Twas the Night Before Christmas

I spent forever yesterday trying to get caught up on our blog and when I finished,  it wouldn't save and it wouldn't publish except for a small portion.  Oh the DRAMA!  So the short story is I copied the text and I have divided the post in half in case it was too long.  I still couldn't figure out how to make all of the copy the same size.  aargh!!!  It makes me warm and fuzzy all over again just looking for pictures and remembering our fun times.

It was so kind of  Flori's family to make the 14 or so hour drive from Georgia to visit us for the holidays.  Thanks, Flo.  We introduced the Christensens to Kolaches (a german thing- rolls wrapped around sausage, cheese, or ham).  We walked around the Sam Houston statue, fed the ducks at the Sam Houston Museum home and in general had a wonderful Christmas Eve Day.  Bea's special request was to make Gingerbread Houses, and so the girl's and I made a little Gingerbread village with even a mystery murder.  Don't ask!  Just silly teenagers enjoying themselves.  

Rob & Bea Singing Carols

Christmas Eve we had an invitation from the Payne family to come for a Swedish Christmas Eve.  It made me think about our Grandma Effie who loved her Swedish roots.  After dinner, we all composed and shared Christmas poems and then we sang carols around the piano and afterward went caroling in the Payne's neighborhood.  Home to bed while visions of Sugar Fairies danced in our heads.  We had a pretty laid back Christmas morning since the Christensens had opened most of

their presents back home.  We had Christmas Dinner at the Institute and did Face Time with our other children throughout the day.  I was actually kind of a mess by the end of the week.   Houston Art Museum Neil and Flori in the Butterfly Refuge - Natural History Museum Maddie, Bea and Rob Dinosaur Fun We took off early the next morning for Houston where we visited the art museum and the Natural History museum and then headed to our hotel to chill.  We swam in the pool, watched movies and generally had a great time.  On Friday afternoon after checkout, we made our way to the Curtis's.   Flori and her cousin Marci spent lots of fun family reunions talking boys, life, dreams, etc and were excited to see each other.  When the Curtis's lived in Atlanta, the Christensens lived in Charlotteand they had a couple of mini vacations together.  Since they both have lots of girls about the same ages, it was a great time for everyone.  Neil and I just kind of sat back and enjoyed the revelry.  It was so nice of the Curtis Family to host us and a great benefit was being able to attend Church with them on Sunday and hearing Marci speak  in Church.  It was a rejuvenating time for us.   Curtis and Christensen Families Out to Dinner with Flori and Rob

 

Final Goodbyes

We parted with Flori and Rob as they began the journey home through New Orleans, and we headed back to Huntsville in order to meet up with my brother, John and his wife, Lisa, and their daughter, Abigail and family in College Station which was about the halfway point between Huntsville and Austin.  It was so much fun to be with them and get caught up on my brothers and sisters and John and Lisa's busy lives.  We felt so spoiled to see so many family members in such a short time. Dinner with the Adams Family

Back to Work

We have had a wonderful vacation the last two weeks.  We have enjoyed being with family and recharging our batteries.  With the coming of the new year, I have been feeling antsy and anxious to recenter and refocus our missionary efforts.  The students don't come back for another week, so we are busy doing bulletin boards, planning and plotting.

Christmas was a different experience for us this year, but memorable just the same.  We were able to attend our first zone conference two fold.  Our mission has grown from 160 to 320 missionaries this year.  As a result, there were two Christmas zone conferences.  Neil and I offered to help cater the conferences and we had a great time.

One Half of our mission

Making 18 cans worth of pineapple sauce

It looks like it turned out ok -  they ate it!

Member Provided the Cookies

Mission conferences were just a small part of our school break.  We also had lots of wonderful visits with family.  Neil's sister, Genie Lee and her husband, Winston, arrived on the 14th.  We had been so busy with planning for their visit and the mission conferences that we didn't check our emails very well.  We made it to Hobby Airport with lots of time to spare only to find out shortly after their arrival that they were at the nearer to us airport, George Bush!  We finally met up with them and then had a wonderful evening at the Houston Temple doing sealings.  We loved exploring Lake Livingston and introducing them to catfish.  We also stopped at a few antique stores in our travels, but we didn't make Winston suffer through them.  Genie gave me a beautiful handpieced floursack quilt top.  We also ate at the Farmhouse Cafe which turned out to be their favorite eatery. We were sad to see them go, it was such a lovely reminder of home.  Fortunately we had the Mission Conference right after they left, so we didn't have much time to be homesick.

Cold enough outside for Christmas, even in Huntsville

Lees left on the 18th and our daughter, Flori and her family, arrived on the evening of the 23rd.  We became party animals!

Genie and Winston Lee

Saying Goodbye

One of the hard things that happen to missionaries that you don't really anticipate is losing a loved one while you are away.   As we were driving home from the temple on Friday, we had a call letting us know our "dearest, most beloved" (Patt's description for extra special friends) friend, Patt Brown, passed away.  There are some people you meet whom you soon decide you want to be just like them when you grow up.  That is how I have felt about Patt.  And since I can't be home to eulogize her in person, I want to devote a few minutes here.

                                                                                                                                                                                

 Aunt Patt

Roll back the history books to 1983.  Our family had just moved into our home in Canyon Rim.  I was expecting our 7th child, Tom, and we were trying to completely remodel and makeover a home while living in one bedroom on the main floor.  We moved in the middle of Summer and met Patt soon after.  I was immediately impressed by her happy countenance and general glow.  The Brown's became even better friends when Kay was called as Bishop and Neil was called as his second counselor.  Patt and I shared a common love of cooking and some of my best recipes are from Patt, ie., BBQ ribs and tunnel cookies.  During a recession in the economy, Kay's job was eliminated and they were supporting their son, Kerry, on his mission in England before the days of standardized missionary support.  Patt was looking for a job and we needed a secretary for our business.  Patt not only became a valued employee, but she also became Aunt Patt.  Our youngest son, Bob, was about 3 when she started working for us and he spent many hours asking her endless questions and trying to find ways to scare her-- it was probably the start of her heart problems!  One time, Bob told her that she was so old she would probably die while he was on his mission.  I hope that was an incentive for her to prove him wrong.  It made it a tender memory to know that she passed while we are serving our mission.  I'm happy she will maybe be our guardian angel and help us be better missionaries.

Patt told our oldest daughter, Flori, that if she would marry one of her sons, she would sew anything she wanted.  She also tenderly made a lace hankie for Flori for her wedding(it wasn't even one of her sons).  Patt was yellow through and through -- not the coward yellow, but the fun yellow.  She had the special gift of feeling joy in the happiness and enjoyment of others.  She taught me about how to keep a family close, be a great grandmother, entertain with flair and how to be a loyal friend.  She witnessed a lot of drama in our family of little children and also encouraged us through some hard times.  One of the greatest gifts she gave was teaching me how to forgive others.  I will always love my other "big sister". Thank you, Patt for loving me and being one of my dearest, most beloved friends.