Stringham Family: Christmas Eve 2012

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Christmas Eve 2012

William

Landon

Christmas Eve this year was bitter sweet. The wonderful thing was that we were ALL together. A total of 45 people eating and celebrating at my parents house. One good thing about Wrights, is that you can put as many as you can fit in a room and they can all get along and chat and totally enjoy the chaos that is our family.
We can be a little overwhelming to others, but I wouldn't have it any other way. We had a nice non formal dinner of Ham, potatoes, salads etc. After dinner was cleaned up at lightning speed. (with that many hands it doesn't take long.) We got the little ones ready for the Christmas program.
Every year my mom writes a program to make our Eve special and every year its different. This year was kept short and sweet. With 23+ little ones its hard to keep them all still for the Spirit to enter. All of us mothers are trying to keep our brood still and lose a little of the Spirit in the transitions. However I was totally smitten when Ellie sang her solo. My mom asked her to prepare a lullaby for when the Christ child was born. She chose a very special song called Hallelujah by The Barlow Girls. It really is beautiful and she pulled it off. As soon as she was into her second bar all the children hushed themselves so all we could hear was Ellie's angelic voice singing praises to the new born king. The Spirit was definitely felt. At the end of the program my mom asked my dad if he would bear his testimony. He became so emotional all he could get out was "I have a testimony of Jesus Christ and I hope you all have a testimony too." My dad never gets emotional. It was all I could do to keep it together so I could see to play the music for our closing song.

Shane

getting on the costumes

I am so thankful that I have the wonderful family that I have. I am grateful that we have the gospel in our life, and an understanding of the love our Savior has for us. I am thankful for the time that I have had with my dad and all the lessons he has taught me through the years. And I am especially grateful that I was able to have one more Christmas with my dad as a whole family. Merry Christmas to all. May you all be as blessed as I am!