Christmas Blessings

Starting just after Thanksgiving, the mission office begins looking like a mail room. Family and friends of the missionaries start sending in gifts for Christmas. Every day the mail comes, then our office secretary sorts them all to get to the missionaries the next day. Some days, the mail is packed so high, it's like walking through a corn maze at Halloween. A couple days this past week, the mailman (driving one of the big trucks) came by first thing in the morning with nothing but packages so he could make room for the rest of the mail. Those days, he usually stops by 3 times...not to mention the UPS and FedEx guys. (And yes, a few of those packages were for us-THANKS! We have soooo many yummy treats...maybe I need some bigger clothes for Christmas.)

Even with all those packages, there are still some missionaries that don't receive anything for one reason or another-especially those from foreign countries. This year, we had several people bring gifts to pass out to missionaries 'just in case' and some other good people who donated some money to buy gifts so none of the missionaries would be left out. So...yesterday, Jess, Taylor & Jacob (a returned missionary back to visit) went tie shopping while Amanda and I spent a good chunk of the day shopping for other things. Which meant today we spent a lot of time wrapping and sorting and making them special. Tomorrow, the packages will get delivered. I love Christmas time. We are blessed to be surrounded by so many with the spirit of Christmas!

*Hoping you feel the joy of

Christmas giving*

2 days to go!!!

***On a side note: I found a stack of about 100 Christmas cards that didn't get mailed two weeks ago with the rest of the batch. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Fortunately, no tears were shed and my tummy got a great work out. But, if you haven't heard from us yet, that's probably the reason. I raced and got to the post office today. Hopefully some of you will hear from us before the week is out. In the meantime, remember we love you all. Merry Christmas!