​Mike has lots of cool scrub caps, but he has enjoyed wearing his Navy scrub cap lately that he got from our days at Yokosuka Naval Hospital. | We love our weekly calls from Andrew while he is on his mission. I’m sure it helps during strict COVID restrictions for them to see and hear from familiar faces. | We always love seeing what the elves will do next and where they will be hiding. On one particular evening our Jill elf was going fishing and caught our Jack elf. It was pretty hilarious. | Emma had an EGD done for her stomach issues, and we found out that she was lactose intolerant. Hopefully cutting out dairy will help her feel a little better. | The IN-N-OUT finally opened up really close to our house. The drive through line has been tremendously long since it opened. We decided to wait in line and get some burgers. We waited in line for 45 minutes which wasn’t all that bad considering some had waited for several hours the day it opened. | We always make fun of Mike for wearing his duck mask to work. Even though it looks ridiculous, apparently it is way more comfortable. | We finally got Peter some new skis and tried to find Mike some new ski boots, but he was so indecisive that we left without new boots for him. | We got our first snack crate this time around and the theme was India. We weren’t quite sure what to think of it. Some of the stuff was pretty good while the rest was not great at all. | On a particular snowy day Abby went outside and pulled Madeline in the sled all the way down the road. Madeline had a great time drawing in the snow as she got a free ride in the sled. | We finally got Emma’s new vinyl shelves put up in her bedroom. | Peter and Mike had loads of fun making interesting creations on Peter’s new 3D printer. | Dionne and I always go for our annual after Christmas run to Garden of the Gods. It was so nice to be able to do an easy run and reminisce about Christmas and talk about our new goals for the coming year. | Our new couch for the loft finally arrived and the girls have loved having a fun place to sit upstairs. 

​It doesn’t matter how old you are because Christmas morning in our house is still a blast. Even Peter who is getting ready to head off to college next year was still excited to run down the stairs to see what Santa brought him. Everyone’s reactions to their big gifts were priceless. Peter couldn’t believe that he got a 3D printer, Emma was so surprised by her turntable and vinyls of her favorite artists, Abby was so happy with her new electric piano, and Madeline was just happy as could be with her new rainbow teepee and all the chocolate in her stocking. Everyone actually had fun on Abby’s piano and thought that was the coolest thing ever. After eating some chocolate Madeline saw that Santa had eaten the cookies and left a note. She tried reading it by herself. Then we got a call from Andrew from Germany. We each took turns talking to him and those that weren’t talking to him were in the kitchen eating cinnamon rolls. The kids were getting anxious to open up presents so we finished our conversations with Andrew and headed to the family room to open up all the presents. It was a mass of presents being opened left and right. Abby got to open up the first present since she found the pickle ornament first. The thing I love most about Christmas morning is watching the kids’ excitement every time they open up a gift. One of my favorite moments was when Mike opened up his gift from Peter. It was really more of an inside joke and we all loved watching Mike’s face when he opened it up. Mike had previously told the kids about how his dad bought him a plastic boat for the bathtub when he was 13 years old and how ridiculous that present was. So, Peter and I found a similar boat online and wrapped it up for Mike. It was such a fun moment to watch. Some of the other fun gifts that people got were the Nintendo Classic Lego Set for Peter, Diagon Alley Lego Set for Mike, Studio Ghibli DVD’s for Emma, Calico Critters Department Store and hand-knit animal dolls for Madeline, a Japanese heated toilet seat for Sara (oh yes), and LED rooms lights and Audio Technica headphones for Abby. It was a rather bounteous Christmas for everyone. 

​Christmas Eve in our house is usually a day spent cooking and playing games, very similar to Thanksgiving. Mike, Abby and Madeline helped a little in the kitchen which was very nice. Madeline loved helping me with the pies kept sneaking the apple slices meant for the apple pie. Apparently, she likes green apples better than red apples. Who would’ve thought? After most of the morning cooking was done, Mike played a quick game of Life with Madeline before we all got together to play Monopoly. I forgot how long this game can take to play. Poor Emma was not having much luck in the game and kept landing on everyone else’s properties and didn’t have any of her own. I ended up bailing out of the game after about an hour of playing and it was just Mike, Peter and Abby left to finish the game. Of course, Mike won the game not without a total upset by Peter who really thought he was going to win. After that game was over and done with Mike and Peter headed into the dining room to work on Mike’s Lego from last Christmas…Stranger Things. It ended up being one of the coolest Lego’s we have ever seen. As dinner time drew near, we were all excited to stuff our faces full of good food. Our dinner consisted of ham, sweet potatoes, deviled eggs, jello, homemade rolls and sparking cider. For dessert we had chocolate pie and apple pie, although we were so full that none of us ate any of the pies on Christmas Eve. After dinner was all cleaned up, I went to work on making our cinnamon rolls for the morning and Emma made the sugar cookies. The rest of the crew went back to the dining room to finish The Strangers Things Lego set. While the cinnamon rolls were rising, we got our pajamas on and read the scriptures. After family prayer, we grabbed “Twas The Night Before Christmas” and sat with Madeline while the story was being told by Grandpa Al who pre-recorded himself reading it several years ago. She liked it so much that we listened to it twice. Then it was to bed for Madeline. The older kids sat in the dining room chatting it up and laughing with Mike until the Lego set was finally finished. Then it was off to bed for the older kids so they could dream away at what would be waiting for them the next morning near the Christmas tree.
 

