Merry Christmas!!  We are enjoying a slow easy day around the tree, working on a puzzle and playing Sudoku and watching Sasha play with her toys.  Heather put some treats in a box and sealed it up and let Sasha tear it up to get the treats.  She loved it and it was fun to watch her.  But then she went under my bed and found another box and tore it up.  Got into trouble.  Just looking for more treats!

This Christmas we got a new garage door opener for when the door stopped working, a new battery for the car for when it stopped working, and I also got a new phone for when it stopped working. Dad got a brown belt and a $500 dental bill for our mission dental exams and one cavity repair for me.  So it was an expensive Christmas, but all important things to have.

And it all seemed to happen at once.  I told last post about the broken garage door and the car battery, and then my phone stopped working.  The man loves my phone because it has GPS which is a wonderful thing for finding our way through the world nowadays.  What in the world did we do without it?!!  Got lost a lot, that's what.  And took forever to get somewhere new.  So we replaced it.

I look at these things like I looked at the flooding of Lexington before we moved in.  Lots of things happened before we moved in that needed to be taken care of so that when we did move in the house would be safe and secure.  I see that it wouldn't be nice to leave Heather with a garage door that wouldn't open or start out our trip with a bad battery or broken phone.  Had to get all those things fixed so that we will be prepared for what comes next.  We are absolutely certain that paying our tithing is a way to protect ourselves from trouble and when we do have trouble, it's to take care of things that need to be done.

We got the dental exam and then the physical.  We took the forms to the doctor and had appointments with the same guy 15 minutes apart.  He looked at the form and said he had never seen such a comprehensive, detailed physical paper.  He looked it all over, asked us how we felt and if we had any complaints or questions, and then when we said no he signed the form and checked all the boxes.  So that was our physical.  But we had just seen our regular doctors recently and then we went to get blood work that was returned to this doctor, so he did really look at our records and get an idea of what kind of state we are in.  We passed.  So that was the physical and also the dental.  And the bishop said yesterday that he has received all those the papers.  Now we will get to have interviews when we get back from Illinois and then send in the papers and see what happens.  I asked what we do if we get called to Kentucky or Borneo?  And the answer is that we tell Sean who will talk to Elder Rasband and see if he wants to talk about it or if it's the real call and we go there.  Elder Rasband told Sean that if we applied we should put on the paper that it is an application to his special Phoenix project which we did.  And he said when he reviews it he will assign us to Phoenix unless he gets powerful inspiration  telling him differently.  So now we wait.

But we will be waiting in Illinois!!  We are going to Urbana leaving tomorrow to help Erin settle in to her new home!  So excited for her.  A fresh new environment.  And close to Evanses who love her lots and lots.  The sad part is that she will be leaving family in Utah who love her lots and lots too.  But I am sure she will be back there often.  We are going out mostly because we want to be there and see her new home and be a part of it, but she also would like some things done to the house that Dad can help with.  She wants to paint some and do some other things.  And I'm good at making beds and putting away kitchen stuff.

We love you all with all our hearts.  Thank you for being ours and sharing your lives with us.  We are also grateful for our Savior who gives life meaning and purpose.  Merry merry Christmas!!