This last three weeks has been a whirlwind!  I am only now beginning to recover.  I'll give a quick once-over and see if I can remember it all.

     First, we were able to get all the kids together for Christmas.  In order to do that, we rented a four bedroom house in Sugar House.  Kobin and Erin spent each night at their own house because 1) it made things less crowded for them, 2) they live that close by and 3) it made it easier to take care of Fleetwood.

Hail! Hail! The gang's all here!

     We used the Utah's Best Vacations rental site.  We could have had them provide a tree--for $350, but we decided against that.  Before coming, I had each of the women plan a tree decorating project for the kids to make.  Needless to say, the adults got in on some of it, too.

Ours had a more personal touch

      It was a wonderful time for cousins to see each other.

Cousins' first Christmas

With the usual present opening pictures

         Aunties got closer.

To niece and nephews as well as to each other

      A good time was had by all.

     Brent and I got up skiing at Brighton one day, and the kids went again a little later in the week.

     Someone had really been singing "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" with a lot of faith.  There was no snow, and no snow.  Then it started snowing Christmas Eve.  This is what we woke up to Christmas morning.

     After the week was over, it was time to pack up and get ready to go to Ukraine on our mission.  It was really crazy.  We had moved a lot of our stuff up to the rental house so we could have the cooking supplies we needed.  Moving back out was like moving out of the house.  The fortunate thing is, we didn't have to worry about the furniture.  That was December 29.  December 30 and 31, we moved out of our apartment at Overlook Point into Kobin and Erin's basement.  That, of course, DID involve furniture and boxes and storage and...

All done!  And just barely under the deadline.

     That was Saturday afternoon.  Monday morning, we reported to the MTC.  We didn't have everything put together at Kobin and Erin's, so, although we spent the nights in Provo so we wouldn't have to get up and travel in the rush hour morning traffic, we went back up to Taylorsville almost every night that last week to get things in order so we could leave them with a usable basement.

     The MTC experience was great!