Ken and Marlene Astle Family: 2013 Christmas at the Astle home in Loomis CA part 1

We had such a fun Christmas this year in 2013! We had four out of our five children and nine out of our thirteen grandchildren with us the week of Christmas! Steve and Yihua arrived first, then Heidi and Sam, Amy, Rob and their six children and then finally Sarah, Jeremy and their three children came next. It was one of the best times we have ever had together. We missed Wendy, Mike and all the cute little McNiven children. We look forward to seeing them at our family reunion in June.

Christmas Sunday was very busy with the ward choir singing and I directed a Young Women's choir number, sang a duet with my friend Kristen Lambourne and helped accompany the last hymn with a piano/organ arrangement. It was a very busy Sunday and I was so grateful to have Heidi home to help accompany for me. She is such a great accompanist and helper where needed. That evening we had about 30 people over to our home to hear a beautiful sneak preview of Heidi's Master's recital. She gave a wonderful informal recital with concert notes on the composers and the music. So many people told us how much they enjoyed it. Heidi's "happy" personality made it so inviting and interesting. It was a most enjoyable evening. I can't help thinking back on the time of Liszt and Chopin when people would get together in their parlors and make beautiful music together.
Heidi and Sydney

Amy, Rob, Sam and Elise

Heidi, Sydney and Yihua

Sam, Heidi and Sydney

Stephen and Elise

We started the week out with our annual sing-along Messiah and other Christmas favorites. We have old family friends from when we first graduated from BYU that have come every year to sing some of our Christmas favorites. As our families have grown we have had more wonderful musicians and singers to join in with the fun.

Christmas Eve we had a special family night and some of the grandkids recited poems and we played and sang Christmas carols.

Conover family at our dinner and Messiah Sing-along

Amy and I

Amy entertaining us with some beautiful Christmas Carol arrangements.

Sam and Heidi

Jennifer, Heidi and Amy having fun playing Christmas together

Steve and Yihua

Chuck and Ken taking a nap at the end of the evening

Sydney and Russell being Grandma's helpers as I made pancakes

Tuesday morning we packed the family in our cars and drove over to a family in the ward and helped them pick their mandarin trees. We had so much fun eating and picking. We kept about many pounds for ourselves and Ken, Heidi and Sam took the rest around to people in the ward. Mandarins are so delicious grown here in Loomis.

Yihua in the middle of the tree picking