Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Christmas Bells are Ringing

It's hard to know where to start when I've been gone from the bog so long.  I guess with an explanation; you see, sickness arrived and did not want to leave this house.  We all had a round a colds including a sinus infection for me followed by three days that we were all well and rushing around trying to accomplish our Christmas tasks, then another round of colds for everyone, another sinus infection for me, and a double ear infection for Creed that forced his eardrum to burst,  We recovered just in time to make it down to stay with 
all of my family for Christmas only to learn that they had the stomach flu and then we had the stomach flu.  Lovely!  The good news is that it all cleared up by the afternoon of Christmas Eve and we were able to enjoy a fun day together.  The day started out with a sledding ramp my family built across the deck in the backyard.

Then the evening was all about family traditions.  We started with a Raclette dinner.  Raclette is a traditional Swiss dinner that Swiss Shepherds were said to eat so that's what my family eats on Christmas Eve.  The shepherds would melt cheese on hot rocks by the campfire  and then pour the cheese onto bread or potatoes.  The modern version uses a raclette grill and each person has a little tray they fill with cheese and slide into the middle of the grill so the cheese melts while they cook different meats and onions on top of the grill.  It's all then poured onto boiled new potatoes.  My friend Rachel and Swiss and also serves Raclette with sourkraut, pearl onions, mustard, and tiny pickles but we just stick with potatoes, meat, and cheese.After dinner it was time for the Christmas pageant.  Creed was a very cute shepherd.I thought once we had kids, we got out of dressing up, but I was wrong.  So here's the whole group.  Notice anything weird?Yep, the three brother-in-laws wanted to be the three wisemen (because they were so wise to marry Borup girls) so Eli was left being Joseph while Marissa was Mary.I was an angel
The little boys were shepherds and Logan was Jesus.  Cole kept calling him "The Little Lord Jesus" and it kept making me giggle when he said things like, "The Little Lord Jesus is eating candy from the tree"
After reading the scriptures we all opened our Christmas pajamas and since I neglected to take a photo of Creed in his, this is the best that I can do. Just imagine his cute smiling face.   



8 comments:

Reba said...

hope you're all feeling better. I love Larry's hat.

Anonymous said...

I was SO much fun. A Merry Christmas was had by all...

Elisa said...

Happy New Year!

Your Christmas looks so fun, that sled ramp is great! You Christmas card is DARLING, anything with Creed on it is darling, but the pup up is so fun....everyone who comes to my house comments on it. I feel cool to have such a creative friend:)

Glad you guys are feeling better, I have missed your posts.

Anonymous said...

Wow: a Merry Christmas indeed. What wonderful traditions (and participation!) you have. And I must say, that is an impressive ramp! I hope I do not regret saying that I envy you the snow. It rained in Columbus all the day before Christmas. Though I was glad for everyone traveling to our house that so much precipitation was not snow, I couldn't help thinking how pretty it would have been to see a white blanket on the world Christmas morning.

Happy New Year.

Melinda said...

Oh, we've all got the sinus infections and flu too. So much for getting together. Hopefully we'll be over it all soon!

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about the sicknesses. We've been out of the blogging world for a while . . . Glad your Christmas was a fun one! And love your New Year's resolutions. They give me ideas for what I need to do.
Hope you're doing well!
~Rachel

Eva / Sycamore Street Press said...

hey - we eat raclette for christmas, too... for us, the tradition comes from when my mom lived in france as a teenager, and her family would go on a ski vacation to switzerland every christmas. i wish we could all go to grindlewald every year...but we're pretty happy to at least get the raclette. we eat it with cornichons (those little strong pickles) and tomatoes.

Unknown said...

My wife and I just got the flu, but I don't think it will last until Christmas. It shouldn't! We're planning to spend the holidays in Mammoth Lakes, and we can't go there sick. We both just learned how to ski, and we would like to take our skills up a notch by practising in Mammoth. Vacation rentals would be enough for us two, but my in-laws decided to share with us the Mammoth condos they rented, so we took the opportunity. My wife is so excited that she doesn't stop talking about it!