and for myself, I felt more urgently than ever before to finish Grandma Ellsworth's history before she too is called home and to study the early church history.
We then went out to the tree where we spent a couple of happy hours enjoying our gifts together before Mike, LeeAnn and the girls came over for delicious (and traditional!) banana sticky buns and sausage eggs. It was such a joy to see Daphne with each of her gifts. We tried really hard to keep it simple this year and I ended up tucking two gifts back into the car unwrapped as she was happy with the few she had and really doesn't need anything else! We'll save them for her birthday.
In the afternoon we went to the farm for a little snowmobile ride - my first ever! It was a blast!
And that night we had visits with the Alma & Marie Adams family, the Wayne & Tracie Urie family and even got to see Ava & Curtis briefly. We really didn't want to leave by the end of the evening, but needed to beat the storm blowing in before the roads got too bad. It ended up being a very pleasant Christmas day and I look forward to continuing the holidays with the Bush family at the end of the week!
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