​Today was our last day of skiing at Beaver Creek. All of the girls had lessons again. The older girls took off with their groups from the day before and Madeline had another 1-hour private lesson in the morning. After we dropped her off Mike, Peter, and I headed up the mountain. The soreness above my ankles was so bad that I just skied all the way down to where Madeline was having lessons. Her instructor was having her follow her down the longer magic carpet and eventually Mike made it down there as well. We asked her instructor if she was ready to head down the green catwalk to the bottom and she thought she might be ready. Mike and I followed them down that run and were floored with how well Madeline was following her instructor. She kept turning and following her instructor and didn’t fall at all. It was amazing to watch. When she got down to the bottom, she was so excited that she wanted to keep on skiing. So, I let Peter and Mike go off and ski and I took her back up the gondola so that she could ski down the Cinch run and take the Highlands Lift back up to the top. It was the perfect little run for a beginner, and she skied it like a champ. We met everyone again at the same place for lunch and then had fun skiing the remainder of the day. I went up with Peter to the top so that I could take video and photos of him skiing. I tried to lean forward more in my boots and that seemed to help with the leg pain. Then I skied the rest of the day with Madeline. It was so fun being able to ski with her. She was just so excited to be able to ski all by herself and get on the small chair lift. It was an awesome breakthrough to get her to this point and it made the rest of our ski trip so much fun.
 

​Today we decided to put the girls in ski lessons. Abby skied with Level 5 and Emma skied with Level 7. Madeline skied with us in the morning until her lesson at 1:00pm. Since I took Madeline first the day before, Mike started out with Madeline and Peter and I headed up the mountain before the crowds came. We skied down most of the runs on the Red Buffalo Express Lift. I had a hard time keeping up with Peter since he seemed to be faster on his new skis. My new boots were extremely warm with my new boot liner heaters, but I was having problems with pain in my ankles, so I took it easy today and skied at a slower pace. Although Beaver Creek is very family friendly and a quaint place to ski, there aren’t that many blue runs. Everything is either green or black and since many of the black runs were not open yet, we ended up skiing more greens than anything else. We skied down Gold Dust again to meet up with Mike and Madeline and then I took over with Madeline so Mike and Peter could see for a little bit. We all met down at the bottom and ate lunch outside in a nice cozy area with a firepit next to the outdoor ice-skating rink in the plaza. Emma and Abby ate lunch with us as well. One of the biggest changes in group lessons during COVID was the fact that the kids didn’t eat lunch with their ski instructors. I actually liked that we could all eat lunch together. After lunch the older girls went back with their groups and we dropped off Madeline for her 1-hour lesson. They didn’t offer group lessons for the 3–4-year-old group this year so we opted for a 1-hour private lesson. Mike, Peter and I headed up the mountain to ski for that hour before heading back down to pick her up. We were amazed how much she learned in that one hour. Her instructor was awesome, and she did so well that he graduated her out of the 3–4-year-old group into the regular Group 1 where she would now be able to go up the gondola with her instructor. We were beyond excited. We decided to head back to the condo and drop off Madeline and then head down to Christy Sports to see if someone could help me with my boots. They gave me some heel lifts so I could wear them the next day. Then we headed back up to get the older girls from their lessons. The kids stayed at the condo while Mike and I headed over to the Park Hyatt for our reservation time to use the water sanctuary and to get massages. It was a nice treat that Mike surprised me with, and it did not disappoint. 

