Dec 1-- Dear Elder

Miriam and Preston at the Smithsonian

Katrina in Aida

Dear Elder,

Hi.  How are you?  How was your Thanksgiving?  Were you able to make pie?  Did it turn out?  I hope so!  How is Gregorio and his brother doing?  Who else have you been teaching?  How is your companion?  What are the people of Cuenta like?  I hope all is going well.

We have had a nice week, and now it is December.  Can you believe it?  What a wonderful month this is going to be!  For one thing, Cassandra, Emerson, and Lily will be here for Christmas!  We are very happy about that.  For another thing, we are going to be using less electronics this month and focusing on doing simple things together as a family and reaching out to others.  Tonight we are going to put up the Christmas tree, and I am really looking forward to that.  We also have wrapped our Christmas books in wrapping paper, and I hope that we can drop them off to Elizabeth and her family so that they can read one book every night till Christmas.

Thanksgiving weekend has been very nice.  On Thanksgiving day, Jon came over as well as your cousin, Jessica and her husband, Henry.  We had a wonderful feast—the food Dad made was incredible—and lots of pie.  Dad made sure that there was lots of food that each person could eat, and Jessica brought green bean casserole and strawberry pie which was delicious.  We had lots of fun visiting with each other.  We also watched Monster’s University which Jessica and Henry hadn’t seen yet.  Later in the evening, Rick’s three oldest kids came over for a sleep over.  I think Ben, Emily, and Kristen had lots of fun eating pie, visiting with our kids, and watching movies.  All the girls slept in Miriam’s room, and Thomas and Ben sacked out in Thomas’s room.  Ben is going to college this semester and leaves for the MTC Jan 15 and after that he will be going to Hungary.

The next day, Friday, Rick and the rest of the kids, Elizabeth and her family, and Jessica and Henry came over around noon and we had fun eating leftovers and playing a game that J and H brought.   Rick and the boys also played at the school for quite awhile, and Miriam took the girls shopping for awhile, so everyone had fun.  Also on Friday, Dad put up the Christmas lights.  I’ll have to take a picture of them for you, Matt!  They are beautiful!  Friday night, Jessica and Henry invited Thomas over to play video games, and Dad and I went out.  We went for a nice long walk and also shopped a bit.  I love being with Dad!

Yesterday was Saturday and we went to see Frozen, Disney’s version of the Ice Queen, together as a family.  We really enjoyed it.  Later, after a nice nap, Dad and I went to do a few errands.  One of the things we did was to clean the car inside and out.  It really needed it!  We also emptied the machines at the laundry.  On the way home we picked up Thomas who was visiting Jonathan, and when we got home, we watched a Dr. Who episode together as a family for Katrina’s sake.

After that, something happened that made me unhappy and I sort of got mad at one of the kids and then ranted to Dad for awhile about the way things were going around here.  After that, I put myself to bed, ha ha.  Dad came in and we talked.  He is so amazing, Matt, he totally understood my concerns, and went and talked to the family while I slept.  Later he woke me up to tell me how his talk with the kids went, and of course it went well because they are such sweethearts.  Like I said at the beginning of this letter, we are going to do some things different around here, now—more simple and meaningful.

Let’s see…on Monday night we went to Vic’s 80th birthday party at his house, and then afterward, we went to Wendy’s to fill in the corners and visit.  It was a nice family home evening.  On Tuesday, Dad and I went to the temple which was such a wonderful experience.  As we sat together in the sealing room and then in the Celestial room, I marveled that, in this very temporal world, work of such eternal significance goes on in God’s holy temples.  I really felt the Holy Ghost, Matt, and I am so thankful that Dad and I have been sealed together in the temple so that our family can be together forever.

 We did Thanksgiving shopping on both Tuesday and Wednesday, and I really don’t remember what else we did on Wednesday.  The Thanksgiving break has gone by way too quickly, that’s for sure.  Good thing we get another break after the twenty second!  I love you, Matt.  Have a wonderful week sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Love,
Mom