This has been a great week! We have had many neat experiences with our Living Christmas card activity. We have met some wonderful people and enjoyed reading the Christmas story from Luke with many families. One memorable experience was just last night. Following a visit to former neighbors we went to a family with a mother and three children. She is not a member of our church but when we arrived there we recognized that last year about this time we were looking for an address in that area. We stopped at her home and she was very kind to us and told us where to find the address we were looking for. As we knocked on the door the children then she came to the door as we sang. She invited us in and we read the Christmas story, taking time to explain to the three children what some of the words meant. Words like decree, delivered, and swaddling clothes are not part of most young children's vocabulary today. After we read we asked the mother about how things were for her family. She told us a long story about her life and adventures. She has had some difficult times recently with health problems and she doesn't seem to be at the end of those problems just yet. One of the redeeming factors in all this is she had a member of our church in the neighborhood that she just loves and that neighbor is very loving and kind to her and the children. There was a great spirit in that home which made it very comfortable for us to be there.
We have had a busy but memorable week.
  We are looking forward to today. We have a zone conference until about three o'clock. Following that we are going to Keith's home and celebrate and early Christmas with him and his family. Thursday night we are having Kaylene and her family here and then the day after Christmas we are going to Montana to see more family. We are just praying that the weather will be calm so that the trip will not be a white knuckled experience.
We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!