Merry Christmas!

Joy: "We had a warm and friendly Christmas."

Derrill: Joy saw that the Sister Missionaries had no where to go for Christmas Eve, so we invited them over to share our ham, garlic potatoes, corn, and pies. (Someone had asked for the secret family recipes, but unfortunately I'm not supposed to give them out under pain of Norwegian ghosts paying us a visit.) These are her Engagementary flowers (engaged and kissing for 4 years now!)

After dinner, we had the traditional reading of the Christmas Scroll. Back in college, my mother had calligraphied the Christmas story plus some Old Testament and Book of Mormon prophecies about Jesus' birth onto a long scroll. We read our copy of it together, sang a few carols, and Joy and I used little figures to act it out for Hyrum's benefit.

We also had the traditional pajama present on Christmas Eve. Joy got us some blue pajama bottoms this year with trees and ... MOOSE! We had moose on our red pajamas last year too. It's a family joke. I added some warm, memory-foam slippers to the outfit, and we have to say, we REALLY bought for warmth this year. These are some of the warmest slippers and pajamas known to man. Joy got out her summer blankets the other day for the bed, they're so warm. But soft and fuzzy like nobody's business.

The sisters also got a few gifts with a mission story attached to each one, trying our best to help them feel at home. It turned out that over the course of the evening, we had done something for each of their traditions, so they got a little taste of home.

"Yeah, that felt really special to me."




Christmas Day we spent about six hours opening presents, not because there were actually all that many (that's a two-foot tree), but Hyguy took two naps in the process. He and I were both sick. We had to cancel caroling earlier in the week, which was sad.

"And we sang a song in between each round and ate a yummy breakfast."

Hyrum hasn't really figured out wrapping paper yet, but I did get several videos of him trying. Here you see the conflict: he wants to open the present, but he also wants to play with the rattle ... which we still hadn't opened.


He enjoyed all the presents, though. He particularly likes Joy's presents: the little train, the egg-shaped rattle, and the small basketball. I got him a kitchen playset that he enjoys scattering over the floor, Mary and Jesus action figures, and the Secret of Nimh (which Joy said we are *not* showing him yet). Joy is definitely the winner.

"I just get to spend more time with him and see the things he enjoys playing with at other people's houses. I had an in."

My big present to Joy was a couple framed pictures of Hyrum that I got professionally done. In one, he has a very mischievous smile. The other is a collage of him on my shoulders and him smiling really big. They are very nice. Joy got me three games for the Gamecube that we can play on the Wii: Final Fantasy, The Hobbit, and Zelda Wind Waker. This has enabled her to pull ahead on Harvest Moon since now my time is divided between four games. I did some catching up this Saturday though while she was at the temple.

So we pretty much just enjoyed each other's company and sang a lot about Jesus. It was a warm, cozy Christmas.




Hy tries to figure out wrapping paper, the careful way....







Joy laughing at our new toilet seat. '











Hyrum S. Watson, birth class of '09.
Voted most likely to break hearts in high school if only he learns not to drool so much by then.

"My name is Hyrum Watson, and I approved this message."




Playing with the ball for the first time. Don't let it touch the floor!