Do You See What I See

My pictures seem pretty bad this week. They don't really express what was really there.

The good stuff:

1. We invited new people in the ward over again. The Scott family was sick, so we just had Sister Sylvestre, who is the most extroverted pathologist I have ever met, and Brother Bleak, who seems very good and very kind and very wounded. Sister Sylvestre brought a giant tower of treats that we couldn't even get to because she also brought a delicious cake. I'm going to use the treats for my ministering sisters. Is that bad? Hahahaha!

2. This is a terrible picture to remind me of a really fun afternoon with my friend Tammi eating Mexican food and watching The Chosen in the theater. Eve and Griff were sick and home from school so they came too.

And I also brought them to Costco with me the next day when Eve still had a fever. They seemed totally normal and crazy though. They love this pose--the "Can I come into the out now?" pose. 

3. We fed the missionaries, read scriptures and did all the normal stuff with G and E back in school and trying to get ready for everything. I taught aqua for my third to last time and thought it was my second to last time. Won't they be surprised to see me right before Christmas? Hahahaha!

 

4. I hosted a stake communications council dinner/party/meeting. I invited about 50 people. I made 3 soups, and we had 3 breads and 3 salads. I decorated for Christmas. Our opera singing friends came and entertained us. I made a special video to recap our year. We had less than 10 show up, but it was lovely. 

5. I talked to Wyatt on Friday! He is wearing a blanket because the air conditioning was making him cold! Hahahaha!

6. Alan and I had a date night to Va Bene and the KC Civic Orchestra Christmas concert. For some reason, it just brought great hope to have all these people gather in a Lutheran church and hear beautifully played Christmas music by local volunteer musicians. They even had a sing along part where we got to belt out Christmas carols to orchestral accompaniment. I loved that. We saw a bunch of people we know, including a beautiful violinist in our ward, Margaret Thomas, Karin Thomas, Willa's elementary cello teacher Jennifer Mitchell (I thanked her!) and the Mayfields from our ward. I didn't even know there WAS a Kansas City Civic Orchestra, and here it has been performing pretty close to my house for almost 70 years. It was so much fun!

Please note Aquaman on trumpet in the back, and Jennifer Mitchell with the charming tiny hat.

Steve Jobs on percussion

7. Surprise birthday party for Dr. Gupta at Arcade Alley and then watching Home Alone with the kids. 

The harder parts:

1. Our prelit tree had about half of the lights out, in horizontal stripes, and lots of the bulbs seemed burned out, with black on the tiny tips. I decided it would be just as easy to remove the lights and replace with LED lights that would take much longer to need replacing, than it would be to troubleshoot the long sections that weren't working. This was probably the worst decision of the year. Mostly I am so impressed with the diligence and attention to detail of the Chinese lady I am imagining who zip tied and clipped all those lights to each and every branch. She was so good! It took over 5 hours just to remove the lights. The current state of the tree is bottom third ready to go, top third naked.

2. Getting ready for Christmas and Christmas parties is just a TON of work! I decided I had a free morning so I would just get busy and crank through my list, but the first item took all morning plus some. Dang. Now I need to recover again!

I decided to hang just a few of my favorite Christmas cards. Unfortunately, the adorable washi tape isn't keeping them there, and I just got a few more! The Larsens! The Arkansas Larsens! We need a backup plan. 

 I've decided Christmas is about seeing where you lack and knowing there is hope anyway. Knowing that the transcendent moments remind you that the tiny baby born into poverty more than 2000 years ago grew up, died for us, was resurrected, and is still at work, helping us see beyond the hard things we are currently trudging through and giving us hope of a better world yet to come. Glory to God! And on earth, peace, and goodwill to all mankind.