The branch president and his family are headed to New Zealand for Christmas and the Wylde family is moving back to Perth the same day, so we had the branch Christmas party and farewell for Wyldes today. We made up some flyers on Thursday and took them around to everyone. When we went to Justin’s apartment, we found out that Orson and President Robinson had been going to the wrong unit all this time! No wonder no one ever answered the door to those two. I made Reecy Pieces, a pasta salad, and some teriyaki chicken to take. There was tons of food. Karen Wylde brought a bunch of Christmas candy, crackers, individual mince pies, etc., and set them out along with the cheese and crackers the Robinsons had set out. All the kids immediately dived into the goodies and then didn’t eat much for dinner and no one seemed to mind. We picked up Raphy and Carolyn and Michael Shires and dropped them off. Then we went back and picked up Samantha, her son Beau, her daughter and her baby about the age of our grandson, Alex. Then we went over and picked up Marcella, an Irish girl who works at the internet café who had Mormon friends in Ireland. She has been very friendly to us ever since we started going there. We invited her and she came! Altogether there were 4 Wyldes, 4 Robinsons, 3 Davis, 4 Reynolds, 2 Shires, 1 Raphy, 1 Marcella, 1 Justin and us: twenty two altogether—that’s better than any Sacrament Meeting attendance we’ve had.
It was a lot of fun. The kids all played in the swimming pool and the adults had a great time visiting, telling stories and laughing. Samantha’s grandson, Zenai, is so cute. I got to hold him for a long time and he cuddled right in—it felt so good! President Robinson cooked all the meat on the BBQ, and we spent the entire time outside—that’s a far cry from Christmas parties back in Utah! Most of us had brought $5.00 gifts to exchange. That turned out to be fun; the most popular gifts were a couple of small Nerf guns. All the guys took turns trying to hit the two geckos that were on the ceiling of the deck. Just 22 days ‘til Christmas and the big party is over. We figure we’ll have a party closer to Christmas for those who don’t leave town.
The Chef--President Robinson
Justin and Kevin Wylde
Karen Wylde and Renee Robinson
Raphy, Marilyn, and Zenai
Samantha, Savannah, Karen
Sounds like you had a fun time. Too bad that everyone is taking off for the actual holiday.
ReplyDeleteHey find out how to make the individual mince meat pies, then you won't have to make the big ones when you come home!
ReplyDeleteMel
Actually, I like American mince better--it's a little too sweet here, but I still manage to eat them.
ReplyDelete