Christmas Weekend...

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Brian holding Lincoln Glenn

May Kelly giving her best "cheese"

Christmas Eve celebrations

The Choates came over on the 23rd for a pre-Christmas sleepover

May Kelly with Grandpa

It was a whirlwind weekend that started with a sleepover for the Choate kids on Friday night.  We watched Christmas movies like Frosty the Snowman, Rudolf, etc. and had breakfast the next morning.  Mindy and Eric came over, Brian, Chloe, Rick and Kelsee and kids and we had our Christmas Eve lunch, then watched "A Christmas Story"-the one about the b-b gun, and then had our program.  Lucy Jo sang, "Gethsemane," we listened to Handel's "Messiah," read the story of the nativity in the scriptures and acted it out, then read, "Twas the Night..." and made Christmas sugar cookies. 

Brian has been working on getting May to like him...Lincoln already thinks he's great!

Yes, we did make an awesome (in my humble opinion) gift for Lincoln: The King of Red Lions. A month or two ago Rick came to Tim and said he would like make a cradle for Lincoln, something like the boat that Link uses in Wind Waker.

Rick used MicroSoft "paint" to make the design and bought all the wood for $5 at Habitat for Humanity. Tim had all the tools, and bought the paint, and so we got down to work on Thursday. We projected the pattern on the wall. Rick held the wood, and Tim traced the pattern with a sharpie. Then we brought in the tools, put down a tarp and started sawing! We got half of the pieces cut out and put together the boat and neck. 

On Saturday we hosted a Christmas eve dinner/lunch. Eric and Mindy and Spencer came over. Rick, Kelsee, May, and Lincoln came over. Rick and Tim assembled the rest of the pieces, sanded it, and put on a first coat of paint. 

Even though we didn't start until Thursday it was all done for Christmas! It helped that Rick had been thinking about it for weeks, and created a great pattern to follow. We have learned that when we're anxiously engaged in doing good, the Lord seems to help everything come together! It was a present for Lincoln, but the real gift was being able to spend so much time with my Rick this week. 

Christmas Day finally arrived...

The next morning Santa came, we went to church where Tim sang with the choir in a Christmas Cantata and then came home for more dinner and then got to talk with Todd.  We had so much fun visiting with him as a whole family.  It really was a terrific evening!  Talking to our missionary was the highlight of the whole evening...

Elder T. Stout and Elder J. Stout

We also got a neat letter to boot...

This week was crazy and miracle filled!! A lot of days only had one or two meetings until then, but the Lord consecrated those moments to be the best possible. All of our investigators made massive leaps in faith this week, and a bunch of potential investigators became progressing investigators!! 

I love that boat. Please send more pictures, it is so cool. 

I LOVE THE PAJAMAS. THEY ARE THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD

And I love all of you!! This has been an amazing Christmas. I feel so incredibly blessed, and I feel all of your love, because it is so overflowingly powerful in the emails. I want you to know that I only cried because I love Luke, and I was so happy, I seriously love every day out here, and I am not lying when I say that. I love all of you, and especially my mom and dad. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

スタウト長老〜♡