Christmas In Carlsbad, California

The orange rolls were delicious for breakfast on Christmas morning.

We were given some sweet gifts by Nani and Andy's family.

Group photo before we headed off to church.

Definitely the highlight of the day was when we got to Skype with Preston in Argentina. He is such a cute young man and radiated happiness and goodness as he chatted with his family for a few minutes.

I really loved the experience of Skyping that day as that was exactly what our missionaries were also doing all throughout the mission. I pictured our missionaries as the head on the monitor as they were talking with their families on Christmas day.

Christmas dinner in the formal dining room.

One of my favorite things we did while our visitors were staying with us was play Qwirkle. I now LOVE that game!! I had never played it before and it is actually a game I can play. I think that was the night Rachel was spouting off joke after joke after joke. I was laughing so hard. It was good therapy.

The next day Nani, Glen and I went to the zoo. Andy's family went to Sea World. Nani had been there not too long ago and she was anxious to see something different. Glen and I love the zoo because it is free for us every time we go now that we have our season passes.

We ate lunch at Poppy's Patio.

We walked around the zoo in the opposite direction we had gone on previous visits and found animals we hadn't seen before. Like, for instance, the penguins.

They would slide down the slide or jump off their perch into the water and swiftly swim right over to the window and pop up right up in front of the people watching them. It was hilarious.

The night before when we were all together, Amanda, Maggie and Rachel were telling us the fact that you see an elephant every day.

Nani and I did not believe them. Amanda said once you start looking for an elephant, you will find an elephant. It might be a picture of one on a shirt or on a bag or something like that.

Well, they were right! We saw this elephant...

and this elephant...

and this elephant...along with real elephants at the zoo.

We saw other animals as well.

Glen grilled some flank steak for our dinner that evening.

We had a roaring fire going when Andy's family arrived home. Rachel showed us the stuffed animals she had gotten that day.

Tuesday morning Andy's family was hitting the road so they could drive back to snowy Utah.

One last pose in front of the palm trees in our front yard.

Nani posed in front of another tree in our front yard. Look at that beautiful blue sky!! I love where we live!!!

We went to the temple since Nani didn't have to catch her airplane until later that day.

We were admiring the beautiful flowers on the temple grounds.

Nani had a little bit of time between the temple and the airport, so we walked around Old Town San Diego for a while.

Glen felt right at home in one of the Mexican stores. He bought himself a handful of Chiclets gum that he remembered from his time spent in Mexico.

This beautiful life-size nativity was on display.

Inside the old hotel is a restaurant.

Amanda, Maggie and Rachel would be happy to know we saw an elephant this very day as well as the previous day. It is a true statement! You see an elephant every day. We just proved it!

After we dropped Nani off at the airport, we drove to Coronado Island which is right by the airport and picked up Jamie Jensen (our friend from North Salt Lake) and took her to dinner.

Greg was also in town, but he had an infection in his eye that was driving him crazy and he didn't feel like socializing. He did come out to say hi to us wearing his dark glasses and squinting like crazy.

It was fun talking with Jamie and getting caught up on what's been going on with her and her family. Their family has been coming to San Diego the week after Christmas for years and years and years. We'll probably see her again two more times before we go back home.

With all our visitors gone, it was time to get back to work. Glen spent the next two days interviewing missionaries in the Vista, Fallbrook, Murrieta and Temecula zones. Super long days!

On Friday we had a new MLC leadership meeting in the morning before our day-long MLC meeting. It is always so nice when our meetings have lunch with them like this one always does. After several more interviews, we drove to Urgent Care in San Diego where our mission doctor works and met up with the sister missionaries who had been there most of the day getting testing done. We took them to dinner for our date night.

We came home to no internet at our house. FOR THE ENTIRE LONG WEEKEND!!! It was so annoying!!! Glen was able to hot spot his phone to get his computer to work. My phone or my computer wasn't cooperating with me trying to hot spot my phone to be able to use my computer.

Saturday we were supposed to meet the assistants for our weekly planning meeting, but just as the meeting got started, a missionary called to say his depressed companion would not get out of bed. He has been struggling for weeks resulting in him meeting with Glen almost weekly. Off Glen went with the assistants to see what was up with the elder. They were gone for several hours. Then it was too late for a meeting and that didn't get done that day. UGH!

That was New Year's Eve and Glen had told the missionaries to be in early that evening and do some cleaning of their apartments or enjoy going to bed early. With no internet, it was the perfect opportunity for me to do some cleaning.

I took down all the Christmas decorations. It made me sad because I loved looking at the beautifully decorated fireplace mantle and all the other stuff I had around the house to bring the festive spirit of Christmas into the home (minus a Christmas tree that Glen and I are still not sad we didn't put up).

What I had really wanted to clean was the cupboard above my desk to get that more organized and clutter free. And I cleaned the hall closet as I was putting Christmas decorations away back inside there. I finally had the time to go through each box and figure out what was in them and put the ones I will never use in the very back so I will know I only need to pull out the few in the front of the pile of storage bins. It felt wonderful to get those two areas better organized.

On New Year's Day we had planned to attend church and then have our meeting with the assistants. That plan didn't work out once again. We had just sat down at church when Glen got a text saying the depressed elder wasn't getting out of bed once again. Off Glen went to spend 4 hours in the apartment having companion study with the functioning elder. Glen got our mission counselor to call so he could do a counseling session over the phone with the elder.

Finally he got out of bed and got cleaned up. Glen brought him and his companion back to the church where I had been hanging out for hours. We attended an afternoon sacrament meeting and then we went with those elders to teach a lesson to a man while standing outside in the front yard of the home where the man was staying. Wonderful experience to teach--helping the elder remember the reason he is on his mission.

Needless to say there was no planning meeting that happened that day as well. We were finally able to connect with the assistants over dinner on Monday. It was a wild and crazy couple of weeks for us. We have several medical issues going on with missionaries. We have the ones struggling with emotional issues. We have zone conference coming up with the necessity to plan for that. Not to mention the days and days of interviewing every single missionary. Throw in an internet problem and it made for a lot of stress.

But, we are surviving!! Glen always manages to say or write the right things to help the missionaries with whatever it is they need at the time. I am so much in the background of everything he does. But yet I feel like I am on the front line as well because I am in on most of everything he's dealing with. It is an interesting experience, that's for sure.

May I say--there is never a dull moment. And just when we think we are in a groove or we might be getting a little bit comfortable, then we are knocked down and dragged along for a while with something (or several somethings) that help us understand just how vulnerable we are and how much help we need to get through each and every day and each and every individual person and circumstance.

Such is the life of a MP and a MPW.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!