Relive Christmas Season 2010 with Us!

Our Printed Blog Book. First, an unpaid product endorsement. As you many know, it's very rare that you will see me (Dan) get excited about any "outside of work" product enough to actually tell someone about it.  Be that as it may, check out http://blog2print.com if you are interested in printing your blog. In four or five clicks I created this hard bound, professionally printed summary of three years of blogging. It's about the size of a year book and is full of Dan & Julia Doxey family history. Nice. I priced this out, evaluated what it would cost in time and effort otherwise, and this is a great way to go. Definitely renews our reason to blog anew.

Gingerbread Pre-School. Liza's pre-school group had a grand 'ole time making gingerbread houses and prepping for the season.  Mia Stapley, Jace Fosson, Diego Soarez, Dax Tramleasure, Annalisa Lammi, and our own Eliza Doxey festooned their homes with all manner of holiday confections.

3rd Grade Country Club Elementary Holiday Tea Party & Dance. John and this little lady friend for the moment (Taylor) 'cut the rug' in their classroom and were proudly one of a few who could sort of master the waltz.  'Twas a magical moment to give celebration and honor to the holidays.  John certainly is an entertainer, so it was a grande fete.  My favorite part--fingers interlocked, knuckles white ... as if an earthquake were underway.  I guess for a 3rd grader doing the Christmas waltz, same exhilaration.

Weaponry. Helmets. A Little Bit of Scottish Dance.  This is typical of the rambunctious tone of our home.  A few helmets, Nerf guns, light sabers, maybe a little River Dance mixed in...it's all in a days fun.  With this get up they're ready to storm the backyard creek in search of the enemy.

Mondo Gingerbread House at the Claremont Hotel in "Bezerkley." Per tradition, there are some pretty amazing gingerbread competitions here in the Bay Area. Of course we make our annual round to all we can, but this one is almost always our favorite.  The Claremont Hotel does this right. HUGE gingerbread houses--very detailed and ornate.  I promise John is not peeing on it in this picture.

Ice Skating with The Crew.  A magical place.  The family friendly ice skating rink. Close to home. One of the only full size skating rinks in the Bay Area.  Yes, it's true those all describe Dublin Ice Land. Caroline and Liza even got in on the action.

The Team.  As the broken toed photographer in a boot cast, it was an honor to walk the sidelines dragging Caroline along on the ice.  She made it around a few times with Julia and the kids--and we soon realized it's a bad idea to carry a kid with flailing legs that have razor sharp blades on the end of them.   'Twas memorable and fun.

Mixed Reviews? I'd Like to Think Not. This year our annual recital and re-enactment of the Christmas Story in Luke was breathtaking. From the fake leopard skin costumes to the supine and inverted baby Jesus, is was an event to remember. Liza was an excellent Mary.  Would that all could have performers such as ours.

Santa More Generous Than Ever. Bike helmets, mp3 players, candy, slippers, a scooter, pajamas remote control cars... you get the idea. The boys had a great Christmas, as did the rest of the family.

Hallelelujah ... in Real Life. Let's just say John was a bit excited about his presents. 

Now for the good stuff--what made this Christmas HIGHLY MEMORABLE--ONE OF THE BEST EVER IN OUR HOME. In early December 2010 the Relief Society coordinated the effort of making Christmas more meaningful for the missionaries serving the San Ramon area—Elder Wong (Hong Kong), Elder Mak (Hong Kong), Elder Chiu (Taiwan) and Elder Liu (Taiwan).  This initiative started when Traci Higbee was dropping off a meal one day and noticed there was not a lot of food or “nice to haves” in their apartment. Once the gift gathering effort was underway, our amazing sisters and their families responded in a very significant, meaningful way.

For weeks prior to Christmas, church members from the San Ramon area dropped off gifts, gift cards and Christmas cards at the Dan & Julia Doxey’s home, where all four Elders spent Christmas morning.  Initially, any gift that was not wrapped (macaroni, canned food, boxes of cereal, hand soap, ties, etc.) was wrapped but so many gifts starting arriving that each was simply labeled  “To: The Elders” and stuffed around the tree.  Every day there were more and more gifts for the Elders left on the porch.

