Oh My son! !  How are you?  You fabulous scrumptious light the world missionary you!  How are you? How are things? I feel like there is so much momentum right now for you with Li Yuan Zhen, Diana, Lin Zhi Hong, and others, and that is so joyous.  Did you get a new camera?

We've had a week that is just soaked in joy.  The highlight of my Christmas day was getting to talk to my hunk of a missionary who is one of the happiest people I know.  You look and sound so fabulous.  How can I ever thank you enough for who you are, for your valiant service, and the fact that you don't just feel joy, you ARE joy. It is just who you are.  You do more good than you'll ever know. 

Here's some fun from home.  

Christmas morning at 6 a.m. Grandma and Grandpa Raspberry arrived! They had gotten up at 4:30 to get ready for church, and they were at our house by six. They came up the stairs and grandma and Grandpa Jello were there, too. We are so very blessed. We had morning prayer in our stripey jammies then wrote down and shared our gifts to the Savior.  I am going to work really hard on

•  Being a whole-hearted full-fledged one million percent disciple in MIND BODY AND SOUL. 

1. Mind-Seek hungrily truth at every opportunity, listening, reading, studying. Complete immersion in the fountain of living waters. No snacking, feasting in faith. 
2. Body-Study and live principles of health, clean eating and nutrition, exercise, claim the world of wisdom promises. Im also going to get my body to the temple once a week, and make time for family history once a week at least. 
3. Soul-Complete and total surrender to the Spirit. I want so much to remove the top of my head (in other words any obstruction) and just let heaven pour in. I want to do His will. I really want to learn how to live by the Spirit 100%.  Less lists, more listening, less structure, more surrender.

Spen-Personal new creative prayer

Joseph-

Annie-understanding. She wants to be more understanding

Seth-

We opened our family gifts. Spen gave us a chocolate fountain.  Joseph gave everyone emoji slippers.  Annie sewed Christmas stockings for everyone and had them embroidered. She had us put them out a day before and we were supposed to put love notes in them. Just like somebody's Easter basket we started finding bananas, Nerf bullets, and funny things inside. Didn't take them family a day... Sethy made these darling little picture books, one for each, with little funny notes in them.  They are so funny. He put a picture of a giant llama face in Joseph's and said "Joseph, get a haircut." He had a sweet picture of Spencer baptizing him.  They were so so cute. 

Then we headed downstairs. There are moments where Seth's drama queen antics are a little too much to take, but on Christmas morning, the drama couldn't be  more perfect. He flipped out and yelled "Yes Yes" a hundred times. He was so excited that he "achkully" got his edible sombrero. He was so happy with the walkie talkies and the remote control car.  Annie is a funny chic. She has no outward drama at all. She spoke in church yesterday and looked down the whole time, gave a magnificent talk without one drop of inflection. When her brand new yellow cutest ever beach cruiser bike was revealed she may have made a sound but none of us heard it.  She wanted this army green jacket and a hair straightener and I think she was happy for those. She got some canvases and had them all finished by nightfall. 

Joseph's face when he opened his accordian was so awesome. That was a complete and total surprise. He got a ukelele, and he was excited, but we really got him on the accordian.  (I had so much fun going with my Dad to test drive the accordian. We got a screamin deal. It's an oldie, a vintage, and it rocks).  All of Spen's gifts had to do with his keyboard, but i think he didn't suspect even still.  He opened his sustain pedal, speakers, a bench, then we pointed to a huge present on the side.  He was awesome. He has played it 27 hours a day. It is so fun.  It is a super sweet keyboard.  So now with a new piano, ukelele and accordian, we just have music everywhere. It is so fun! Someone is ALWAYS PLAYING SOMETHING. 

The kids all got hammocks, so within an hour or two we had 4 hammocks tied to the castle and 4 ukeleles. They were singing and swinging for about an hour. Spen made up a song about a big burly woman he met in the woods who invited him into her little shack and then he found out she was an CHORUS: ax murderer KIDS: AX MURDERER) , she just wants me for my body, (then all the kids as back up singers  JUST MY BODY). It was a very spiritual Christmas morning. 

