Getting Older

Brad turned 17 about 6 weeks ago.

We think he is absolutely adorable.

Our Cute Missionary

David and his new companion, Elder Rios.

Very intent missionaries checking out the contents of a package from home. We hope they got lots of good thing.

I think this is a classic missionary apartment picture. I especially love the hammock and the "kiddie umbrellas".

David

David has been in Brazil about 21 months but has sent relatively few pictures home. So when he attached some to his letter today I was so excited and wanted to share them.

This is a picture of sunset outside their apartment.

The baptism of Maria

A cool member family

It is great to see him looking healthy and happy.

We miss and love our David.

Be Nice...

When our children were little they came up with the ultimate Family Home Evening answer. It didn't seem to matter what the question was the answer that always seemed to fit was

"Be nice and don't say bad words"

It still is a phrase that we hear often at our home.

December

We had a wonderful December full of fun, food and love!

Decorating for Christmas

I love to decorate for Christmas. For years we have collected Nativities-- it is so fun to set them up and talk about them. Each one has its own set of stories and memories.

The Year of the Imperfect Christmas Tree

This year we decided that we would have an adventure and cut down our own Christmas tree. It was fun and we definitely picked out trees with their own personalities. Straight trunks were a luxury that we didn't find.

We cut down our tree last year and we learned a few things from that experience--like spray the tree for spiders before you bring it into the house and put the tree stands on outside where there is more room.

We always have great fun decorating our trees. We use the same ornaments every year. One tree is very eclectic and sentimental with ornaments we have collected and made over the years. Our second tree has heart ornaments and olive wood ornaments that I bought in Israel when I was there too many years ago. We decorate all together and laugh a lot as the ornaments bring back fun memories.

I love Christmas.