Christmas 2017

Christmas Eve: Shepherd's Dinner

 We had our traditional Shepherd's dinner on Christmas Eve this year. The original plan was to have a bon fire and have the dinner outside under the star light, but the boys discovered a large fire ants nest inside our fire pit and it rained all day Christmas Eve. We had the dinner inside.

 We had a rosemary lamb roast, homemade naan bread and hummus, olives and pomegranates. We eat these traditional middle eastern foods while reading the account of the Savior's birth in Luke 2 and singing carols.

 Some friends blessed our family with money to buy Christmas presents this year. We used some of the money for essential items, but most went to providing Christmas presents for our kids. Here they are all wrapped and under the tree. The box in front was John's wrapping job. We wrapped on Christmas eve this year, after the little ones went to bed.

 

Christmas Morning

 As usual, the kids woke us up at 7am. We went out together and they opened their stockings.

 Rachel got to open the first gift this year. 

 This is a lego ship Johnny built for Joshua.

 Rachel handed out the lego creations she had made for everyone.

 She did a good job. This is a house she built for Arwen and a car she built for Joshua. 

 Most of the kids got one big-ish present. Rachel and Anya each got a lego set. They were very happy about them and have been shut in their room building and playing since.

 The little kids got more presents because they like inexpensive things such as crayons and dolls. They were happy too.

 Sam really liked his new pacifier clips.

A Christmas Highlight

 Later on in the day, we got to have a skype conversation with Ruth. She looks lovely, and sounds very happy. I loved seeing her and watching her move around and talk and tell us about her mission and England. She got a Chinese dinner lunch from a sister from Mongolia. Ruth loves Asian food the most and she said it was really good. Then she went to the couple missionaries apartment for a meal and to make the calls home. Ruth's companion came in to see all the kids. I think we are a bit of a novelty. We had already had a fancy breakfast of crepes, strawberries, and bacon. The kids taunted Ruth and she was a little jealous of that. But...

We got an email from Ruth the day after Christmas. She was invited over for a Boxing day breakfast and had crepes and strawberries and real bacon!!! (Apparently, most of the bacon in the UK is Canadian bacon which tastes like ham.)

All in all, I think we had a very Merry Christmas full of many blessings and tender mercies.

This Week at Our House # 51

1. John ordered all the Christmas presents except for the 3 youngest. I took care of those.
2. We went to my parents on Friday. They had a bunch of presents wrapped beautifully and waiting for our kids. They also got a trampoline for the kids. They will love that and use everyday. Earlier in the year they asked me when they would get a new trampoline and I said not until after we move, so probably for Christmas. Then John did not find employment in time, so I thought they would not get that. 
3. Ruth is calling tomorrow!!!! We will have to have skype up on our computer. I haven't used it for years, so I thought had to re-establish my account.
4. My mom got Kate an ice cream maker and she is looking forward to making some ice cream. I think the rest of us are looking forward to that too.
5. Johnny and Kate were gung ho with missionary work this week. Since we live 40 miles away from the majority of our ward, there haven't been any missionaries in this neighborhood. So for several days, Johnny made cookies and brought cookies and Books of Mormon to the neighbors. They even went in to someone's home and had a religious conversation. 
6. Adam got a basketball and we have a good basketball hoop. He and I have already used it. We look forward to using it together.
7. Rachel spends most of her days building legos. I think she will be sad when school starts back again and she does not have the time that she has now.
8. Anya stayed with Rachel building legos most of her time. I really didn't feel like I has seen them much this past week because they were shut up in their room so much.
9. Joseph couldn't sleep much of the week. After one night of him waking me up four times between midnight and 3:30am, I decided that after that he would have to do school work and scripture memorization if he was up past midnight. He stayed in his room and went to sleep both nights after that.
10. Joshua was very excited when I brought him in to wrap the presents he made. I think he thought, I would not do so. He did a very good job at making his presents. They are actually pretty nice.
11. Arwen loves Rachel. One day this week, we saw her crying and she said it was because Rachel would not play with her. Another time, we were outside playing and someone came and told her that Rachel wanted her, so she dropped what she was doing and excitedly said, "Rachel wants me!"
12. We went to the ward Christmas party, and Susan went to see Santa. When he asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she said, "I want Christmas."
13. Something is bothering Sam. He was quite fussy and clingy most of the week. Sometimes when I held him, he would just scream and not be comforted. Hopefully, it is just his teeth.

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Stories from Ruth #14

This week we had an opportunity to visit the temple as a Christmas present! Since the temple is in the London South mission we don't get to go until the end of our missions. Wednesday we woke up early to catch the train. We even arrived at the station early, but the train was delayed. We panicked, but then discovered that the next train we had to catch was also delayed. However, when we were about ten minutes away from our station, our train stopped in the middle of the tracks for a few minutes, so we missed out second train. We got to the station and waited for the next train to another station which would take us to Lingfield. Well at this other station a sign told us that this was a train to Lingfield, so we got on. As soon as we got on the doors closed and we discovered that the sign Lord and that this train did not stop at Lingfield. We checked the route and decided to get off at the next stop which was South Croydon. Every train had to pass through the station, so we figured there should be one going to Lingfield. Every train did pass through the South Croydon station, however, none of them stopped there. Then we had to wait for another delayed train to East Croydon which had a train to Lingfield. Both the train to East Croydon and the train to Lingfield were delayed. The only train that wasn't delayed was the wrong train. We arrived at the London temple an hour late, but we made it in time for the session! Haha! South London is gorgeous! It is greener than North London and everything is lovely! I feel so very blessed that I had this opportunity to go while on my mission! 

