Christmas in West Jordan

We headed to West Jordan right after lunch. It worked out because almost everyone was able to come on the 26th, so we were able to be there to open presents.

Passing out presents. This year my mom did movie names.

Lydia is getting so big, she even helped pass out presents this year.

After opening presents we were able to spend the evening playing games and hanging out. It was great to be with my family. I am grateful for them and love them.

We are grateful for our Savior. We know that he was born, he lived and he died and rose again that we can also live again. Merry Christmas to all.

Christmas in Morgan

We love being able to go up to Morgan and had a great time.

Here are a few pictures of the whole family. It was great because everyone was there and Grandma and Granpda Knowles and Grandpa Great were able to join as well. We started with opening presents.

Then we got ready to start the Walker Cup 2018. The Walker Cup is a huge deal and Shantel and I were hoping to defend our title from 2017. We went over to the church to let the kids play and then do basketball and pickleball as the first two events.

Lydia got a skateboard from Grandma Walker and loved it so much. She immediately was skating around everywhere.

Meanwhile, Austin got a remote control car and he and Austin raced it around the church.

Our first walker cup event was basketball playing horse. Shantel was amazing. She totally saved our team multiple times and we ended up winning. Then we did pickleball. I had never played pickleball, but it was so much fun. I loved it.

That evening we did dinner with the family and then finished the walker cup. We did bop it and when we combined points from Thanksgiving, it was a three way time for the win. So we settled it with paper rock scissors. It came down to Blake and Whitney (Jake's girlfriend) and Blake won it for the Larson family. They were so excited, it was awesome.

The highlight of the night was actually after the tournament. We played a "defuse the bomb" game that Matt had as a group and everyone loved it. Then we just sat around talking. It was the perfect end to the day.

The next day we enjoyed the morning letting the kids play. This is one of my favorite pictures. We got Lydia a set up four "Sophie Mouse" books and I found her in a quiet place just reading her book. She absolutely loved the books from the start and could not stop reading. It made my heart so happy.

Merry Christmas from Morgan, on to West Jordan next. 

Family History - Christmas

This year I felt like I wanted to find some way to incorporate family history into our Christmas Celebration. I wasn't exactly sure how I could do that, but as soon as I had a general idea (vague as it may have been), I called my Grandma & Grandpa Knowles and my Grandpa Walker to ask them if they had any memories or thoughts about Christmas that they would share with me. It was really fun talking to them! Then, with the help of my sisters, Jenna & Melissa- I was able to put the stories together with some pictures and create these little Family History Ornaments. The idea is that each Christmas we can pull them out and hang them on our tree and read the story (or part of the story). I would like to get stories/memories from my parents and David's parents, and also ask them to help put together some things about our grandparents who have passed away already. I also wanted to blog them here. 

FAMILY HISTORY - CHRISTMAS

Zuriel Ruth Elvin

(Pictured above with her Father and Mother after a snowfall.)

{Zuriel Ruth Elvin} 
When we were younger, we always celebrated the holidays with our extended family. Sometimes we would gather at our house but often we would go to Aunt Peggy’s house, because it was bigger.

At Thanksgiving there was always a big spread of Swedish dishes. One of the ones that I remember was Lutefisk, which was a raw whitefish that they soaked in water and it was served with a white sauce. Tradition was that you had to eat it in the year you got engaged.  My dad liked lots of different foods. I don’t remember him liking Lutefisk very much, but I liked tasting it. He did like a different raw fish dish, similar to Pickled Herring. Grandma had a special white dish that it would sit in for a week to soak in water with cloves and onions. I also liked the Danish Dessert – which was a raspberry tapioca dessert. Grandma would take bottled raspberries (that she had bottled) and cook it up with tapioca, kind of like a pudding. There was a big table in the dining area and after dinner we went to the living room where we got in a circle and passed gifts around. You got to keep whatever gift you ended with, and they were always nice gifts. Then we would sing.

Christmas Day we got up early and Mother made us eat before we could open presents, usually cinnamon rolls, bear claws, or Swedish sweet bread, eggs, and hot chocolate. After opening presents we went and visited everybody, and somehow everyone was always home when you went to visit them, and you were always home when they visited you.

 I always got a doll for Christmas. When my Dad passed away, we found that he had already purchased a Teddy Bear with a plastic face for me. He had also bought Mother a silver service for their 25^th wedding anniversary.

We always had a pretty big Christmas. Mother grew up with a lot of kids in her family, so she always tried to make Christmas special for us. Holidays were always a big deal at our home. There were always games and things but there was just always a lot of visiting and lots of food.

