The Week of Christmas

This past week has been such a swirl of emotions! One minute I'm smiling and thinking excitedly about being in Jerusalem and the next I'm already homesick and missing people here. Especially my grand kids! I went to the Robins & Tuomisto school Christmas program. The pictures aren't great because I was sitting back aways from the stage but:

This is Aspen - she was Cindy Lou Who. I loved her little Cindy Lou Who voice!

These are the "best friend" cousins, Lexi and Haley. Singing Feliz Navidad.

This is Lexi's twin brother, Crash doing the actions

This is Ethan [Haley's and Aspen's brother] singing his heart out

This week was also my birthday, and I got phone calls and texts from siblings and kids all day long! It was SO fun! Then, even though we had already celebrated together, my girls took me to dinner. Being with them was the best gift they could give me but then they also gave me a Kindle - I can't tell you how excited I am about that!! :)

Kent and I had Thai food and saw the new Mission Impossible movie! Great birthday - thanks everyone!!!

[I just realized what I wrote - these 2 celebrations took place over 2 different days. No, I did NOT eat 2 dinners in one evening!]

Then came Christmas Eve. We were missing a few family members - but got to talk to most of them on the phone, at least. What a wonderful family we've been blessed with! It was bitter sweet for me, knowing we'll be gone in a few days yet loving being with them all so much! We've even got the family pets in the picture. ;)

Grandpa usually hands out the presents:

Today, Christmas day, was also wonderful. Being able to go to church, made Christmas even better - and Kent was one of the speakers for the program we had. :) My favorite gifts?

A Jackson family picture calendar, made by Kent

and these sweet angels [also from Kent] - look how beautiful their faces are!

The word "Angels" has a whole new meaning to me now and I fell in love with these the minute I saw them. They represent ALL of the angels in my life! I feel very blessed, lucky, and in my Heavenly Father's debt! I hope all of you had as wonderful a Christmas as I did! :)