This week has been crazy! We had to get everything set up for Michael's baptismal interview and we had to run all over Watford! Saturday we visited this lovely less active named Collette. She was very kind and receptive and was so very grateful we had come to visit her it made me feel happy. And last night we visited another less active family who's seven year old boy wants to be baptized. They were very kind and gave us lots of treats. The two younger boys are teaching me Portuguese. Sometimes I am good at words and other times I am much too tired. To prove how tired I am let me tell you two stories fro  last Tuesday. While we were at a resturaunt the waiter told me to enjoy my food and in a very cheery voice I responded "you too," before realizing what I was saying. The second conversation went like this:

Me: "Hello! This is the Sister Missionaries! How are you doing?

Other Person: "Good...(mumble mumble)... How are you?

Me: "Good. How are you?

OP: "You just said that"

Me: "I know. I am really tired."

This work is not easy. It is very hard. However, it is worth it. I am grateful that the Lord called me to come and do his work here in England. Any call to the work is a blessing of God. He is our loving Heavenly Father and wishes us to return unto him and receive salvation. Although to do so we must be purified. We must know and recognize our faults and our sins, those things which keep us from perfection and overcome them.

Christmas Card 2017

This Week at Our House # 50

1. It was a much quieter week. John spent some time looking for part time work locally. He may be able to pick up some classes at the local community college, but that won't be until fall. He also shaved his beard today. I think I am sad. I had gotten used to it, and I think I like him better bearded.
2. I spent a lot of time outdoors this week. On Tuesday, I took the kids on a little picnic to a local park. They played on the playground and we walked a trail through the woods. Thursday through Saturday I spent several hours pulling up turf and weeds and increasing my garden plot for spring planting. I am doing it all by hand. I have a large pitch fork and a couple of buckets. I fork up an area and then pull it by hand. I need to start watching videos and reading more about how to successfully grow things organically. I have been eating too much candy recently and decided that I better weigh myself to see the damage done. To my surprise, I was actually down another 8 pounds. I think it must be all the yard work. Surely, that alone will keep me going on the garden. 
3. Ruth loves her new companion and is learning some Portuguese. She is happy to be in a walking area and enjoying all the food. I am glad to know that she is getting enough exercise and plenty of delicious meals. I can't wait to speak to her on Christmas day. 
4. I made Kate spend some time outside with me. She read scriptures to me. Kate is reading and reading a lot to educate herself for her mission. She is on book 2 of the History of the Church by Joseph Smith. She plans to have all 7 read before her mission. She has also spent time reading in the Journal of Discourses. She is always sharing what she reads with the family and we have some great discussions. After Christmas, Kate will be talking with her Bishop about taking out her endowments.
5. Johnny has been bringing cookies to the neighbors with Books of Mormons and New Testaments. We are the first Mormons to live in this little town in recent history and the area is a good 40 miles from the bulk of our ward, so it is untouched by missionaries. Most people are accepting the books. 
6. Adam  got his glasses in the mail on Thursday and was very excited to be able to see again. Adam has taken up a serious passion for classical music. He plays it loud and as much as he is allowed to, which is frequent. He even looks up the scores online and follows along with the music. He has played the Messiah so much that several of the kids are starting to memorize Bible verses about the Savior. "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah 53:4) is a verse I hear even Arwen singing.
7. Rachel has been enjoying the Christmas carols. She has gotten Anya to sit with her and our Christmas carol books to learn the songs. 
8. Anya is very happy that in our new ward, she gets to be in the same primary class as Joseph. She told me that they like to joke around.
9. I make Joseph work in the yard with me more than any other of the kids because he tends to spend the least amount of time hanging out with me in the house. He doesn't like to pull up the sod, but he does like to transplant trees, dig up the giant weeds, and he is good about carrying my bucket of weeds and grass to my mulch pile to dump it out.
10. Joshua has been building bionicles for all of his siblings for Christmas presents. I need to help him wrap them. He has done a really job. They are interesting and have all matching pieces. Which reminds me. Josh really likes wearing pajama bottoms (which is fine for homeschool kids). But he does not have matching tops because they are all hand me downs. One day he was digging through his clothes pile and found a shirt that matches his favorite pajama bottoms and excitedly showed me that he had found a match. I asked him if he liked his clothes to match and he said, "Yes, it makes sense." 
11. Arwen has been asking about what is real and what is pretend. She has asked about pigs, dinosaurs, unicorns, dragons, bears, and more. I think she needs a trip to the zoo.
12. When Susan was asked what she wanted for Christmas, she said, "Christmas! I want Christmas!"
13. Sam is just so cuddly. He is on top of me snuggling most of the time. 

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