Getting Ready for Christmas

December has been a very busy month for us. There have been parties, getting ready for Christmas in the office, having company, visiting New York City, etc. We have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and had great experiences with many people. Here are a few pictures of some of the events that we participated in. Here are four of our missionaries who work in the Inwood 1st Ward: l-r: Elder Rossell, Elder Pearson, Elder Richards, Elder Bandley. They have been great helps to us as we have done Family History.

Inwood 1st Ward has really fun parties. They are a young ward and have lots of enthusiasm for getting together. We enjoy being part of the ward.

After we had eaten, the Primary children reinacted the nativity. It was good to have some children do that this year since we couldn't do it with our family.

Here are the angels, shepherds and wisemen. There was a narrator who told the story while the children acted it out. The audience sang at appropriate times.

As I said before, the office was a bustling place during December, with many packages coming in daily. Our AP's (Elder Duran and Elder Fox) took many of the packages to the various zones to deliver them for Christmas. They worked sooo hard. These pacakges are on a dolly, so they could carry many of them at once.

The whole office staff assembled all these packages for the missionaries. Each packet contained a NYNY North Mission T-shirt, the story of "The Little Shepherd," two Christmas cards (one from the first presidency and one from the NYNY North Mission), a NYNY North Mission key chain and a Manhattan Temple pin, plus a See's chocolate Santa, which one of the parents of one of the missionaries sent for every missionary.

On Wednesday, December 22nd, Amy and Billy came to see us. They came by train from Washington D.C. to Penn Station. They had suitcases that they had to lug around up and down stairs at the train stations and through the subway, so it wasn't too fun to get here. But, they made it here around midnight. The next day, we went into the office for a couple of hours and then were going to go to Ellis Island. However, the wind was strong, so we decided not to go. We spent the afternoon putting together a puzzle that Billy bought Amy. Dick and I were not too helpful. We did a little, but Amy and Billy did most of it. It is a tradition in the Brennan (Amy's family) to do several puzzles at Christmastime.

It took about a day to finish. Here is the completed puzzle. Then, we watched the DVD of "Elf." It was pretty fun.

The next day, we went into the office for the morning. Then, we took the train down to Macy's Department Store and saw the great window displays. Billy and Amy were still trying to catch up on their sleep. Here they are taking a nap on the train.

Macy's store windows had scenes from Miracle on 34th Street. Here are a few of them.

We went inside Macy's Department Store. It was decorated so pretty, but there were tons of people eveywhere.

On the other side of Macy's, the windows were decorated with "Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa," scenes. Very clever.

Macy's is close to the Empire State Building. Here is a semi-picture of it. We walked down 5th Avenue and saw the window displays in Lord and Taylor's and Sacs 5th Avenue.

Then, we finished up at Rockefeller Center, where we took pictures of Dick and I and Billy and Amy.

We then went home and spent a quiet evening with Billy and Amy. We ate dinner, watched the DVD "Joy to the World,"
and read a Christmas story.

Christmas morning, we opened presents and prepared to go to the mission Christmas party. I had to make four batches of funeral potatoes. Three or four of us had to prepare the potatoes. Sister Smith and family prepared ham and green beans. We also had rolls. We enjoyed cheesecake for dessert. We were able to go into the chapel with all the missionaries and listen to each zone sing a Christmas song, as well as hear words from the scriptures about the birth of the Savior.
Then, the President read "The Little Shepherd."

After the program was finished, we went into the cultural hall and ate. The senior missionaries below helped serve the food. They are a congenial group of missionaries.

A slide show taken from missionary pictures was shown as the missionaries ate their lunch.

Here are a couple of cute sister missionaries, Sister Child and Sister Passantino.

All in all, we had a great Christmas. Amy and Billy enjoyed doing another puzzle in the afternoon. It was fun to have them here. Our good friend, Jay, left for a few days during Christmastime, and they were able to stay in his apartment.