DECEMBER BRINGS CHARLOTTE HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS AND BEYOND

After two and half weeks of loving the MTC, Charlotte's companion gave her a deep tissue neck massage because she said Charlotte was tense. When Charlotte tried to get up afterwards she totally collapsed on the floor and lost the use of her lower body.  She was transported by ambulance to the hospital where she had to be strapped down because her body was shaking uncontrollably. After running tests, giving her some medication, and keeping her there most of the night, she returned to the MTC. The problem is that the tremors didn't stop and, at one point, she lost consciousness. At that point, now three and a half weeks into her four week stay in the MTC, it was decided she needed to go home to find out what was causing these episodes.

This was posted by Charlotte just after she arrived
home from the MTC

Charlotte was devastated, as was her family, but they knew this is what had to happen. She continued to have these episodes for a few more weeks but they were coming less often and were less severe. The whole Christmas holiday was spent seeing counselors and getting tests run - MRIs, EEG, blood work, etc. We are now waiting for the neurologist to look at all the tests and evaluate what is going on with her body. Charlotte's attitude has been tremendous making statements in her emails such as - "How can I ask my investigators to go through hard things (such as joining the church} if I'm not willing to go through this." She has put it all in the Lord's hands and knows he has a plan for her. Such a beautiful testimony being born by her as she lives through this disappointment.

December and the Christmas holiday kicked off right away with the ward Christmas party being on December 2. It was then decorating the tree, mailing packages and making tea rings. We, also, invited Sandra and Misty to our home to decorate Christmas cookies. They had never done that before and had a great time frosting the cookies and, then, designing them with M & M's, white chocolate chips, and sprinkles. 

Even at the post office, Paul
reads the paper while 
waiting to
be served.

The tree all done

Christmas cookie creations

Two of about 25 that were made this season

Todd and Kailee invited us to their home for Cafe Rio dinner and a gingerbread house decorating contest. Nicole and her family were one team. Tara and Cam were another and, of course, Todd and Kailee and Aria were the third team.  We left before the houses were completed but we were sent pictures of the completed projects so we could vote. Todd and Kailee won hands down. 

The end results.  Todd and Kailee's house is #3

The next Sunday, we had Jon and Mindi and their family up for Sunday dinner. They had all of Jon's children with them. Taylor even came so it was wonderful to be with all of them them. We celebrated Mindi's birthday after dinner with an ice cream sandwich cake. We decided to take a family picture of them as it is so seldom they are all together.

All together.....finally!!

The next Sunday, when Todd and Kailee came up for dinner, we decorated more Christmas cookies with them. These are Todd's favorite cookie so he really got into the process. Aria loved eating the M & M's. The evening ended with Paul reading the 'I Believe in Santa Claus," book to Aria.

Picture taken the Sunday before

Grandpa reading to Aria

This picture was taken
before we changed the
ribbon to a solid red.  Paul was
concerned about all
glitter on this ribbon.

As to missionary work....last month, we were called as Zone leaders so at the first of the month we attended our first Senior Missionary Leadership Council (SMLC). We are one of 4 zone leaders in the Utah Provo Mission. We are grateful to the AP's, Elder and Sister Hauser, for all their hard work in putting together a power point presentation of the things we need to present at our zone meeting. He willingly downloads it onto a thumbnail so we can adjust it as needed for when we conduct our zone meeting. We had to work hard and figure out how to edit power point, as well as add new slides. We held our first zone meeting in December and it went real well. The technology worked perfectly and everyone seemed to enjoy the presentation. We ended the meeting with a special video - 'What Will We Give." We made each couple a copy of a Christmas story about giving and tied it with a ribbon, attaching an ornament with one of the Savior's names on it. We are grateful for this opportunity to serve in this capacity.

