Christmas Comes Just Once Each Year

 Merry Christmas!

This was the one and only day when COVID restrictions were relaxed.  At midnight this evening, we officially went into Tier 4, which is quite strict.  As of tomorrow, we will be pretty much isolated.

Today,  we were allowed to have people here from two other bubbles (households) but we were strongly cautioned to be very careful about socializing.  In other words they were saying, "Go ahead and have a small party, but you would be better off NOT socializing at all."

We invited Angie.  She is a researcher from Dominican Republic who lives here in Oxford.  Her sister is Leticia, who was baptized a year ago.  She lived with Angie until her visa expired in March, but she was able to stay until August.  Angie was baptized shortly before Leticia left.  Her testimony is strong and she articulates her understanding of the gospel so beautifully that I keep thinking she should be teaching at BYU!

Last night, we got into bed very late.  I think it was 12:30.  At one, I got a text from a cute young woman who was here last year from the Middle East and who had to return home in January.  Last night, she wanted to wish us Merry Christmas.  It was a cute note.  We texted back and forth for a few minutes.

At 1:30, I got a text from another young adult who is visiting family in Utah over the Christmas holiday.  We texted back and forth for a few minutes.  At 2, I got a text from Veer, our sweet young woman who was a Sikh and who was baptized last year.  We wished each other Merry Christmas and texted back and forth for awhile.  At 2:30 I had a small flurry of texts with one of our young women who stayed here for the holidays.  We were supposed to deliver something to her at 9, but since she was just going to bed, she wondered if we could deliver her little Christmas goody plate at 11.  That was fine.

At 5:30 I got up to get the crockpot going with a pork roast.  I fell asleep and got a couple of hours in before Lia and Ed called at 8.  I am still basing in the warmth of their call.  They were in matching pajamas and were so cute! They were up very late getting Christmas wrapped and under the tree.  Lia had labored to embroider a stocking for everyone, all of which were the perfect backdrop in that beautiful room.  I was so grateful they called, not only because it warmed my heart to see how happy and content they were preparing Christmas late on Christmas Eve, but because  without their wakeup call, we would have missed the Mission Christmas Morning call!  We finished reading The Book of Mormon with all of the other missionaries, and then heard testimonies from several of them.  It was outstanding.

We delivered a small plate of goodies to another 2 young adults and then hurried home to get our Christmas dinner going.  Angie came shortly after, and she was here from noon to midnight.  We used every minute of the day to enjoy the holiday and the socializing.  We ate our big meal at 1 and a lighter meal at 6, with Banana Cream Pie at 3 and then again at 9.  I did a lot of cooking today, more than I have done in a long time.

Angie lives alone, and has recently had Shingles and so had to be quarantined for a different reason about 3 weeks ago.  She has been alone, and will again be alone as we have now entered the new Tier.  I think she very much enjoyed being here, despite our age differences, we all got along fantastically.

Besides eating, we watched "Mr. Kruger's Christmas," put together a puzzle, talked and talked and talked, and watched "Santa Clause" which was adorable.



At various points during this evening, we visited with Erin, Ethan and family, Derek Madsen, and Melissa, D.T. and family.  

Other than the looming lockdown, it is all good.

I have always loved snow globes!  But never had one.  We received this beautiful little bird from one of our young adults, and the Oxford City snow globe from our Bishop and his wife.




Comments

melissa said…
I’m glad you got to have some company before the lockdown. Yikes!!
December 25, 2020 at 11:01 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Master Teacher

In the 1st Ward today, an 11-year-old boy gave a talk that was one of he best sacrament meeting talks I have ever heard.  He got up to speak and his head just barely cleared the podium.  He is small and has a shock of dark hair topping a cute slightly freckled face. It will be several years yet before his voice deepens.  He had his written talk, and he read most of it, but he was familiar enough with it that he looked up often and it seemed as if he was speaking from his heart. He began with a quote from Nephi in 2 Nephi 25:29, where Nephi prophesies about the future and then tells us how to worship the Savior. How? this boy asked us. He went on to answer his own question.  Nephi says "with all our might."  The boy then asked how that is done. He cited the story of the converts in the Congo who threw all of their idols into a massive waterfall where they were unrecoverable.  The boy said that when we worship the Savior with all our might, that mea...
Read more

Going Home

  Fifteen missionaries are returning to their homes this week.  For this Saturday night zoom conference broadcast, each bore their testimony from their flats with their companions by their sides.  SK and I teared up many times as we listened to humble, sweet and strong testimonies.  It is easy to see the difference as they get close to their release date.  It they have been faithful, there is a maturity and a sweetness that is unexplainable. Here is a smattering of what was said: There is no growth in the comfort zone.  I am about to go home to my comfort zone...but it struck me that my old comfort zone is no longer comfortable for me.  I want to be in a growth zone. The early apostles did not succeed, but they knew we would. One elder quoted Dave's poem "If."  "If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same...Hold on...even through the hardest times."  "How can I accomplish these things?  Jesus Chr...
Read more

Shark!

Image
We left our flat way too early for my taste this morning, heading out to go south to Farnborough.  Forty-eight miles, supposedly an hour and twenty minute drive.  We got into some heavy stop and go traffic and it was closer to 2 hours before we got there. We inspected the two young sisters' flat, which was beautifully clean and organized.  They are cute sisters.  They had been in London yesterday for zone conference and excitedly shared all they had heard and been taught.  They had their notes out and were very cute to repeat some great messages from President Checketts.  I hardly ever talk to him when he isn't dealing with numerous issues in the mission and in the middle of at least one or two crises, and planning the next gathering....all at the same time.  It must be that he and Deb are in a constant state of stress.  But he has cleared the half-way mark.  I wonder if he knows how highly he is esteemed by these young missionaries, who ...
Read more