The first day we all skied together. I took Madeline up the Haymeadow Express gondola so that we could work on remembering starts and stops while Mike took the other kids up the mountain to the top where they could get their ski legs back on the greens and easy blue runs. Madeline was a little timid at first, but she quickly started to remember how to shuffle on her skis, slow down and stop by making a wedge with her skis and following directions. After a few hours of skiing with her and enjoying a yummy snack, Mike came down the mountain with Abby and swapped with me. I headed up the Centennial Express Lift and then headed down the very icy Redtail run to meet Peter and Emma at the Larkspur lift. We headed up that lift and then skied down Larkspur which had some great sections and some icy sections which we didn’t love. We decided to head up the Birds of Prey lift and then ski down to the bottom. Since many of the black runs were still closed, we headed down the green catwalk until we met the blue Gold Dust run. That was such a fun run and a good way to get down. We headed back to our condo for lunch and relaxed for a bit before heading back out. We left Madeline, Abby and Peter back at the condo while Mike, Emma and I headed all the way to the top near the Cookie Cabin at the top of the Cinch Express Lift. We skied down Powell, Piney and Booth Gardens a bunch of times. Peter was supposed to meet us at the top but since he left late and the lifts were going to close at 3:30, he did his own thing. It was definitely a fun day for our first day of skiing in a year.

​We loved skiing at Beaver Creek so much last season that we thought it would be fun to go back again this season. We found a nice condo at the Centennial Lodge just down the street from the main resort area. It was a short walk to get to the ski lift. After settling in, Mike and I headed into the village to walk around. We went to Christy Sports and another ski shop to look at new ski boots for Mike. He ended up not getting new boots, but it was good to try things on to see what may work for when he is ready to grab new boots. Everything in the village was decorated for Christmas. We loved all the cool ice-sculptures everywhere. It was fun to be in the mountains before Christmas. 

Hello!
 
I've been quarantined in the Preston MTC here in England and I have to say, I'd rather not be quarantined again. But I'll be doing that exact thing upon my arrival in Frankfurt, so that's lovely.
 
I've been put in a room with Elders Felt, Helmer, and Sumsion. Although I miss my friends back in Texas, all three of my roommates are going to Frankfurt with me, and we've had a great time. They're all funny guys, and in comparison to my last companion this is a heavenly situation. We also have been in contact with President Hammon (our Frankfurt mission president). He's incredibly passionate about missionary work, and truly loves all of us missionaries. We've been able to tune into some of the Frankfurt zone conferences, Monday morning prayers, and He's even had one on one interviews with us. I haven't heard of any other mission president for the missionaries here going to such lengths to meet with the missionaries and include them before they're even in Germany. I can't wait to get there.
 
Side note: he told us to really hit our German hard, as it's very possible that we'll only have 4-5 weeks of training before we're on our own or training other missionaries. Oh yikes.
 
Upon arrival, we were put into these rooms with some strict rules. We have to stay in these rooms unless we are going to our assigned bathroom. Food comes 3 times a day and we have to stay in our rooms while they deliver it. I don't know if this is a reflection of the country, but oh my goodness mayonnaise and cheese on a sandwich is by far the worst lunch idea I've tasted in a long time. We get many Nutella packets with our meals, so we've done the only logical thing we could: use them as currency for different food items.
 
We were allowed outside time twice a day for 30 minutes but had no room to really exercise. The classes they recommended we attend were basically our MTC classes but with different teachers, so we have been skipping them and practicing German on our own. Although it's been boring, we've had near daily devotionals from the area 70, which has been uplifting.
 
That was my boring schedule, however due to some changes in the UK our quarantine limit was shortened to 10 days. Although we have to stay in our rooms when food is delivered, we have unlimited outside time and are allowed to go throughout the entire MTC campus. We've had the opportunity to visit the temple grounds daily and might have snuck onto the grounds during a run on our first day of freedom. We've also been going on runs through Chorley, the town we are right next to. It feels amazing to get out of the MTC, and these runs really hit home the fact that we aren't in the US anymore.
 
It rains a lot here, and It hasn't been completely overcast or rainy twice while we've been here. One of those times was yesterday afternoon. We went up to the temple during this time and the gates were open, so I snagged some pictures of the temple.
 
So that's my life right now, In about 48 hours I'm going to be on a plane to Frankfurt for quarantine v2. I miss y’all and hope you're doing well.
 
Tschüss!
 
Elder Wilhelm

​Oh, how we love our annual North Pole breakfast. The older kids were really excited for the elves to come this year because they knew that Madeline would be really excited by their silliness. We ate a fabulous breakfast of buttermilk pancakes, berries, bacon, and powdered donuts. We told Madeline that she couldn’t touch the elves but could only whisper in their ears. She was super curious, and it was fun to watch her excitement. and she was really curious to know what their letter said. After breakfast she went off to play and when she came back downstairs, she saw that they had moved. They were being silly in the fruit basket and she just thought that was hilarious. She talked to them throughout the day, telling them little secrets and things she wanted for Christmas. It was just too cute.