Monday morning the family had breakfast with us before taking off to Utah. We got some cute pictures but in my defense they were taken before shower, make up and hair care so don't judge me too harshly...lol!
Kati, Zach, Jacob Jenni, Jim and Tyson and Parker in the front.
Five of our eleven favorite people in the whole world!
All too soon it was time to say goodbye. It was such a fun visit for us, there is nothing better than family visits while on your mission.
A couple hours after the kids left it started to snow and soon we had our very own winter wonderland. It was supposed to snow off and on all week so it will definitely be a white Christmas.
I spent a couple of hours in the afternoon cleaning the church. It was such a blessing to be able to use the space as a place to gather with the family.
We sent a plate of Christmas treats with the kids to take to our friends at Martin's Cove and they sent me this picture. While we served together we talked a lot about our grandchildren so it was nice that they got to meet a few of them.
Tuesday is always laundry morning at Sister Barker's house. Both Sister Barker and I had our crock pots going with soup which Elder Lindsey and I braved the roads to take to a funeral being held in Mission. On our way we stopped at the post office and were surprised to receive a huge box from our friends the Davis family full of clothes, coats and blankets. We are putting everything to good use, filling boxes to be delivered tomorrow. We are so grateful to our friends who have sent things. The postage is terribly expensive, something we didn't realize before but the sacrifice is greatly appreciated. It finally stopped snowing about 3:00pm after coming down for about 30 hours straight. Elder Lindsey worked on the sidewalks so we could get in and out of the motor home and the church.
He cleared the way so I could get in the motor home then got out the snow blower!
Wednesday was a very busy day. I started out by getting the treat plates ready for delivery.
Next I made fry bread for our Indian tacos we were having for lunch after our Addiction Recovery class.
Usually we have soup after class but since it was Christmas Eve we celebrated!
After the ARP class and lunch Elder Lindsey and I headed out to deliver our plates of treats to friends from the Branch, and people we are working with. We had five stops in Mission, three in Rosebud and two in St. Francis. Lucky for us the roads were clear and the skies were blue. When we got back home I made the mashed potatoes we were taking to the Barkers for dinner and whipped the cream for the two chocolate pies...now that's a picture I should have taken. They were beautiful and delicious!
We had a lovely evening joining two other couples for dinner plus the Barker family. It was a full house but a lot of fun. The children played while the adults sat around the table and laughed and visited for a couple of hours.
Me and Savannah. I gave her her first taste of chocolate tonight...she LOVED it!
We ended the evening watching one of the Tabernacle Choir's Christmas programs on the BYU channel.
Merry Christmas! We continued with our Christmas tradition and Elder Lindsey made us omelettes for breakfast.
They were delicious!
We spent Christmas day relaxing at home. It snowed all day so we didn't even step outside, just enjoyed watching it fall from the cozy warmth of our little home. We snacked, rested, read, watched TV and talked to family (the best part of the day...we miss them all!). For dinner I fixed grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. All told it was a lovely day to rest from all the hustle and bustle that is this season of the year.
Friday we managed to make it out to the post office. We were invited to a party but because not all of the roads were cleared yet it was postponed. That actually worked out well for us because Elder Lindsey has a cold and wasn't feeling up to doing a lot. He did spend about an hour in the morning clearing the walks around the church and our motor home. Thank goodness for four wheel drive or we'd never make it out of the parking lot. It snowed lightly for several hours but is supposed to be clear and cold the next couple of days before snowing again on Monday.
Mother Nature has added her own decorations to our Christmas wreath.
Saturday we escaped the motor home and drove to Valentine, Nebraska for an outing. We did a little shopping at Shopko and a western store, had lunch at McDonalds and went to see The Hobbit at the only movie theatre in this part of the country. On the way home we stopped at Subway and used one of the gift cards Sister Busch gave us for Christmas and brought a sandwich home for dinner. It was a fun day.
I had a really neat thing happen to me at church today. Last night Raymond stopped by to see if we'd like to purchase another one of his hand made wooden Native American flutes. We have purchased a couple of these in the past and they really are quite beautiful and sound wonderful when played. This time we told him we were out of spending money and so couldn't buy the flute. I didn't think anything more about it until sitting in Sacrament meeting when I got the strong impression that we should have bought the flute. So I closed my eyes and said a silent prayer asking Heavenly Father to have Raymond return to the Church so that I could buy the flute. Now I expected that Raymond would show up at our door sometime in the afternoon but instead after the closing prayer I stood and turned around and there he was sitting on the back row of the Chapel. Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers and because of that Raymond has gas money for his car and I have a flute which will always be a visual reminder to me of the tender mercies of the Lord in our lives.
We wish all of you a wonderful New Year. Our love and prayers go with you always.
Elder and Sister Lindsey
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