Judy:
At Aunt Lois’s funeral, Evan gave a great talk about the power of “remembering”. I think that ability to “remember” is one of the reasons Christmas is such a great time of year. As we decorate the tree or place other Christmas items around the house, it seems that each brings with it a special memory—our first Christmas as a married couple, a child’s handmade ornament, friends from past places, or gifts from Gary and our kids. Memories from childhood Christmas in Richland, Amarillo, and BYU feel connected to music played on the radio. It adds richness and a wonder to the whole season.
The most important “remembering” is that of the sweet baby Jesus whose birth we celebrate, whose life we remember, and whose sacrifice should be unforgettable. It is because of those events that the path way back to our Heavenly home is available. Thanks, Dad, for all the Christmas past, present, and future that we have shared. Merry Christmas, to one and to all.
Todd:
Merry Christmas Dad and Karla! The Buda Giberson's are grateful to be part of your far-flung family.
Christmas was always an enjoyable time growing up, with the most persistent memories being the
strength of family bonds. May you have a wonderful Christmas season.
Todd, Lea and Family
Mike: (was busying grading papers and now visiting with his grandchildren including meeting his two new little ones, Max and Sophee. We will add his message when he can slow down enough to put it in.)
Robin:
Snow. Snow, snow in Amarillo! My health is really looking good. Glad the year is coming to an end. My apartment is getting really crowded and moving to move into a 2-bedroom apartment. Looking forward to see everyone at the reunion. Also looking forward to getting my computer screen so that we can get online with all of you. We listen to Christmas music through the month. We hold a party on Christmas Eve and have games and food. Merry Christmas all of you, Gibersons past and present.
Valerie:
Christmastime always draws one's thoughts to family. I love gathering with my own family at Christmas, but there's always a little part of me that goes home in my dreams to Christmases past spent growing up in the Giberson house. I'm grateful for traditions that made it fun and for the truths of the gospel that always brought peace and happiness to our home, and continue to do so in my life. The love of the Savior and celebrating His birth bound us together. Thanks to Mom and Dad and their faithfulness we grew up in light and truth and now have it to share with our own children. We let all kind of things into our lives everyday...TV, jobs, school work, friends, sports...but how often do we let the Savior in? May this be the year that we LET HIM IN! Merry Christmas!!!
Lynette:
I can remember lots of things from Christmas when we were growing up. I always liked when Dad and Mom would do “Twas the Night Before Christmas”, their rendition of it. I liked how we would hang up the stockings from oldest to youngest and then pick them up in the morning going youngest to oldest. (Of course, I was one of the youngest which made it work out for me.) I remember on Christmas mornings in Amarillo, we would all have to wear socks and gather in Mom and Dad’s bedroom and have family prayer. Then we would get at the top of the stairs and come down the stairs in order and dad would take a picture. The shutters would be closed to the living room where the Christmas tree was with the presents so we couldn’t see the tree. We would open our Christmas stockings first in the family room. Then we would go into the living room to open present. I remember how Valerie, Rick, Scott and I would reserve our spots for opening Christmas packages on the night before. Dad would hand out the presents one at a time. I loved that.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. Come visit us if you are ever in Amarillo.
Rick:
Let's see... How to greet one's father for Christmas...
'Twas the night before Christmas...no, no, that's been done -- probably one too many times before. But hey, what's so wrong with rerunning some old messages? Half the fun of Christmas is the traditions! So let's go ahead with the reruns, and remember some classics of Christmas literature, movies, and TV specials.
See if you can identify the source of each of the following. Bonus points if you know the character speaking.
(1) Because when the thermometer gets red, the temperature goes up, and when the temperature goes up, I start to melt, and when I melt, I get all wishy-washy.
(2) Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives.
(3) You'll never fit in! Now you come to elf practice, learn how to wiggle your ears, chuckle warmly, go hee-hee and ho-ho, and important stuff like that. A dentist! Good grief!
(4) What about Santa's cookies? I suppose parents eat those too?
(5) But I think that the most likely reason of all May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.
(6) God bless us, every one!
So hopefully you could get most of those, though probably not all. Whatever your score, I won't take it as a barometer of your Christmas spirit. That, I already know, you have in bunches. Enjoy another great Christmas season -- and remember all the great Christmas traditions -- and especially the one good Source of it all!
Merry Christmas from the Rick & Linda version of the Gibersons.
Scott:
Dad, I was commenting to Scotty the other day how shocking it was that it was already December and Christmas was right around the corner. I shared with Scotty that as a child and young teen it felt like Christmas would never come, but now that I’m old the time travels too quickly and it seems like Christmas comes every other six weeks.
This conversation took my mind back to the days of anticipation in the Giberson household when I was a child leading up to Christmas … anticipation marked and measured by the tradition of the Advent Calendar that you and Mom hung up each year. As a side note, I learned from you and Mom the value of establishing traditions in the family, especially around the holidays, and we’ve tried to incorporate certain traditions in our family. One Giberson tradition that we have not sustained is the use of the Advent Calendar. I don’t know if I regret not doing this or not. It certainly did allow the anticipation to crescendo to a fever-pitch within the house as we pinned each felt ornament onto the tree (wasn’t it a tree?). I remember many nights laying on the sofa next to the decorated and lit Christmas tree (often draped with popcorn chains that I had helped to string), listening to Christmas carols either on the stereo or played live by Mom on the nearby piano (prefer the latter of course), just wondering if The Day, Christmas Day, would ever come. I could hardly stand myself. When we retrieved the 2x4 for the stockings I knew the time was nigh. All of this anticipation often meant that Christmas Eve night (and often even the night of the 22nd and 23rd) was going to be a sleepless night … there was no way around it. Tossing, turning, staring at the ceiling, wondering, waiting … such anticipation …
… BUT anticipation for WHAT exactly? Was it just the question of what presents had my name on them under the tree? Well, it was that, but it was more than that … Christmas days and the days that followed were so full of fun, and love, and good times as the family played games together, ate food together, and generally were together having fun that it certainly was an anticipation for the entire experience of the Christmas joy and love that was in our home. Thanks to you and Mom for making the Christmas season such a great experience that it was so highly anticipated by the children every year!
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