Christmas Time

I love everything about Christmas.  I love watching the Christmas devotional to start out the season.  I love our Savior and putting my favorite picture of him as a baby at the temple over my mantle. I love opening the Christmas boxes and setting up the tree and all my nativities.  I love making our home light up with Christmas! I love to sit in our family room and see all the lights come on  every evening. I love listening to Christmas songs, buying gifts, baking goodies and waiting for family to arrive. Yes, it is the most wonderful time of year.  Merry Christmas everyone!  

My favorite time of year

I am getting that wonderful feeling about this time of year. I love the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Jerry went with me on Saturday to look at holiday decorations. I was looking for a tall skinny Christmas tree for my tall family room.  I had to scout out all the stores to see who had the one I liked the best and the one that would fit in my budget.  Jerry was such a good sport as we went from store to store. Of course the one I liked was already sold out but they thought they would have some more in by the end of the month.  I will get busy with all the other decorations and save the  tree for last.
I had to get David's Christmas package in the mail this past weekend.  The Canada mail service is very slow.  We are almost at 1/2 time for his mission! (That really feels good to say) It has been a great year for David. We love reading his emails each week and learning of all the grand experiences he is having. He is use to the really cold weather.....burr. He is a great missionary and we love that he has the desire to serve. Cant wait for our Christmas skpe call!
This month we celebrate and give extra Thanks. Today our grands Carolyn and Alee celebrate their 9th and 4th birthdays and David will celebrate his Birthday #20 on Tuesday.
We give thanks that our Chloe is recovering from surgery. (She had a heart block and had to have a pacemaker put in.) She is a tough little girl and we are so grateful for her zest and strong will to bounce back and push through difficult things.
May we all remember our blessings and smile at all the wonderful things we have been given from above.  

2013

It has been a long time since I posted to my blog.  My last post was the summer of 2012.  So many wonderful memories have happened since then but most of them ended up on Facebook.   I  love blogs though because you get so much more!  Facebook is busy and fast and we tend to just scroll through or skip by real quick then hurry on with life. I'm still a Facebook fan but blogs are great because they are personal.  You go to a blog because you really care what is going on in that person's life.  You have to go to their blog to find out. You get the story with all the feelings! So I hope all my family and friends who have neglected their blog will come back.  I want to here your stories!!!  I don't want to miss the next chapter of your life:)

Ok, so with that being said I guess I should catch you up.  I'm not the best writer but you will get more details here than my Facebook post so here goes.....

Summer 2012 ended and it was back to work and busyness. I had to focus on getting David ready for his mission. He was so excited for his call to come.  We waited all day before he opened it.  All the logistics of getting everyone where they could be on the phone or skpe to watch or hear the big moment.   I had been dreading this moment since Will came home..... "Elder Edwards you have been called to serve in the Calgary, Canada Mission."  It was one of those bitter/sweet moments when as a Mom your heart just can't bare saying goodbye to your baby boy. I felt like my mommy days were coming to an end.  I knew David would be fine, he was our old soul.  He had been grown for years. I knew he would be a great missionary.  I knew he could conquer the world!  It wasn't him I was worried about, it was his parents.

Well, empty nest arrived. Empty is a really good word for it.  Those first few days were so quiet.  I could hardly go upstairs and look in his room.  I was glad that I had made him pack up his room so that I would not have to see all his things.  You would think out of sight, out of mind....not so. Every conversation still seems to have his name in it. (This modern world makes it even harder as I was so used to getting at least one text from him everyday or a phone call.)  So all I had was the waiting for the first letter to arrive.  I just wanted to know he was happy and safe.   Just like with all my other boys, when the letter came it made everything better.  He was so excited and busy and just loving all the new experiences at the MTC ( Mission Training Center). He was given an assignment right way. District leader.

 My baby boy has traded in his flip flops  for snow boots and a suit.  He has been in Canada since Dec. and every Monday we are excited for his email to arrive.  He shares his spiritual journey and our hearts are warmed by all the good he is doing.  I'll share a couple of quotes  in a recent letter from David that pretty much sum things up:
" There will always be something you leave behind when you heed the Prophet's call to serve"- Neil L. Anderson
 Missionary-n. Someone who leaves their family for a short time so others can be with their families forever.

2 and 1/2 months down.....21 and 1/2 to go.....but whose counting?