Christmas get-togethers

The annual Milligan Christmas Party was held on Saturday, December 12th in Ogden. I think I counted 60 attendees...but who can tell when everyone was moving around so fast? With my brothers and sisters and their families, we now total about 124. We had a good time eating, visiting and exchanging gifts. It was a snowy day which made for slow, slippery, and scary travel.

White Elephant gift exchange, younger group

The very tasty food was catered by the Sonora Grill, owned by Emily (niece) and Steve Ballard. Here are some of the tables set up near the kitchen end of the recreation hall.

Ashley and Chloe on plasma cars...riding these was one of the highlights of the party for most of the kids and 'kids at heart'

The stake center recreation hall was a free-standing building next to the church house. The gym was really large and it featured a kitchen, restrooms on each end, balconies on each end, and wooden 'fold-down' bleachers on the sides. It did not have a stage with velvet drapes! It was really a neat facility, probably a 'one-of-a-kind' as far as the church goes.

I attended the Sunflower Camp Daughters of Utah Pioneers Christmas Party on Monday, December 14th. A nice lunch was served and we enjoyed a short program. Later that evening Reed and I hosted our ward 'Empty Nester's Family Home Evening.' Fourteen were in attendance. We talked about Christmases past...remembrances, traditions etc. We showed a couple of video clips regarding the Savior's birth, one being from the New Testament and the other from the perspective of the Book of Mormon. We served wassail, frosted and decorated Christmas sugar cookies, red and green M&M cookies, fudge, divinity, coolwhip balls, fruit cake, a relish tray and tortilla chips and salsa. Making all those things kept us busy for a few days. We handed out 'scripture favors' with scriptures of the account of Jesus' birth in Luke, chapter 2, and bottles of our homemade chokecherry syrup. We had an enjoyable evening with some great people.

Santa came a little early to us this year. Our TV had quit working. We lasted a month without it and finally broke down and purchased a new TV, PS3, and console. We upgraded to an HD satellite receiver. The picture is impressive. Our system has a lot of capabilities. It will take a lifetime to figure out all the bells and whistles. Grandson Jayse, 9, wants to be our own personal 'geek squad."