Johnson Family Christmas party

The Orson Johnson family Christmas party is a big part of our Christmas every year here in Utah. This year, my cousin, Nicki, and I were in charge (representing our dads' extended families). The past few years, we've had the party as a brunch, and that's what we did this year, as well. We had it in the Clover Town Hall, which used to be a little LDS church and site of the Gold and Green balls I attended with my gram and gramp Johnson as a little kid. I remember falling asleep under the chairs while the grown-ups danced. But now, the place belongs to the town and has been nicely refurbished, so it's a great spot for our party. We did all our traditional Johnson family things: the nativity (see first picture and below, featuring the whole scene, Gram and Gramp reading the Christmas story from the Bible, a shepherd and a familiar "sheep," three possibly wise and definitely goofy "men" and a whole troop of beautiful little angels seeing Baby Jesus),in which the kids wear improvised costumes we all bring and then put together in about 10 minutes; lots of food and conversation; and, of course, the white elephant gift exchange, which makes us all laugh — well, almost everybody! A few of the kids were a little jealous of the gift Kate picked, a brand-new walking robot with big guns and everything! Not exactly in the grubby, find-it-and-bring-it spirit of the White Elephant, but fun anyway! Gram and Gramp scored a jar of truffles and some old episodes of "Bonanza," so their entertainment needs are taken care of for a while ;-)! And just as we were leaving, Emma found a huge icicle "sword" on the side of the building — she was totally thrilled.