I had a super Christmas time. It was great fun seeing my siblings open the gifts I gave them. I got a sweet blender from my brother. I wasn't expecting that and was totally pleased! I'm very spoiled! But to keep as much of me as I can from really spoiling and going to waste, I share and help and serve.
I had some great experiences that made me feel some of that good ol' Christmas spirit. I went to St. George and was praying to my Father in Heaven if He would be mindful of me and help me have what is often called "a missionary experience" by those of my faith. Well, it totally worked, and I was so grateful for an answered proactive prayer.
I also saw Aurore Mathieu, a full time sister missionary in the Utah Provo mission, that I had met in France. Indeed, we had served together, I as a full-time sister, and she as a mini missionary, when I was in Nimes. Also, I started and finished my mission in the same city, where she lived and went to school. So we got to see a lot of each other when I was in France. Then she was called to Provo! Her sister let me know, via facebook, that she was in St. George (I had no idea!) and I went and saw her. Boy was she surprised! It was awesome.
It has snowed like crazy here in Utah! It really isn't surprising. But that always helps the season feel more just right. Also, one particularly poopy-mood day, I went to my FHE (family home evening) activity, and it was making gingerbread houses. I think it was my parents' looming divorce that just made me feeling bleh. Well, I started constructing, and I had the idea to make a gingerbread bridge. The others made train cars (one in honor of school buses). It was fun. During the process, it felt as though my troubles washed right under. Friends and fun can just help us remember good things more than the bad.
A couple weeks before Christmas, my roommate Heather enlisted us in a sub for Santa activity for a family of one of the girls in her first grade class. We collected money, presents, a tree, and lots of food, and made the tree practically edible. I made popcorn balls and also red (watermelon) and green (lime) popcorn that we strung together, and there were gingerbread cookies and oranges for ornaments. We wrapped most of the items, then filled three baskets with toys, one basket for each girl. The time came to deliver and the family was greatly surprised and very happy to have a tree that they wouldn't have had otherwise.
I also made popcorn for a bunch of people who bought it from me the week before Christmas. With the money I made I was able to purchase all my family's presents. It worked out really well. I love popcorn!
It was fun to have my nephew come over and open gifts with his mommy. He mostly climbed on the presents while mom "helped" him open them. He was so excited by each one, repeatedly getting distracted from one glance to the next. I gave him a book in the shape of a school bus (which he loves--and I never mentioned that sometimes I would stop by his house in my big school bus. He loved that. So he squealed when he saw the book and started driving it around, not realizing it was also a book). He's so cute. I guess all that fun made him tired, too!
