It's December 23 and we have just finished a busy Sunday. We had the first-ever Murun Branch Christmas sacrament meeting program. We think it turned out well. The Primary sang, as did the Young Women and Young Men and the Branch Choir. They were not the Mo Tab, but they did well for the training and experience they had! We also had about 84 people to church! That's a record for us. I think much of it was because parents came to hear their children sing.
Anyway, it has been a quiet evening as we waited for the YM/YW and Elders to come caroling. They didn't come--and we even made hot chocolate for them! We are going to be drinking it for quite awhile now! We have been listening to Christmas music on the Mormon Channel and have enjoyed it. It has, however, made us a little trunky for our family at home. So I just started looking at our Christmas blessings and here are some of them--our eight grandchildren. I made these snowflakes to bring with us and these are pretty much our Christmas decorations. Who needs more anyway?
I actually put them up right after Thanksgiving and we have enjoyed looking at them and thinking of our wonderful grandkids everyday!
The kids don't look much like this any more (and they didn' t look like this when we left either but I had to have pictures that were small enough to fit the space in the snowflake!) But we are so thankful for each of them. Kimee and Elli are our oldest grandchildren. They are 5 this Christmas and we love talking to them on Skype. We think they will likely be the only ones who are old enough to remember us serving a mission here in Mongolia.
We can identify Ethan in the picture, but Harlee has changed so much from this picture. They have both grown up so much and changed in just the 7 months we have been gone.
The one of the left is Brynnley and she is just a baby here and is really such a big girl now! So much different. And then on the right is Bekah. She has changed so much and is now walking and climbing all over everything. The babies have changed and grown so much since we left. It is hard to believe how big they will be when we get back next Christmas.
And here we have Jake and Oaklie. This was Oakley's baby blessing picture and she is now 9 months old and walking. They change so fast at that age. And Jake is always so happy and smiley when we skype with them and he looks so serious here. He'ls really just a baby, too small to really smile. We are so grateful for Skype so that we can at least see some of the things they are learning! We are so grateful for these Christmas blessings!
This is our only other Christmas decoration. It is a paper color and cut out nativity that Alan found on the Internet. It is a small reminder of the most important Christmas blessing--the birth of the Christ child! We feel it a real blessing to be serving here at Christmas where we have the opportunity to teach the Mongolian members the true meaning of Christmas. It has made us ever mindful of the knowledge we have of why we celebrate Christmas--that it is so much more than the busy hustle and bustle and the presents--it is the birth of the Son of God, our Savior.
These are not Christmas decorations, but are still what we deck our halls with! The foot prints and hand prints are hugs from Harlee and Oaklie which were sent to us soon after we arrived here. The other artwork came to us from Brynnley and Elli in packages sent to us by their mom. We love the artwork and will take it with us on all our moves. They remind us of our blessings everyday!
WE LOVE OUR GRANDKIDS and THEIR PARENTS, TOO!
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