Christmas!!

This was actually a really fun year for Christmas even though we were away from our family. We had Ryan's cousins Eric and Jen up from Sanford for Christmas Eve dinner. I think Grace got a little crush on her 2nd cousin that night. She is really into pretending to get married and he looked like a handsome prince and he was nice to her. I guess it wouldn't be illegal just weird. Anyway, I was a little stressed out for two weeks during Christmas because they asked me to speak on preparing for and honoring sacred covenants in the temple. I hate speaking in public and the topic was and is a very important subject to me and so I didn't want to say the wrong thing. It turned out pretty good though and I didn't faint. The sister missionaries said that they would pray for me, so that helped a lot. Ryan got a new calling as ward mission leader, so we're really excited about that. The missionaries call us every night to let us know how their day went. It's so fun. I met a lady today that was asking about Mormons. You could tell that she'd been told a lot of wrong things about Mormons. I think it's sad that other religions use their resources to preach against another certain religion. It's weird to me. I don't want to join a church that has to put someone else down to boost themselves up.

Anyway, we found out that we will be moving to Richmond, Virginia next, so we're excited about that. I've never been there but I'm thinking it's not much different than here except that price of living is lower. We will be close to Washington DC and I Virginia Beach. Maybe someone will visit us now huh? Family?? I have never been to Washington DC so I am very excited about that. I really love the DC temple. That will be the one closest to us. Anyone know a good babysitter in DC?

I'm sorry I didn't get Christmas cards out this year, I'm thinking about sending a Valentine's Day card or something, but I still wish you all a Merry Christmas!

PS Please don't mind our fonapoc tree this year. The kids rearranged everything but it was not greatly decorated to begin with.

It reminds me, we had another missionary experience a couple days after Christmas. OUr neighbor across the street wanted to know who Santa Clause was and what the Cristmas tree was all about. She and her suband are Hindu. We learned more about Hinduism that night and enjoyed sharing the story of Christmas and who Jesus is. Cool!