Christmas Eve at the Sallenbach's

The Sallenbachs with 11 of the Elders from the
Penrith Zone (Elder Heslop is taking the picture)

Christmas Eve was fun because we had twelve of the Elders from our Zone over for dinner and a nice evening together. We might have called it a Christmas Eve Party.

Elder Jensen (from Far West Utah) and Elder Heslop
(from New Zealand) work with us here in the Emu Plains Ward

We were planning for part of us to eat on our deck, but since it was sprinkling we decided to all eat inside. Luckily we have a big coffee table so we just put a tablecloth over that and we had two tables.

Elder Cooper (New Zealand) & Elder Nolin (New Jersey)

Elder and Sister Sallenbach by our Christmas Tree

Last Year we got this tree because we knew we would be here for two Christmases. It has been fun to have a tree with decorations from St. Vinnies and a few that be bought to take home with us to remind us of Australia

Elders Stott, Vernon, and Bybee relaxing before dinner

Elder Bennett, Elder Lynch, and Elder Hall

We had crackers again with fun hats and jokes to make our dinner and evening a little more festive. We had a few appetizers and then had steak, baked potato, salad and rolls.

Elder Sallenbach with the twelve elders from the Penrith Zone
We are so proud of these missionaries - they really work hard

Back to our Christmas Eve Dinner: We ate and then had a couple of Christmas Quizzes (can you name all of Santa's Reindeer?) and taught the Elders the Aussie Christmas Song “Six White Boomers”. (Google this song and you will find that it has a catchy tune and is really quite fun.) We exchanged gifts and everyone got something they probably didn’t want. Everyone seemed to want a wallet and Rubik’s Cube which was traded around quite a bit. None of the Elders who are mostly from America or New Zealand wanted the Vegemite. So I guess we will bring it home for people to taste. It actually is pretty awful. Some of the Aussies will admit that you have to be brought up on Vegemite to like it.

We enjoyed watching the movie Emma on our 18” TV. We had popcorn and brownies with ice cream, whipped cream and hot fudge while we watched the movie.

Everyone left around 9:30 that evening excited for Christmas Day because they would be calling home and talking with their parents and would enjoy the one day each year where missionaries in the Australia Sydney North Mission get to sleep in. We have such dedicated missionaries - they truly inspire us.