Christmas week!

Last Thursday evening there were no Institute classes. A caroling activity was planned instead. Just like everywhere the week before Christmas everyone is so busy, the attendance was low. That did not detract from the enthusiasm and quality of our singing! Thank you Narraser for the Holiday fun! There is something sweet about going to individual homes and bringing the Christmas spirit with you. Such sweet people and they greeted us with great gusto. There was the cute little couple who gave us a package of mince pies, the single sister who played her wonderful electronically enhanced piano for us as we sang and the last home where we turned off the lights and sang around the tree and had Christmas punch (non-alcoholic)!  You just can’t beat it! We all left with joy in our hearts, more of the Christmas spirit and a sprig of leaves from an olive tree in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Olive leaf from the Garden of Gethsemane 

Friday was a busy day with a lot accomplished. The sisters in Weston-Super-Mare needed their curtains, which did not close properly; replaced. We had purchased drapes from IKEA and our resident seamstress Tina Farrell hemmed them up for us. Friday was installation day. The job was not too complicated. It was a little humorous though to see Elder Preece in his Sunday clothes on a chair, hammering, and using a screwdriver; such a fix-it job in non-fix-it attire.

Sister's Laineenkare (Finland) & Sister Bolinder (Utah) 

Our ward Christmas party was Friday evening. It was great fun, we played build a snowman out of toilet paper, the chocolate game and a couple of Christmas question games. Georgia came too and our team of she, Elder Hagadorn and the two of us won the 12 question Christmas quiz. We got a box of wonderful mint chocolates for a prize. The brilliance of our combined US and British knowledge could not be matched!

TP snowman 

chocolate game: have to put on the gear and eat Malt 'Teasers' with chopsticks before some one throws a 6 on a die

I have to share Georgia’s experience from Friday afternoon. She has had several meetings with a professor from the University who is somewhat of an academic expert on Mormons. She had another meeting with the lady Friday. Georgia took her Gospel Principles manual and a Book of Mormon. In the end she gave the teacher the Book of Mormon and invited her to read it and follow Moroni’s promise!The Professor accepted the invitation. We told Georgia that she needed a missionary name tag!

Saturday we inspected the Downend sister’s flat (which passed with flying colors) and then went to ASDA to get the rest of the stuff we needed for Christmas dinner. It was while we were there that the famous brussel sprouts picture was taken. Next we drove out to Chippenham to inspect the Zone Leader’s flat (not such flying colors) and on the way back stopped at the Pheasant Inn Carvery for an early dinner before the ‘Evening in Bethlehem’celebration at the Wells Road Chapel.

more brussel sprouts than I have ever seen in one place before

Carvery

cozy nook 

What a lovely evening, so much work went into it. The brain child of Bernice West whom I have mentioned before. She is a great lady! She is fighting a heroic battle with bone cancer and not about to let it get her down. There were at least 200 or more people in attendance, members and nonmembers alike. Live farm animals were a part of the ambiance and there even was a synagogue and a wailing wall.

Evening in Bethlehem 

Sunday our ward Christmas program was sung by the congregation. We sang all of the Christmas songs in the Hymn book and in between members of the ward, many of them youth, read the Christmas story all the way from the angel Gabriel to the family returning from Egypt. It was actually very sweet with appropriate remarks from our good Bishop. It was hard to say good-by to Georgia, she was heading home for Christmas break. YSA Home Evening was singing all the carols again and reading the story included this time Zacharias and Elisabeth! Loved the message of the day!

Monday, P-day, the missionaries of our district came over in the afternoon to watch the "Muppet Christmas Carol” and eat popcorn and brownies. It was a very windy raining day and when I went to the door there on the stoop were 6 very wet dripping missionaries! We hung all their wet coats and wraps in the extra bedroom and moved in a space heater to try to dry it all out before they returned to the storm. Two of the missionaries, Elder Yu from the Republic of China and Sister Moangare from The Marshall Islands, had not seen it, nor even heard of the story before. It was very fun to watch them enjoying it. It was apparent to all of us how beautifully this classic story portrays the very message that we are all out here teaching!

Our district watching Muppets

The district all left late afternoon to go back to work.We jumped in the car to finish our Christmas preparations. We had neither one of us shopped for each other yet, and we wanted to see the movie “Frozen” because all of our grand kids love it so much. We were able to go to dinner, go to the mall and get back for an 8:30 showing! Sometimes just little things feel like tender mercies!

The Mall

Tuesday was just like any Christmas Eve day, I was full speed ahead into baking mode. I baked my apple pie and my rolls and finished cleaning the flat for our festivities of the next day. We ordered Chinese takeout and watched “A Christmas story” ‘farararar ararara!’ It felt like home.

Christmas morning was a little rougher than we thought it would be. Something about waking up on that special day makes you want to share it with your family. Not only were they not here but they were all still sleeping on the other side of the world… We soon got over it though as we busily began our preparations for dinner. We had invited three University students who were unable to go home for the holiday break to share our Christmas dinner with us. A good time was had by all!

Shera Chung from Hong Kong, Hanna Hung from Taiwan and Alan Torres from Mexico 

It has been a wonderful discovery to find that the “magic” of Christmas is felt everywhere and realize that it really is ‘the Light of Christ’. No matter where you are or what you do on that day there is a glow in your heart that can be explained no other way! Christmas truly is the “good news”! This was Hanna’s first Christmas as a Christian and it was sweet sharing this age old story with her for the first time. The wonder and awe of it all is impossible to explain!

Happy Happy New year! Love you all. We loved talking to all of our family especially the grand-kids on Christmas night and so grateful that this gospel of the Savior Jesus Christ allows us to be together forever!