Santa's Helper

December 24, 2015

Christmas is here!

Yea! Time for the ward Christmas party!! Decorations, musical numbers, food, treats, presents, and fun. Preparations must be made...

When the Oncheon Ward was looking around for a pretend "Santa's Helper" just to dress up like the real Santa for the ward Christmas party, they looked for someone big, with whitish skin, grayish hair, wire glasses, and a cheerful laugh: "Ho, Ho, Ho!" Look no further - Elder George fit the bill perfectly! 

It was a difficult choice for "Santa" to decide which suit to wear. Three suits came back from the dry cleaner: one had kind of a "shaggy dog-like" beard and

moustache; one had a curly wig and matching beard and moustache (good choice), and the other one had several hats but no wig. 

Everyone wanted to try out for the job, so many tried on the costumes.

 There were various hats to try on, and different beards, jackets with long sleeves, jackets with short sleeves.

Finally a decision was made - Elder George found the perfect outfit!

The elves were so happy!

We love the office elves.

 

Musical numbers made the party so fun.

Brenda led the singing with the help of Kelly, age 3, mission president's granddaughter.

  The Bishop's family is very musical

 Brother Shin, in his traditional Korean "hanbok" played the harmonica - a very "Christmas-y" Korean song, "Danny Boy".

The teenagers mostly wanted me to give them candy.

There was a game where the missionaries had flour poured all over their heads.

They were good sports about it, of course.

Time for Santa to hand out the toys.

Since there are only four children in the ward, plus two guests came (yea!), so the entire Santa ordeal was pretty quick...lucky for Elder George, since he was keeping a pillow around his waist with a belt, and hoping it wouldn't fall down. The beard was also getting kind of itchy. After the program, festivities, and Santa, the entire ward had dinner. The women in the ward made the dinner and I volunteered to bring dessert: fruit, the usual dessert, and brownies. It is always fun being in the kitchen with everyone, even though the communication is pretty limited. I especially like doing the dishes. The teenagers always do the dishes for every ward event or party, and it's fun to be with them.

At the end a full traditional Korean dinner was served. These are some of my "friends" - the two girls are in college (Sister Cho and Soomi), and the couple at the end were just married (Brother and Sister Park).

These are pretty much all the women in the ward. Now I get to wear the elf hat.

CHRISTMAS DAY

The traditional Christmas breakfast, usually a huge event, was pared down to two pieces of french toast. We had a great day skyping with all the kids and grandkids on Dec. 25 or 26. That was the best present of all!