Merry Christmas!

I met a woman on Christmas Day that made me smile.

We had Christmas dinner at Autumn and Derrick's little house and she had the big meal planned well. Everyone had an assignment and there was a schedule for the use of the kitchen (which is not really large) to make their assigned item(s). Aubree was assigned the rolls. She found a new recipe and all the ingredients were there but it seems there may have been a little problem with the yeast (we are still not quite sure what) and the dough did not rise but was a large, heavy lump. So....Ed and I jumped in the car to see if we could find rolls somewhere. There was only one grocery store open on Christmas Day and it was surprisingly busy. We found wonderful rolls at the store bakery (it turns out to be a "scratch" bakery in Ridley's, not a big name store)and we headed to checkout. We were standing in line and another checker motioned for me to come over to her register so she could help us. She was very cheery and I just felt so bad I had to tell her how sorry I was that she had to work on Christmas. She smiled and looked right at me and said, "Oh don't be! I love working on Christmas! I volunteered to work today. I like it because everyone is so happy and nice on Christmas so I really like being here!" Now, doesn't that just make you smile? What a great attitude! The only problem is, everyone should behave that way all year.

We returned to the house with the rolls and a great attitude and had a wonderful meal with our children. It was a great day. Before we got started on the meal we did open gifts and the first gift we opened was a special envelope from Autumn's OB. They had asked him to not tell them the sex of the baby but to put it in an envelope which they put on the tree to be opened on Christmas Day. All of us agreed it would be the first gift. It's a boy! (sigh) We are so happy. Aubree and Ashley gave gifts to the baby and wrote names on the labels that they would like to suggest to Autumn and Derrick. My personal favorite is: Deidrich Octavian Gibelyou from Ashley, but given that the initials spell DOG I don't think that will fly, but it was fun to hear the names they came up with.

With the girls coming in on Wednesday, we didn't get a lot of missionary work done last week. We have had the experience of being missionaries in a strange land. The mission was shy a bunch of missionaries this past week. Our employee in charge is on vacation so some projects have come to a standstill but we will resume our work and be ready and willing after the first of the new year. It is a little scary to me to think about it too much because I realize that this time next year we probably will be home. Wow! Time is flying by!!!

Aubree and Ashley arrived Wednesday afternoon and we had tickets for the family to see "A Christmas Carol" at the 5pm performance time. We were seated and chatting and then there was a little stir and Pres. Monson came in with people I assume were family members. The Church was a major sponsor of the show I learned later. It was well done and fun. The following night we had tickets to see the Church production of "Savior of the World". It was also well done and very stirring. It was a great way to begin our Christmas Holiday together. Everyone stayed in our apartment until the 24th when we packed up and everyone stayed at Autumn and Derricks. Lots of fun there too.

I guess I can't leave the blog without telling about my first experience directing the Branch choir today. I was so nervous that I forgot to stand the choir. At the last minute the horrified/confused look on the faces of the choir members and the gentle reminder whispered by the accompanist saved me and I motioned for them to stand up....hahahaha I told them afterward that I would get better. I promised.

My family, the Mumford's, came over to our apartment building social room tonight for cookies, singing and a kwanzaa ball. A lot of my family who are here do this every year I heard so it was fun to join in and enjoy the fun with them. This may be a one time event for us since we will not be here for Christmas next year. We sang carols together which for me is a wonderful thing. Our family members can sing and I love singing with them.

The holidays are about family and friends and being happy. I hope that everyone has had a wonderful holiday and that the New Year will be brought in with much laughter and love. We are looking forward to doing that this week.