The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year?

I am trying really hard not to be all Scrooge like, but dang.  Could we try and jam some more into a few weeks time?  Things are settling down a little now - all the concerts are done (we had four - HS choir, JR HS band, 3rd grade performance AND Sophie played with the JR HS choir).  Whew. 

Caroline at 3rd Grade music performance

Allie in action at the 3rd Grade Music performance.

Finals were done.  This was Sophie's first time taking finals, since she is now in the JR HS.  It is the first time Kelsey has really had to study for finals.  It was stressful, but we survived.  Kelsey was even more stressed since she lost Facebook due to grades, and needed to do well to get it back.  Good news for everyone - she is back online.

Now I feel we can just sit back and relax a little.  We are headed to Dallas on Christmas day.  We will open our presents, TALK TO RYAN, and then head up in time for dinner.  It is really not that bad of a day to travel - really no one on the roads.  Eric is coming right back on Saturday since he is under the gun and needs to work, but the girls and I will enjoy Dallas for a couple of days. 

Of course, today is the BYU bowl game - will they win?  Lets hope so.  Really, it is as much fun looking for Michelle on the sidelines as it is watching the game.

Ryan sent his email yesterday, since that was P-day this week.  He told a really neat story which helps to get me in the RIGHT Christmas mood.  I will cut and paste it here.  I will correct his lack of punctuation and spelling - don't get me started on what text messaging has done....

"We get to teach a youth lesson every other Sunday at a members home. We did it this week on the true meaning of Christmas and Christmas miracles.  It was a really great lesson.  We talked about a guy, Ed, who we're teaching. He's living with his his girlfriend and they each have one kid. One is 5 and one is 16 months old.  He'd been looking for work when we started teaching him, found a job working on an assembly line, and just lost it because he didn't report an injury that he didn't think was an injury at first.  He is also an ex-convict, so nobody wants to hire him.  He had enough money to either pay bills for the next couple months or buy Christmas for his two kids.  After the youth lesson, a bunch of kids came up and were all wanting to know what they could do to help.  Because of these kids, there's enough money to get them Christmas, and we've gotten hold of the President of the the company that fired Ed and he's going to see about hiring him back. Talk about a Christmas miracle. It's amazing what these kids have done. They know the true meaning of Christmas. I'm amazed at their charity and desire to help others."

Merry Christmas.