Avril was excited to attend the party.
Here's part of the crowd. Jesse's brother and dad made it too.
Avril ate ground up big people's food. Gayle did the honors and here suppresses a laugh because of the face Avril pulled.
Alicia loves pineapple cake.
We skimped on the candles.
Ali with some of the gifts.
The deer have returned to our back hillside. Here are a couple kicking back under our pines just outside our windows.
On the 22nd we went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City to see the lights. Even though Jesse has lived many years in Utah, he had never been to Temple Square.
Gayle, Avril, and I posing in front of the Christus statue.
Us in front of a Christmas tree inside the south visitors' center.
Jesse, Alicia, and Avril next to the same tree.
Meanwhile, it continued to snow outside, which only made the lights look prettier. It's hard to photograph lights, however, when it's snowing.
Avril stayed bundled up and enjoyed the occasion.
The young family staying warm.
On Christmas day grandpa (me) made pancakes and scrambled eggs so we could have strength to open presents.
Avril played with some new toys. It was her first Christmas.
I was really gettin' down with those Christmas carols!
Jesse had just come off of an all night shift and was sleep deprived. Here he catches a few winks.
I got to have grandma sit on my lap.
Carme joined in on the activities too. Here she poses with the other grandma and Avril.
Gayle and I brought back gifts from our Peru trip. Here Alicia and Jared sport their new gorros from the Andes.
Jared modeling his gorro and a generic green linen shirt.
We watched a video clip about the birth of Jesus Christ and even Avril watched some of it.
Alicia with her gorro not pulled down. We told her she looked like a cone-head.
Jared's hat matched his new sweater well.
Avril loves her uncle Jared.
Later on Christmas day we had supper at Mom and Dad Parkinson's house. Kelly and Patricia also came up. We opened a few more gifts.
Here are Olivia, Jared, and Ali.
My mother's mother (my grandma Keller) made these stockings decades ago (60's) for my mom's family. They still get hung up every Christmas. Later my mother made similar ones for each of her children's families.
Mom and Dad with a picture of Olivia.
Jared and Alicia
Avril looked more grown up wearing her new pink boots. She's playing with some of Patricia's Fisher-Price toys from the 1970's while sitting in the table/chair combo that my parents bought for Robert when he was a baby (i.e., Bobby back then) in the late 50's.
Finally, dad got a kick out of modeling his Peruvian gorro along with the colorful penguin blanket hand-made by Patricia and Olivia. Looked right out of the altiplano (highland in the Andes) - well, not quite.
