Family Christmas 2009

Well with missionaries going home, zone conferences, children coming home from missions and school and all the other normal duties of a family and mission, we did not have much time to plan or prepare much for our family Christmas. But having Erika and Julie home and the whole family together was a great gift. For Christmas lunch we drove to Osaka to the New Hankyu Hotel for a special holiday buffet feast. We took the Kobe missionaries with us as well. The meal featured all the fresh crab you could eat. And we ate a lot! This worked out well since we were pretty tired from everything and could not think of cooking our own Christmas meal.

The elders really took advantage of the "all you can eat" feature.

The sisters did not do to bad either. Hard to believe we ate these guys.
Back home, Sammy had to get into the Christmas spirit as well.

After the meal we went to the mall in Sanda and bought new clothes and presents for everyone. The girls enjoyed meeting Colonel Sanders at the food court KFC.

Erika seems to be back to her old self after her mission!

Ricky wanted to get Sammy into the spirit too. Sammy thought once was enough.

Going back a day, after the zone conferences on Christmas eve, we went out for dinner and stopped and played a few games at the mall on the way home.

The girls model some hats in Sports Authority.

After we got home and read scriptures, it was off to bed. No cookies for Santa this year. Also on Christmas Eve right after conference, Elder Andrews came over the home to pick up a birthday cake his mother had sent to him. Sister McIntyre also made him a face cookie. His birthday is the 24th!

Well I guess it was not your traditional or "normal" Christmas. But I guess we are not a "normal" family. Perhaps we really are a peculiar people. So in the end we did not have time to send out any cards to anyone. We will be lucky to get something out for New Years. But we really did have a great Christmas with family and in the service of others.