Chorale concerts
This year Alan and I had all three of our Christmas chorale concerts on three consecutive nights. On the one hand it was nice to be able to get them all done in one weekend leaving the other weekends free, but it was a bit challenging especially for people in high heels to have to do all that standing. For the last concert I actually wore my black Sketchers since I knew no one would see my feet and it was ooh la la better!
We felt the concerts went well and we had our largest audiences ever. It will be exciting to hear the CD's. The best chorale experience we had though was a couple of weeks later when Alan and I were able to go as part of a small group of 18 to the state prison to sing to a group of women inmates. I was not prepared for the spirit I would feel as I truly felt for the first time that I was giving a gift with my music. Until then, I had always felt like a performer with an audience, not a gift giver. The women there were so welcoming, so happy that we had come, so receptive to our music — they laughed, they cheered and they cried. As I looked into their faces, I knew we were giving them a gift, but more than that, I knew that my Heavenly Father had given me a gift to share with them and we were all being blessed together. It was such an uplifting experience that we will always be grateful for.
Christmas
This year was different all because our daughter Tess was coming home from her mission on December 30th. Originally she was scheduled to come home on the 23rd, and we were so excited that she would be here to celebrate Christmas with us. Last August the missionary travel department let us know that they couldn't send the missionaries home on the 23rd and it would actually be a week later. Of course we were very disappointed, but after talking to the kids, we decided that we would wait and have our family Christmas a whole week later so that we could be all together for Christmas for the first time in 5 years and 3 missionaries!
For me, that delay in her return has been a great blessing. I realized quickly that we were free to spend the "real" Christmas doing whatever we wanted — that we could go out and serve others. I pictured us at a soup kitchen or in nursing homes. As I made phone calls, I discovered that I was too late for some opportunities and that many places didn't need help on the actual Christmas Eve as the celebrating and helping had been done earlier etc.
I was disappointed and felt a bit like I had failed, but then as I talked with Alan, we decided that we would go ahead then and do some family things that sounded fun. It was Alan's idea to go caroling to family and friends. He had really enjoyed doing that as a boy with his cousins every Christmas and my family had their own caroling tradition of singing Burl Ives's "Grandfather Kingle" with my Mom accompanying us on her ukulele. We made a list and decided to go two afternoons — one down to Utah Valley, and one in the Salt Lake Valley. As we made up the list of family and friends we would like to carol to, I was amazed at how many there were. I ended up making another 8 loaves of poppyseed cake and we set out with the kids, Grandfather Kingle lyrics, a ukulele and cakes. Thursday we went down to Provo and Friday (Christmas Eve) we did Salt Lake. We had such a great time! It was so fun to surprise everyone with our unusual song and a treat. In many cases I felt like we "cheered up the sad, and made someone feel glad." People were so surprised that we would come to see them! But in each case, we were the ones that came away feeling uplifted and happy — our gift to them became a gift back to us. I realized that we had ended up being able to "serve" after all — the people that we loved and cared about most of all.
Alan's parents were excited to be able to have us on the 25th for a change. We had a wonderful breakfast and had fun exchanging gifts with them. One of the great moments of the day was being able to call and talk to Tess in Poland. This time it wasn't sad to say good-bye because we knew we would see her in 5 days!
Thursday December 30th finally arrived and we eagerly kept track of her flight status. She did end up getting in a bit later than expected, so we were all at the airport at 10:30 at night waiting to catch our first glimpse of her! We had our Polish flag and our Polish poster . . . we were ready. And then there she was, arm in arm with 2 other sister missionaries that had served with her (watch the video). It is truly wonderful to have children return home safe and sound — reunuions are so much more fun than departures! We took some video and pictures — met the other missionaries and their families and then piled into two cars to head home. When we got home, Madeleine and Elliot sang a song they had composed especially for Tess upon her return (watch the video of some of the verses).
And then for 3 days we had all of our children under one roof — we were altogether again after nearly 5 years. I cannot begin to describe the joy in my heart.
Friday night (New Year's Eve) we had our traditional Christmas Eve. This year's "Gift from the Heart" was Alan's life history. Of course he hopes to have much more "life," so his history just covers the first 50 years. He did a wonderful job and it is really fun to read about his childhood. It is also interesting to see where his memories differ from his parents and even from mine as he recalls our wedding and the arrival of our children. But as he said, it is a work in progress and he is happy for any corrections. I'm so proud of him for accomplishing this life goal of his.
Saturday (New Year's Day) we celebrated Christmas and spent the morning enjoying breakfast and gifts. Then Saturday afternoon we all went to see the new Narnia movie. We hope it wasn't too hard on Tess to just "jump" back into regular non-missionary life. We know it can feel really abrupt, but she did a great job of going with the flow from one activity to the next.
On Saturday night we celebrated the New Year with our traditional fondue dinner. The whole weekend was filled with a lot of eating and smiling :) Oh, and I took just a few photos!