Church was amazing. Sister Ayre told a true story about missionaries who went to India and told the Christmas story for the very first time to children in an orphanage. The children were amazed, enthralled with the story of Jesus. One little boy made the craft they brought of a little manger but he put two babies in the manger.  When asked about it, he said that he had no mama or papa, and he felt so much love from Jesus he asked him if he could stay with him, and Jesus said yes. 

We came home to all day music, then a fun dinner at Grandma Jan's, then YOU YOU YOU!  

Monday was chill. We ended up at the Hunts that night and out of the blue they told us about a Christmas project where they asked to be told of a family who gives to everyone else. Jayna wrote a letter about US! She talked about Mexico, Rwandan family, John Turner and I don't know what all she said, but anyway WE WERE CHOSEN! We are getting brand new carpet in an entire floor of our house!  I cried and cried. I can't believe it. 

Tuesday we left nice and brightly early to go turn in the EAGLE PAPERS!  Just the day before his 18th, ain't no thing, except it WAS A BIG HUGE THING!   When we tried to turn them in Thursday we didn't have an Eagle Scout Application, and he was missing two merit badges.  AAARRRGGGHH.  His personal integrity is incredible, so he spent all Monday filling in every question on the two merit badges just in case he actually hadn't done them. Hours and hours of work.  WE MADE IT!  Oh my hairy skin of our teeth stress heart attack yuckness. 

Hunts came and dragged the kids around on the sled in the backyard with the 4 wheeler.  

Wednesday Spen got breakfast in bed, a tall vanilla milkshake with peanuts in it.  He got some new clothes and a new copy of Root Beer Rag.  We went snowbarding in Fairview. We picked up Coy and Haven. The sun was brilliantly bright on the white snow, it filled my soul with such joy. The kids and I sledded from the top because it wasn't plowed yet so we didn't go too super fast. The boys killed it snowboarding, and Coy and Haven had fun sledding, too.  That night was awesome. We had Kaden's family over and we all cried about how much we love Spen. We played games with Raspberry's and Kaden's family, Jello's came over and G and G Clark came down.  I got to cry and thank Doug, Susie and Kaden each individually for all they have done for him and for our family. It was a super fun night. We played the pillow game where you spin around holding a pillow on your behind and then sit on someone's lap and ask them to make a sound (those got really really funny), and try to guess who it is.  We watched a little movie of Spen growing up which we kind of threw together and had pumpkin pie.  I get the sense that maybe we haven't made adulthood look very appealing. We stayed up super late and watched Mr. Magorium's Magic Emporium.  

Thursday i spent the day on primary and looking for my lost phone, which after 9 hours dropped out of the sun shade in the car into Seth's lap. Annie had hidden it there to keep it away from Seth.  The kids ran amuck.  That afternoon we went sledding with Aunt Nic's sister and her fiance for their first time ever. It was epic. We hit the golf course. Spen ran over Seth's face.  Aunt Nic made us Cafe Rio dinner, it was amazing. It was so fun to get to know Michael and just hear about life growing up in Australia.  That night things got super wild with Bailee, Kaden, Michael, Spen Avery Joseph Annie and Seth ALL in hammocks, making up songs and laughing and running wild.  

It took me until Thursday afternoon to remember how stupid I am and how much I do not know. I was sitting in a room full of people and it hit me all over again. As far as the world is concerned, I know so little.  I am so little.  But, I know the important things. I know in whom I have trusted, and that life is glorious, God lives, this is His true church, and I love people and life and the earth. We get a little fuzzy from there. 

Friday night Annie took Dad to see the new Disney movie, all kids went to friend's houses and I was home alone for a while. Weird. I went to the store with Abby to get groceries for James and Carol. He just had surgery. Seth had a party with his friends. it was cute. 

Saturday we cleaned lots and took down Christmas and Joseph had a big smashing teenage New Year's Party.  It was super fun.  They played Murder in the Dark live, running through the house, two taps and you're out and you have to die epically. 

Sunday church was incredibly fabulous. Annie spoke. Also a couple, both converts, he from New Zealand with a beautiful accent, and just returned from a South African mission. They shared their conversion story. His mother was a spiritualist and his father an atheist. He wanted to know if there was a true church, truth anywhere, and what it was.  He talked to every religious person he got a chance to. He welcomed the missionaries. He thought they were just talking, but they were teaching him. He was going on a beach vacation.