December 26, 2023

I know this post is late but that just goes to show how busy the last week has been. It wouldn't be the holidays if we didn't pack something into every day. But I am grateful for the fun, busy time that helped us get through the holidays while being far away from most of our family and friends. This year was all about new friends, some family, and lots of "adopted" family!

We started the week out on Tuesday feeding the missionaries. In the ward we attend we can sign up to feed the Elders who also attend that ward. But the Sisters are assigned to the other ward in our building and that ward mission leader only has people sign up to feed the Sisters on the weekend. We were feeling especially sad for the Sisters so we told them to come to dinner too! There are (4) Elders & (4) Sisters so it would have been (8) missionaries but the Assistants had to travel over the mountain at the last minute and couldn't come. Probably a good thing since our little kitchen struggles to accommodate a crowd that size. We made them Salisbury Steak, Mac & Cheese, carrots, breadsticks, and Butterfinger Ice Cream Pie. We always look forward to the message they share with us.

Wednesday night we headed to Hillsboro to do some last minute Christmas shopping. It is about a 30-40 minute drive from here and it was scary coming home in the fog on the narrow winding roads through the hills. Our eyes are not as good as they used to be! Thursday was our night to do a gift exchange with the Sr Missionaries. It was only the Larson's, Sister Incze and ourselves but we had a great time. Sister Larson made us hot chocolate and cinnamon breadsticks and then we opened gifts. We received blankets, books, jams, butter sauce, and a cute heart keepsake. Elder Rowan received a police remote control car from Elder Larson since he is the "Car Police" of the mission. I caught Elder Rowan playing with it a few days later as happy as a kid in a candy store. He said he never had his own remote control car before :).

We finished the night up with going out to look at Christmas lights. Newberg really gets in to the spirit of things and I was even able to find a map on Facebook of all the best places to go in Newberg. We only hit a few of them but it was fun. We even found a house like the one at home where the lights are synced with music you turn your radio to. It was just like sitting in our neighborhood in Sandy!

Friday night we hosted District Council and it was really special. Elder Cordray plans the agenda for our District Councils and we are so impressed with him. He has been on his mission less than 6 months and came out immediately from graduating from high school so he is still only 18 years old. To begin our meetings each companionship has to tell a miracle they had that week, counsel about someone they are teaching, set a goal, and put names on the prayer roll. This week after the business was concluded we watched a Christmas message from 2020 by our new apostle, Elder Kearon. It was called, "Bringing Christmas Into Focus." Afterward, each missionary bore their testimony of the Savior and what Christmas means to them. The spirit and love in the room was strong!!

Saturday we were able to spend time with Tracey's family and celebrate Hayden's 21st birthday. For our Christmas present this year Tracey gave us an "experience." They wanted to do something all together so they got us all tickets to go see "Cirque Dreams Holidaze" downtown at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. It is a beautiful theater similiar to the Capitol theater at home only bigger and even more fancy. We started out at Red Robin which Hayden had been dreaming of. The restaurant was short on help so we had a long wait but they made it worth the wait for Hayden by bringing him all the Campfire sauce he wanted. :)

Hayden will graduate from college this spring in Criminal Justice but hopes to get into some kind of journalism/reporting/podcasts. His girlfriend Joey is also graduating and they are headed back east this summer for her to attend law school. We are excited to see where the future takes Hayden. He is super smart, funny, and has an opinion about everything!

After dinner we headed to the theater to watch the show. This is what the reviews said about it, "This annual tradition wraps a Broadway-style production around an infusion of contemporary circus arts. As lights dim and the music swells, audiences will have visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads as a fantastical cast of holiday storybook characters come to life." It was a fun and different holiday show--part circus, part Nutcracker, part hokey--but always entertaining!

Sunday we joined with Tracey again to attend church with her and her family and exchange gifts. The kids are all growing up and this year they got the boring gift of carry-on suitcases. I am sure traveling is in their future so hopefully they will be something that will last them for a long time to come. We made sugar cookies, played games and Tom tried on the apron that came with his BQ set!

We got home in time to join with the Larsons and some of our missionaries for an old fashioned re-enactment of the Nativity story. This is a tradition that the Larsons do every year and we were glad we could keep the tradition alive for them when they were far away from home and family.

This post is getting pretty long so I think I will end the week there and save Christmas Day for next week. After all, I was meant to be writing this on Sunday before Christmas had even happened.......