This week has gone by fast and it’s hard to believe
Christmas is in two days. Last Friday we took Seth to see the movie Moana, and
it was really good. One thing that was funny, though…the name of the island
Moana lives on is “Motunui”. I kept thinking “isn’t that where the Bionicles
live?” I had to look it up when I got home…oh, the Bionicles live on “Mata
Nui”! Well, it sounds exactly the same. J
Sam came up for the weekend that night…he arrived at our house shortly after we
got home from the movie.
Saturday morning I kept busy with a lot of little things
like sewing buttons back on clothes (Frank’s and Seth’s), shopping for den
meeting, and making a couple of beaded bracelets to give as gifts. I also went
to lunch with a friend. That evening we had our ward Christmas party. The theme this year was focused on Christmas morning, so instead of dinner we had breakfast
food—cereal, lots of pastries, and fruit. We could wear
our pajamas to the party so of course Seth and I did. Frank and Sam didn’t. For
the program there was music and we talked about “gifts” of Christmas. I thought
the whole thing was well done. Saturday morning we had freezing rain, but the
roads were all cleared up by midday. It was kind of strange because the
freezing rain accumulated a bit, like snow, but it was really tiny ice chips.
They even plowed it and it stuck together a lot like snow, so later in the week
we had “snow” patches on the edges of the road. It looked like it had snowed
here, but it really didn’t.
Sam headed home Sunday morning because he decided he should
probably attend his own ward more often than he has been. (He's been with us a lot lately.) We went to church as
usual, and I was in charge of the missionary meal calendar because the lady who is usually in charge of it was out of town and she asked
me to take care of it for her. At the end of church, all the women went to the
back of the gym so we could get a picture taken—we have a new RS activities
facebook page and they wanted a picture for the cover photo. Frank offered to
take the picture with his drone, from above, so that’s what we did. Everybody
was pretty impressed with the drone! That evening we sat down with Seth and had
him watch the movie “Miracle on 34th Street” because he’s never seen
it and he loved it.
Monday morning I got up and ran around like crazy getting
things done because I had to leave to pick up Jared from the airport in the
early afternoon and I had a lot of things I needed to get done before then.
Mostly the usual stuff, but I also had a lot of things to do (including some
more shopping) to get ready for the next day’s den meeting. Jared’s flight left
about 30 minutes late but they actually landed only about 15 minutes later than
originally planned. I arrived at the cell phone lot about the same time that he
landed, but then I had to wait there for about 45 minutes because it took a
really long time for the luggage to make it from the plane to the luggage
claim. Then it also took me a really long time to pick Jared up because the
traffic at the pick up zone was RIDICULOUS!! I finally made it up to where he
was and found a place to pull into the pick up zone, which was PACKED with
cars, and we made it home just fine. It is really nice to have him home again.
We had dinner and Frank and I went out to mail one more package (lines at the
post office were incredible of course) and then we had family night.
On Tuesday morning I went visiting teaching and got all the
other chores done. Jared didn’t get up until nearly 2:00 pm!! I think he wore
himself out this semester (although he did get straight As), plus he was still
on Mountain time. That evening he met with the bishop for his temple recommend
interview. He got the priesthood interviews done out in Idaho, so he will be
ordained on Christmas Day and he’s scheduled to go to the temple on Wednesday.
He will meet with the stake president on Monday or Tuesday to finish up his
recommend interviews.
While Jared was interviewing with the bishop, Seth and I
were at den meeting. We had kind of a little Christmas party. We had two crafts
for the boys to make—we made reindeer and Santa Claus ornaments using their
handprints, and we made snowmen out of marshmallows, with peanut butter cups
for hats, M&Ms for buttons, and fruit roll ups for scarves. We also gave
each of them a “present”—a pinewood derby car kit so they can start working on
their cars. The boys had fun, but it was hectic and busy the whole evening and
I was so busy helping them that I didn’t have time to take any pictures.
Wednesday was super busy too; I had the sister missionaries
over to help make buckeye candy, fed the Elders dinner, and went to a bridal
shower. The sister missionaries had a baptism that night too but it was at the
same time as the bridal shower so I couldn’t go to that. I did a lot of
shopping that day, too—the weekly WalMart trip as well as shopping for the
bridal shower gift. The traffic was crazy and the lines at all the stores were
super long, so that took a lot longer than it would have normally. I’ll be glad
when all the Christmas shopping craziness is over!!
Yesterday was calmer although I still kept pretty busy with
the regular chores, making 2 batches of fudge, and in the evening Jared and I
went to choir practice. We are singing on Sunday and that was our last
practice. The choir director asked me to share a few thoughts about the songs we are
singing, so here is basically what I thought about them. We are singing “O Come
All Ye Faithful” as well as “Stars Were Gleaming”, and I was struck by the fact
that both songs talk about the birth of Christ as if we were living at that
time. The first song invites us to “Come to Bethlehem” and to “Come adore Him”.
The second song also invites us to participate in the event as if were there.
It says things like “Ah, that singing, hear it ringing…Hearken, we can hear it
still” and “See the clearness and the nearness of the blessed Christmas star”.
Well, obviously we weren’t there, but I like how both of these songs invite us
to make this event our own…that even though it occurred thousands of years ago,
it still affects all of us and we should stop to think what the Savior’s life
really means to us individually.
Today I have a lot to do, but I haven’t accomplished much
yet. Seth’s last day of school was yesterday so he is home today and Frank only
had to work a half day, so he is home too. (Plus he worked from home today
anyway.) I don’t work as efficiently when there are lots of distractions
around! It is nice to have everyone here, though. Scott is supposed to arrive
tomorrow afternoon and we are just praying that the weather will cooperate on
both ends (mostly there, I think the weather here is going to be fine) so that
he can get here without delay. I’m having nightmares that he’ll get stuck in
Denver and be there all alone for Christmas! When I looked up the weather for
Denver, it looked fine but I have heard conflicting weather reports since then.
We are, of course, really looking forward to talking to Tanner on Christmas too!!
Now I need to go make some cookies, so I'd better get started on that. Merry Christmas to you all!!
The sunrise a few days ago. Having a dog who drags me outside really early in the morning is not always a bad thing!
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