Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everybody! Jessica and I had a fabulous time yesterday for Christmas. We slept in and wrapped all of our presents at 10:30 in the morning. That's right, we wrapped our presents on Christmas Day--talk about procrastination!

We had Christmas brunch and fellowship at the Bruces' house. Then, we opened presents in the early afternoon. After that, Jessica, Micah, John and I played a game of Settlers' of Catan.

Later in the afternoon, we drove to Lincoln for an annual tradition. Every year, Jessica's grandparents host the "Sing For Your Supper" extravaganza with the extended family. This was my very first opportunity for a "Sing For Your Supper" experience, so I was very excited and interested in this famous family event.

Twenty four of us arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Lincoln last night. We first were served a scrumptous Christmas dinner! Then, after we all had our fill, we transfered over to the Sun Room for the family concert.

Everyone who brought an act or a song put their name in a hat, and then everyone performed their songs in random order.

Several of us played a silly song on a strange combination of instruments; one person played recorder, another played the harmonica, I played my trumpet mouthpiece, Jessica played violin, and others played on boom whackers!
Jessica also played "The First Noel" on the violin while I accompanied her.

My favorite part of "Sing For Your Supper" was near the end of our time together when we sang several Christmas carols together. The women all sang "Away in a Manger" and all the men sang "We Three Kings". We wrapped up the evening by singing "Silent Night" together in the dark--it was beautiful!

As we left and said good-bye to our relatives and Jessica's grandparents, we had tears in our eyes because we do not know the next time we will be able see them. Even so, we are thankful for this joyous occasion and for the tremendous love in our family!