'Twas the night before Christmas...

...and the Christofferson family went caroling. 

They dressed up in red and green, with Santa hats for all.

And they each opened a gift, and were thankful.

Okay, my rhyming is done.  But this Christmas Eve, instead of opening one stocking present, we opened a present from under the tree.  Melissa was given turquoise bracelets, Mom a scarf crocheted by Clara, Dad a screwdriver, Clara a shoe ornament, and Amy slipper socks.  And my family gave me a digital camera!  I was excited.  That's why you can look at beautiful pictures.

This is Clara dressed beautifully for the GFA Christmas Party.

There are lots of presents under the tree!

Melissa and Clara sewed and quilted some Christmas coasters.  Behind them in the picture is a Nativity set that Mema gave us.

I spent all yesterday morning baking gingersnaps.  They are yummy and we have lots of them.

Have a merry Christmas celebrating Jesus' birth and spending time with family!

Christmas Preparations

We put up the Christmas tree on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, when Amy was still here.
We have a fake tree, so this picture is putting it together and fluffing up the branches.

Dad made a stand for the tree, because last year I broke the original stand. So here we are making the tree stand straight by putting legos under the stand.

Melissa and I (Ellie) put on the lights, and we all decorated it.

And here the tree is. We have lots of homemade things, like the felt rocking horse on the bottom right. My grandma made each of us girls one, and we each have different colors.


This is a nice picture of Amy with her roommates.

1 Corinthians 13 [Christmas Version]

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another cook.

If I work at a soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home, and give all that I have to charity; but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.

If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir's cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.

Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the spouse.

Love is kind, though harried and tired.

Love does not envy another's home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.

Love does not yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way.

Love does not give only to those who are able to give in return; but rejoices in giving to those who cannot.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

Love never fails. Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust; but giving the gift of love will endure.

Author: Sharon Jaynes

I saw this recently and I was really blessed. May you also be blessed!

Melissa has no braces!

She got her braces off on Wednesday.

Thanksgiving

We had two other families come over for Thanksgiving dinner for a total of 17 people! There was lots of food, and we had a lot of fun. We ate turkey, rolls, stuffing, cranberry jello, pumpkin and apple pies, and lots of other delicious food. Amy and her roommate Margaret were able to spend Thanksgiving with us, too.

We went shopping on the Friday after Thaksgiving, and went to a Day After Thanksgiving party.
On Saturday we put up the Christmas tree and hung ornaments.

Thanksgiving Food Prep

Did you know that it takes 15-20 minutes to cook a pound of turkey? I just found that out. So, our turkey, Pepe, being 20 pounds should take 6 hours and 40 minutes to cook. Mom will start the process at 7 tomorrow morning. Right now Pepe is being brined. In a 4 gallon bucket. Uncle Mark gave Mom this recipe for Apple Cider Brine. We tried it last year. It makes the turkey really tender and delicious.

I made almost 3 dozen rolls this morning. We use our normal bread recipe for that. And I started on Cranberry Jello Salad, which is from Mema's recipe.

Thanksgiving Plans

Amy is coming home for Thanksgiving! She is having one of her five roommates come. Her name is Margaret. She lives far away and isn't able to go home for Thanksgiving. Mom will pick them up on Tuesday. We are excited about having Amy back!
This past Saturday, the 22nd, was Amy's 19th birthday. We sent her a card, and were just planning on celebrating with her when she comes home. But for a suprise, some of her roommates and friends brought her to Dallas! It was quite a suprise when the doorbell and voices woke me up. We were happy to have Amy back! All of us had a big yummy breakfast of burritos that Dad made, and we visited friends, and shopped at Ikea. We had a lot of fun together.

This is Pepe, our young Spanish turkey. Presently he is thawing in the fridge. Last year's turkey was Tommy.

On Friday was ECC registration. So we registered for classes for next semester. Friday evening Clara went to a friends birthday sleepover, and Dad went to a men's night with people from church. Mom, Melissa, Cally (Melissa's friend), and I went to see the play Beauty and the Beast that a local highschool was showing. We really enjoyed the play.

Gospel for Asia's Christmas Catalog

Something out of Leftovers

Last night was ECC's End of Semester program. Our family needed to bring finger sandwiches, to help provide for the refreshments after the program. We made up a whole loaf of peanut butter & apricot jelly sandwiches, which we cut into little triangles. This is all well and good, but the only thing is, that because we took so many, we had a bunch left over. I thought we would have some for lunch for a while. But this morning, Mom proposed that we make french toast out of them. We all thought it would be disgusting; after all, egg, vanilla, and cinnamon do not sound absolutely delicious with peanut butter and jelly. But Dad tried making one triangle sandwich into french toast, and to our, at least to my, suprise, it was delicious! It's like bite sized french toast with the syrup inside already.

So, that was our breakfast this morning.

Dream Come True :: Seven Children

So for this extended weekend (from Thursday to Monday), we have had our friends, the Powells, stay with us. Their parents have been in Florida because the family's step grandmother died.

So Mom has seven sort-of kids.

This is Justin. He is Clara's age.

We have been having a lot of fun with them. It's like having brothers and more sisters.

We were at the park on Thursday. Here Brandon and Sarah are catching minnows in the creek.

This is Sharlena. She's my (Ellie's) age.

Brandon is in 2nd grade, Sarah in 4th grade, and Justin in 7th. Sharlena is a freshman.

Brandon, Sarah, and Mom had fun making cookies.

Sharlena called this one "Ellie with an attitude"

On October 31st, we went to our church's Fall Family Festival. I wore one of Mema's square dance dresses and a petticoat, and Clara wore a hat and a stripey shirt. Brandon was a hippy. Sarah was a princess, and Justin and Sharlena didn't dress up.

We took pumpkins home that were part of the decorations, planning on carving them.

It was nice to have Dad help us. He knows what he's doing.

Melissa did the Dallas skyline. I never would have thought of something like that.

Justin doesn't have invisibility skills, as you might assume at first glance. We used the long-time exposure setting on a camera.

Thirteenager

When we were going to bed, Clara said that she wanted cinnamon rolls for breakfast. I didn't think that would really happen. But when I wake up in the morning, Mom is making cinnamon rolls! They were delicious and better than any storebought ones I've ever had. Mom is so sweet. :)

We were playing Catchphrase, and I was trying to explain Cream Cheese to Clara.

So Clara's a teenager! She had a tea party birthday party today. I think everyone enjoyed it.

Homecoming

Our school's homecoming, on October 17th, was pretty fun. A friend of ours did our hair. And my friend taught me how to dance.

This is after, with my friend Sharlena. I went to bed at midnight, and I was tired all the rest of the weekend.

New Mexico