December 25

It is interesting that on the one Christmas we can sleep in Scott was up at 4 a.m. Even he is not sure why. While he was up, he decided to make it look as if Santa had come. What a wonderful man I married. He got all the gifts our children and grandchildren sent, an umbrella we had not used, a kids toy we had purchased to donate but did not get it to the right place on time, and put them on the coffee table we have in our living room. I guess it did not look like enough, so he got the box Brother Stout sent and any Christmas cards we had received and added them to the gifts. He then added two pineapples we had purchased yesterday. He took the only pair of socks we have here in Fiji--his well used, but clean athletic socks--and stuffed them with apples, bananas, carrots (he was desperate), and a few hard tack candies laying around the house standing them up against the legs of the coffee table when he was finished. 

By 6 he was tired and came back to bed waking me up in the process. So at 6 I am up with nothing to do. I grabbed my scriptures and went into the living room to read. I laughed and laughed when I saw the coffee table. Scott is so much fun! I read my scriptures, and then when I could not think of anything to do got Scott up. We took forever going through our "Christmas Stockings" and opening our presents. We savored each gift as we opened it. Tried things on. We read Brother Stouts letter which was three pages long plus another page written by his daughter Kristen when she was serving her mission and made a big deal of each Christmas card. It was so delightful.  

It is amazing to me that my Christmases have always been centered on family. We do not have Christmas traditions that center on parties, social outings, or gatherings. Christmas to me means family.  I have not been worried about this Christmas being hard or sad, but I have wondered how it would be without our children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews, because I could not "see" Christmas without family. Well it was amazing.  

Because we had talked with our children and grandchildren on Monday we did not feel a need to speak with them again today. It is a good thing as the recharging cord to our computer did not work this morning. One of the prongs was gone and so it would not recharge the computer. I had planned to call mother today and skype Marsha, Dave, Abby and Sean.

We ended up going to the beach this morning with some of the senior couples. Scott was so excited to say that he had spent Christmas day on a beach and in the ocean. Do not ask me why, but he was.  We had a lovely time on the way out, on the beach and on the way home with the six couples we drove.  When we got home, I put the ham for dinner in the oven.  Monica, our landlady, brought us up a lunch of fish, lolo, ota, and dalo.  Yummy.

We tried to figure out a way to call mother, but we could not unlock our cell phone for international calls today, because no one was working who could do it.  

At four we met on the "deck" for dinner with the Seniors. Everyone brought a dish to share. I did the ham and the rolls. After we did a white elephant exchange which was great fun, and then I had put together a "So You Think You Know Christmas" quiz. Scott and I had purchased an extra white elephant gift to give to the couple who got the most correct answers. As I was standing there asking the questions, giving them time as a couple to get an answer, and then asking for the correct answer there were long minutes of silence.  And in that silence, I thought about my Dad who passed away in 1975.  He loved everything about a good party. In finding the questions and putting together the quiz, I had done something my father would have done--find a way to make a party more fun.  Merry Christmas, Dad.

The seniors had planned the dinner weeks ago. On Christmas Eve day President Seru had asked if we had some place to eat. I told him that we were eating with the seniors. I did not realize that we could do both. I thought the invitation was an incase-you-are-alone invitation which I found out later it was not. I love President Seru; he is such a strong leader and we would have loved to eat with him and Sister Seru. We also had an invitation to eat with Jimmy Narayan and his mother. They were eating at the same time as the seniors. If I had known we would have been invited out, I would never have agreed to cook the ham for the seniors. I would much rather be with the Fijian.  

All in all a wonderful Christmas.  It would have been perfect if we could have talked to Mom.