London Baby: Merry Christmas!

Since Christmas is on a Tuesday, we had Monday off from work too. I drove down to spend the loooong weekend at mom and dads. We saved Christmas caroling this year for when Jodie was in town. We went Sunday night to some people from the home ward and then finished up with people in the Spanish ward. One of the families we went to, the mom has stage 4 cancer. Her husband helped her into the room so she could hear us singing. It made everyone cry, including the singers. (She passed away later in the week.)

We had the music recital before our Christmas Eve party. Besides the usual, Brett and Jeremy did a violin duet, TJ played the piano, and I played the cello while Jenny was on violin. Then, I also played the guitar and sang a song for dad that mom requested I do. Dad has loved the song ever since we heard it at Cowboy Church in Heber. He even contacted the singer about it to get the words for it. Mom and dad did a special number to finish up. They sang a song that announced they are planning to go on a mission. It was a huge surprise for everyone!...especially Grandma Backlund. She did not take the news well. The rest of us were very excited!

For Christmas, I commissioned some special artwork to be painted for mom, then for dad I got a DVD of his family videos from when he was a boy, as well as getting 9-generation fan charts done for each of them. It was a little weird having those be the only presents under the tree, but turned out really well. Mom cried a little when she opened it. She asked if the painter was related to Aaron Johnson too because why else would his home be painted into the picture? She REALLY started crying when she realized it was painted just for her. Good times, good times.