As the new zone leaders, we were asked to visit every couple in the zone. We decided to try and get this all done before our zone meeting. It took two weeks, going to Provo a couple of times each week, but we were so glad we had made the effort. It was a choice experience to be in the homes of each couple and get to know them better. These visits also made it easier to recognize and relate to the couples at our zone meeting. 

Mack, Karly, and Brook

Every two weeks, we teach a family home lesson to the Parcell family. This December, we decided to focus on serving so we taught a lesson on giving service. After the short lesson, we had the children help decorate Christmas cookies and take a couple of plates of them to their neighbors. The children loved this activity. We also helped organize a 12 days of Christmas giving for this family. We did the first gift and the ward members followed through by taking something to them everyday for the 12 days before Christmas. We hope this is making a difference is this little family's life.

We had to say goodbye to Elder Terry as he was transferred to another area to be a district leader and to train again. He will be missed. One his last day, the elders needed to have an early lunch so we decided to have them come even earlier and have a breakfast. I did batter dipped french toast, eggs and ham, and fruit. The elders loved it. We didn't meet the new elder until after the holidays because we left for Oregon at the end of the week.

Yummy breakfast!!!

Surprise!!!!

Now for our trip to Oregon. We had originally planned on staying in Utah for Christmas as we thought Jon would have his boys on Christmas eve and day. As it turned out, he traded with Jen so she could have them at same time her new boyfriend has his kids. That meant we needed to go to Oregon this year so we could stay home next year and be with Jon's family. We made last minute airline reservations to fly to Medford on the 22nd and stay till the 26th. We were excited to go but on Wednesday, before leaving on Friday, I got really sick - fever, cough, no energy. Gratefully the fever left on Thursday so we decided to keep our travel plans even though I was coughing terribly. We were glad we went. Ryan and Katie had not told their children we were coming so it was a total surprise when we knocked on their door and they answered it to find 'Ma and Pa.'  

All dressed up for Sacrament Meeting
on the morning of Christmas Eve

We went to dinner that night and just hung out on Saturday. Sunday morning, we attended a beautiful sacrament meeting and that night we spent at Katie's parents home for their traditional Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas pageant. Katie does a good job getting costumes together and writing a script for the children to act out. It was, then, home to read the Santa letter, open the pajama presents, set out cookies for Santa and off to bed. All the children sleep together on Christmas eve so they can get up together in the morning. We helped Ryan and Katie wrap presents before we turned in for the night. 

Nathan as a shepherd for the pageant

The manger scene-Aubrey is Mary

Julia playing the violin at the family
program after the pageant.

Matching PJ's
for everyone, except Ryan

Ryan reading the Santa Letter

Christmas morning was fun. The children were excited about their presents but they were especially excited to see the reaction of the presents they gave to each other. Each child had drawn another person's name and had gone shopping for them. Because this was the first Christmas Grace found out about Santa Claus, Aubrey wanted to make it real special for her so she bought her lots of fun gifts. Aubrey spent over $60 of her own money to do so. The others also went overboard with their gifts but it made Christmas giving very special. 

On Saturday before Christmas, this trampoline was set up in
the backyard to surprise of the children.  Katie
had sworn they would never get a trampoline as she thinks they
are too dangerous. A friend was selling this one so she gave in -
much to the delight of the kids.

The rocket launching

Christmas dnner

Right after opening presents, Ryan went to bed as he was feeling horrible. He had been battling not feeling well since we got there and finally had to give into it. He stayed in bed till dinner that night. I continued to cough and lived on cough drops to get me through the festivities. The next day, we went to a big park to shoot off a rocket that Nathan received for Christmas. Ryan and I watched from the car, not wanting to get chilled. The rocket was pretty impressive as to how far it shot up in the air. We went to lunch at Mod Pizza before getting dropped off at the airport for our return flight home.

Cute kids!!!

All in all a great month.....especially as we turned our thoughts and our hearts to the Savior.

Now it's Aria time - 

I want to dip my food in dressing.
She'll even eat chicken if she can dip it.

I love my decorated cookie