The Most Phenomenal Christmas Ever!

Well, this last week has been one of the most memorable weeks of my entire life, and by far the greatest Christmas ever. We had the Bendixens over for four days (along with three nights), while Bear and Manda stayed five. Here is some of the things we did, but there are too many to remember everything.

Christmas Eve
On Christmas Eve, we spent most of the day cleaning up the house. That is, until about 5pm or so, when Bear and Manda surprised us by coming a day early and helping us get ready. After doing some work, we had a great time that night.

We played pick-up sticks with light-up glow sticks, while watching It's a Wonderful Life:


We had the present opening that I mentioned here, and had bought my present here:


Some of the presents we recieved were really funny ;)


Donnie gave me a great shirt:


All the Christmas presents, there were way more than you can see here (at least 100, up to 200):


Hanging out in the basement:


Christmas Day
The Bendixens arrived in the early afternoon. After a while, we had our big Christmas dinner, but we didn't have a really long table - like at Thanksgiving - we were split into two. After a while, we cleaned up, read the Christmas Story and sang songs. Then, after the adults made some jokes that we should wait until tomorrow to open them, or at least a few more minutes, we opened presents. ;)

Opening presents:


Pictures are almost always better when people aren't all told to smile, notice the lovely faces ;) (bigger)


The group picture (bigger):


Here is my sisters (love Phyllissa) :D


Friday
On Friday we did lots of things, the main one was all going ice skating (or maybe spinning around in their icy parking lot ;)

The only picture I took while ice skating:


On the ice:


Playing Balderdash later in the afternoon:


Playing Apples to Apples:


Watching Little Men in the early morning hours, that was lots of fun:


Saturday
On Friday night, Andrew and Levi had came up with a plan (I listened to them). So when we came together for devotions the next late morning, Levi said he had a big announcement, that would be so stunning to them all, and we really played it up. ;) He then did a very good job at telling it to them all. The plan was to have some of the Bendixens go home on Saturday, while the rest stay here and help cleanup, so we could Home Church at our house the next day!

The parents said they would think about it. Still, some of us went right to work preparing. While cleaning the basement, Levi and I thought of something - what if while the parents were talking it over, another family would call and say they were having it, and we'd miss our chance. Within a few moments, we heard someone say on the floor above us, "[Mr. Bendixen], Gary C. is on the phone." I right away thought they were having it. However, he was just calling for directions, as the parents had not yet told us they had decided we were having it!

After doing my paper route with Levi, while everyone else had a snowball fight, we had a birthday party for Ele and Susanna, who both had upcoming birthdays. We opened presents and had birthday cake. For the most part of the evening, we cleaned up the house.

Levi giving his plan:


When Susanna opened her present, she was so shy she stuck her head into the box. She kept it there for a minute, while we all laughed ;)


Blowing out the candles:


Susanna with her new piano:


Home Church
We had church at our house for the second time ever! Although the Hey's couldn't come, the C's and the A's could, and we hadn't seen them for several weeks. Church itself was really great, we even had two whole services. ;)

During the second service, my Dad said we were going to be reading in the book of Malachi, and all the men and *young men* would take turns reading five verses at a time. As it came around the room, I tried to figure out which verses I would be reading. But, there was five verses to little in the book, and it ended with me next in line. ;)

For much of the afternoon, I played with several other people a new game called Acquire, a really fun board game Mr. Bendixen received for Christmas. After that, we went out and played volleyball in the cold weather and muddiness. I hadn't played it in over a month, so I didn't do very well, but it was still fun.

Playing Acquire:

After the A's left, we played more games. While several people played Acquire again, Jacob and I played Jenga and Stratego. At around 8pm, everyone left, including the Bendixens. And with that, so ends our amazing week, and the best Christmastime I have ever had.