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Joseph Allen Knowles

{Joseph Allen Knowles}

One of my Christmas memories is when I was about 6-8 years old. My room was in the basement and my family had sent me down to go to bed. I went to sleep, but woke up when I heard a party going on upstairs. I rushed up the stairs because I was convinced that they were opening presents without me! They quickly hustled me back down the stairs because it was just my older sisters having a party, but all of the Santa stuff was already out.

Our Christmas celebrations were simple, we had presents and we partied. It was always really great.

A Christmas memory that I have from high school: My folks didn’t have a television, but my dad wanted one and had been talking about getting a TV. My best friend, John, and I were in the kitchen and my dad was looking through television ads, quite intently. My sisters were in town for Christmas and one of them came in and said, “I’ve got some news – I’m engaged!” Immediately my mom said “No!” and my dad said, “Here’s one for $169.95!” Quick as we could, we were out the back door, laughing all the way.

I got home from the Army at Christmastime, just a few days before Christmas. I got out of the army, bought a $300 car and drove home, ha. The story goes: I was a cook in the Army and the week that I was supposed to be discharged I cut my finger and it got infected, so they stuck me in the hospital! I said, “You can’t keep me here, I’m supposed to leave on Friday!” But they made me stay until everyone else had already gone for the holiday. They said that I’d have to stay until after Christmas. I was past my allotted service time, but they sent me back to my company. In about 15 minutes those in charge of my company did the paperwork and got me out.

I was stationed at Fort Ord near Monterey Bay in California. My sister didn’t live too far so she came and picked me up I spent the next day or two car shopping and I bought a $300 ‘53 Ford. (It wasn’t nearly as old as it sounds, now.) It didn’t have a heater and I nearly froze going across the Donner pass on my way home. My parents were happy to have me home for Christmas. I was the only one left, really; the other kids were all married and gone by then.

Another tradition is that we did Christmas Eve Pizza. That tradition came when my sister Shirley came home one year after she was married and we had pizza. It stuck. Every Christmas Eve we had pizza, and I carried that tradition on in my own family.

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Ellis Ramon Walker

{Ellis Ramon Walker}

Growing up, in my younger years, we lived down at the Ranch House. Christmas was pretty much a family thing. When my grandparents were alive, Grandma and Grandpa would be there – as well as the rest of the family: Vern, Don, Ed, Everyone. We usually had a party, and Santa Claus would come and tell stories.  He was dressed up in his suit and he’d always give you a treat. Back then money was short and you were lucky to get 1-2 presents. As we kids got older, that finally ended, but we still had a party – Ed & Pearl had a big house and sometimes it was held there.

When I was pretty young, money was tight. One year, I got a saddle for Christmas. Not a new saddle, but nice. Boy, I thought a lot of that saddle.

When Verla and I had kids we carried on that tradition. We had a Christmas Party with Grandparents: both Walker and Rollins. We always go up and cut a fresh Christmas tree, even now, we still do. We’d take the kids and let them tromp around all over the place. We’d go through the 100 million trees, and everyone would pick the tree they wanted, then we’d finally decide on the very best one in the whole forest. We’d cut it, bring it home, and decorate it. Verla had a lot of decorations. Some she had made and some that other people had given to us. We put them all of the tree. Then we’d sit around telling Christmas stories.

When we had kids (Scott would have been very young), we sent away and got a kitchen set for Susan (and Wendy). A stove and a counter; all of it. Then I had to put the whole silly thing together. I was up all night so the girls would have Christmas in the morning.

When the boys were 5-6 and we were still in the Old House, one of ‘em got a little cannon for Christmas. You’d put in a little bit of gas, plus a pellet, an’ pull the trigger. It would spark and shoot a ball. It shot one of the glass balls right off the Christmas tree!

Many, many good times. Good grief.

When we had horses and a team we’d hook up a wagon and take all the kids for a ride out in the meadows on Christmas day. We always made sure we kept Christ in Christmas. We’d read the Christmas Story. We were always talking about it. Thinking of all the benefits we have and will receive from that.

I’m middle aged now, I still believe in Santa Claus. It’s a feeling in your head and your heart. The thing about Santa Claus is Santa Claus’ spirit of giving gifts is a facsimile of the gift that Christ and Father in Heaven has given to us. Santa Claus is a conveyance for little kids to think of and help them understand. Santa Claus. The North Pole. Riding on a sleigh and traveling around the world to give a gift of love.

Santa Claus still exists in the heart and mind

of people who accept that. 

We were just lucky enough to celebrate Christmas with each of these grandparents this year. I gave them each a duplicate of their ornaments and they got to share their story/memories with our whole family. It ended up being really neat. I hope that I can finish putting together the other ornaments and have them ready for Christmas next year.