Hungry. The Elders arrived at 8 am on Christmas Day, and had a breakfast of ham, freshly ground whole wheat pancakes, buttermilk syrup with bananas, berries and cream.  Then, while watching the kids finish opening their presents, they were told the remaining big pile of gifts under the tree was for them.  They were shocked, delighted and humbled all at once.  Big eyes. Jaws on the floor. Elder Mak said his family’s whole apartment in Hong Kong was about the same size as the living room, so to have a big tree, lots of kids and a room full of presents there was a neat, neat thing.

Happiness. The Elders sat together on the sofa while the kids handed them present after present to open. They took pictures of EVERYTHING … the tree, the breakfast, the kids, the gifts and of course almost not being able to fit it all in their car.  Their trunk, the back seat (between the two passengers) and part of the front seat were all full—and they received hundreds in gift cards to all the popular big box stores.

Gratitude. They genuinely wanted to know who each present was from so they could thank people, but well over half of the gifts didn’t specify who gave the gift. We didn’t know either, (as so many were left on our porch) and told the Elders just to thank the whole ward and that the givers would know who they are. They were humbled in a big, big way that our ward would do this for them.  The four Elders thought the most they could do is sing us “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and did the same in Relief Society the next week.

Every missionary remembers how they spent Christmas.  These four Elders will never forget the generosity and the spirit of giving they felt that day from the San Ramon church members. We were truly honored to have them in their home as they were away from their loved ones and homeland.  The whole experience left us all significantly energized and rejuvenated in a temporal and spiritual way. 

Breaking in the New Tea Set. Of course, the girls were stoked to get a new tea set, a bevy of Polly Pocket gear, Polly Pocket real estate and dolls, new clothes, candy, every episode of Gilligan's Island ever created and more.  Too much more. The pooch in the pic isn't ours, but spent Christmas week with us.  We sort of "rent" dogs--dog sitting this particular dog (Zoe Higbee) as often as possible--smart, well trained dog.

Looks Like a Party in a Relief Sociey Room To Me. Megan Jorgensen's wedding was tres glam.  She was married in the Sacramento Temple, then the entourage cruised over to Reno for the packed reception and then back to the Bay Area (what ended up being a 10 hour drive which normally takes 4...chains on, lots of snow) for post Christmas and New Years.  Wanderlust.  I think so. There were seriously 500-600 people at the reception. At one point we freed up some space and found an RS room for our annual white elephant gift exchange.  That's how it started anyway ...

The Usual Suspects...Em did a great job with all things photography.  It was so cool to have some time to hang out with Chad & Em, Rich, Heidi, Natalie, Spence and Sam ... not to mention all the Cranes, Cheri, Dorothy, Debbie.  Hysterical gifts, just hysterical...

Like This One. In a moment of reckless diction, Richard commented that he would rather be shoveling snow from  Mom's driveway wearing his Batman underwear than do something else.  Of course, Cosette picked up on it and hunted down a par of Batman underwear, which was quickly adorned by Richard over his suit!  We were ROTFL.  In this pic Rich appears to be grabbing his unit, but in reality he found that when you put on a pair of tightys over a suit, well...there ends up being a large bunch of cloth in the groin area, which was unsightly to say the least.

And This One. Of course Mom sent us all Nauvoo blankets...very thoughtful, very generous, very much appreciated.

And Then There Was This One.   John Doxey was fortunate enough to get a hand painted picture of Heidi--as in ,,, that's right THE Heidi from the famed Swiss tale and for whom the story was written.

Last of the Gifts...but certainly not least. Josh Crane's white elephant was a signed picture and holiday greeting from his own Uncle Dan. In a world where everyone seems to have everything, this gift really hit the spot.

The Happy Couple. Megan Jorgensen Dold and Jacob Dold.

Goodbye Mom!  And she's out of the nest!  All those years of raising Megan and amid the hoards of people, Heidi chased her down to say goodbye one last time.

Now That's a Happy Couple!

And During the Rainy Week After, there were Wii games...

Home-made Hi Ball...

New Years Eve Paper Bag Games.  Alli actually got this one!

Candy Bar Games

Can you tell there were huge Butterfinger candy bars inside?

Celebrating East Coast New Years, on the West Coast...

Best Rainy Day Thing to Do...Ever

War Ball

And More War Ball

Two Girls ... orchestra friends in high school, sisters in law, born 9 hours apart in the same hospital. Magic.

The Crew

Biking the Golden Gate Bridge

Crazy Faces

Natalie, Caroline, Eliza Doxey

Annual Gingerbread House Going All the Way of the Earth