First Christmas in California

Well here we are in January and I am writing about Christmas! Better late than not at all. I have been waiting for help with posting some pictures I don't have access to so until I get it this will be picture less =( 
Christmas was great!!! We had a very uneventful Thanksgiving because it was just the 5 of us. It was nice but just a super nice Sunday dinner. Well Christmas was so much better because Oriana and Travis came and spent the week with us. It started out that on Dec 22, I get a text saying is it ok if we come earlier to your house? I say of course you can and have your birthday here with us, YES YES YES! I was so excited, it wasn't even funny. Dad and I headed to the store which is about 20 min away and had planned on getting home with plenty of time before Oriana and Travis got there, after all they were about 8 hrs away. I had Cassie make Oriana's birthday cake for the next day because she didn't know that they were coming that day, and everything was put into play. Well as we were driving home I get a text saying they were 10 min away from our house! What? How could that be? Well they had gotten up super early and headed our way. We were about the same amount of time from home and I was oh my goodness they are going to beat us home. I called her right then and come to find out they were just in front of us on the road. I had them pull over til we got there and they were able to follow us home!!! It was SOOOO cool! We had such a great time with them. We ate, played, site seeing, ate, played and just had soooo much fun!!! San Fransisco was great and going to the Redwoods first was awesome too. We just didn't have a blah moment. It was fun to have fires in the back yard and roast marshmellows, play ping pong games, play skipbo, bake treats, watch movies, watch Modern Family, and just have fun. Travis still has to come back to go into the Ocean. Nick didn't go with us to the ocean and so they didn't get each other to go in but that will come. We sat around the fire and listened to dad tell the Christmas Story. It was great. We did miss having little ones around to do the nativity. Next year we hope to have little ones around. Christmas here was great. It was 60 degrees and really, outside it didn't feel like Christmas. It was great to go to church and hear beautiful music about the birth of our Savior and to feel the love he has for us. I missed all my other kids and hope they had great days as well. We were able to talk to a few of them. It was a great day!

On another not,e that I didn't want to forget, was the blessings that come when we least expect them. I have been working part time to try and help pay for our huge electric bill which no matter what I do it still ends up being around $500. I have tried everything but we have too many electric using things in this house to bring it down much and when we do the gas for heating goes up. Oh well, I have given into the fact it will be ours for as long as we live here. Well after many months of trying to catch up on bills and making some headway, 2 of our children's cars decide to break down within a week of each other. Each one had no way to pay for it and needed it for work so we had to pay. Total was over $1100! Holy cow how was I going to pay for this. Lucky or not we had just gotten paid and so I was able to pay for the repairs but what about the bills that needed to be paid. I was saying my prayers and not more than a few minutes later my prayers were answered by an angel from above. A unexpected gift from someone who knew we needed help!! They really didn't know how much it helped and eased a huge burden and made the stress of the holidays less. We will be forever grateful for the good hearted people there are in the world. We have been blessed more than we can ever repay to those angels in our lives!!!

Well I am grateful to the New Year where I can try to be better than last year and serve more. I read an awesome book from a dear friend called " The Message" by Lance Richardson. It's a true story about his experience in the spirit world while he is in a coma. It made me really think about things a little different and made me more at peace. It also made me want to do a lot more for others and help my family do that as well. I have already felt that in moving here but now more so in everyday life. Time is short and we have a lot of work to do to change the world we live in. I am so grateful for my Family. They are my life and why I do what I do. I love them all. Happy New Year and I hope we make this a great one. Sorry this is so long but I guess I had a lot to say!!! Pictures will follow as soon as I can corner Cassie into helping me!!!