Our mini Aerogarden has been growing surprisingly well. We have already used some of the basil and it is amazing how delicious fresh basil is. | This year I decided to update our color scheme for our Christmas decorating. I took all the red pillows to the basement and got some green pillows, a fun new Christmas lumbar pillow, a cream tree skirt, and a new star. I love the way it turned out. | Emma decided to be silly one night and painted her face to look like Darth Maul and put together a red light saber and then went upstairs to scare Abby. It was hilarious. | Our elves have been found doing funny things this year. | Abby and Mike went shopping for a new ski coat for Abby and found the perfect burnt red coat for her. | Madeline has loved learning how to make bracelets for her friends. She made a big 6-sided bracelet as her first one. It took quite a bit of time to make. | Mike found a new recipe and made Italian style margherita pizzas and they were yummy. | Madeline loves to scooter around in the garage when Mike and I are lifting weights. | Emma’s winter orchestra concert was amazing. I loved watching her as she sat on the end of one row almost the entire time. | Madeline and mom had fun eating ice-cream while watching the Goldbergs together. | Abby found one of my retro camera bags my dad had passed down to me and has been using it. Some things never go out of style I guess. | Mike and Madeline headed over to the elementary school hill to go sledding. | Emma got her first college acceptance to CSU in Ft. Collins. | With the season comes the baking of many loaves of poppyseed bread to give away to our friends and neighbors. This year I made 5 batches. | Madeline and I headed over to Bass Pro Shop so that she could meet Santa and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. She was so excited to tell Santa that she wanted the pink American Girl Doll car. | Madeline had fun at her class holiday party. The room moms did such a great job with the rotations and the games. | I went out to a holiday dinner with some girls from my ward. Jen brought everyone fun reindeer headbands to wear. | Madeline loves to go shopping and usually goes with Mike to Costco. | Abby went to Noelle’s sweet 16 pajama party. Most of the girls were cheerleaders but she still had a great time. | Usually, it’s Peter that falls asleep on road trips but this time it was Abby who fell asleep hard core on our way to Vail. | Madeline’s wooden name finally arrived, and it looked so good on her wall. | Madeline finally got her haircut after a year of it growing way too long. We had them cut several inches off. | It was fun to see the boys and extended family on Christmas via FB messenger video. Technology is amazing. | I love when Mike sends me photos of him in the OR before he operates. He is such a bad ass. | Madeline loves all things crafty and artsy. She has been having fun lately painting on her easel. | The Spears came to visit us for the New Year and Mike took them all to Garden of the Gods and to the top of Pikes Peak.

​Most of this month found us with relatively decent weather which made running in the cold not so bad. I ran plenty of times with the Striders and was even able to go outside for a ride at Garden of the Gods. One of the biggest changes this month was working in more cross fit workouts into my routine. For most of the month Mike worked on developing a lifting program for us to do in the new year. We actually decided to start our 45-day program on Christmas day. It was fun to start something new and to be able to do it together.  

​Hello everyone, 
 
A lot of crazy things have happened in the past few weeks. The work has progressed a lot, but it has not been without its setbacks. We had two families accept the invitation to be baptized, however we have had many reject this gospel this Christmas season.
 
A few weeks ago, Elder Bosley and I hiked into the mountains in order to teach a progressing family. After some time of trucking through the mud, we finally arrived at the mountain abode. The family was excited to see us, and we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. They accepted the message and the invitation we bore, but as we began to pack up our things to leave, we noticed something unfortunate. All of the small dogs that had been running around our feet were covered in hundreds upon hundreds of lice. On the way down the mountain, I confirmed that it had indeed spread to us, and we hurried our way back to our apartment. The better part of two hours was spent in an attempt to save our hair. I am glad to report that it was successful.
 
Another unfortunate happening of the past few weeks was the emergency transfer of my companion. It was 9:45 on a Monday night when we received a surprise call from the office. They informed us that my companion would transfer early the next morning. Without almost any warning, we spent the next 4 hours preparing for his departure. The next day, we traveled to Tacloban, and I received my new companion. Due to the transfer, I have become the new district leader for the largest district in my mission. Though I was prospected to transfer this cycle, it seems like my adventures in Capoocan are not yet over. 
 
Sometimes, it seems that I keep getting curve balls after curve balls on the mission. A cycle has not gone by when I haven't been afflicted with a strange new disease or ailment. From never ending diarrhea to heat exhaustion and athletes foot to projectile vomiting,  sometimes it feels like there is always one more thing. But despite the consistency of the unexpectability, life goes on. I have learned a lot in the field of patience and "to come what may and love it."
 
A while ago, Elder Joseph B Wirthlin gave a talk in regard to the uncontrollable lives in which we live. He recounted the advice his mother had given him when he had been young. This was to "come what may and love it." You can't always see the sharp turn ahead but the ability to be composed despite the sudden shifts in life will always result in a better outcome. Early on in my mission, the smallest things used to get on my nerves. My constant murmuring and complaining never helped the problem and often resulted in a lower morale for everyone. For the longest time I used to see the misfortunes of life as nothing more than an inconvenience that should never have existed in the first place. Little did I realize that these inconveniences were the plan for happiness.
 
Our Heavenly Father never intended us to come into life comfortable and have it stay that way. He wanted us to experience discomfort. The Lord himself, Jesus Christ, was born in a manger and experienced all sorts of pains and afflictions in his childhood. Despite the conditions however, he
 
"increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." Luke 2:52
 
I hope that we can come to love the lives that we have been given despite the circumstances. I know that they are given to us so we can increase in wisdom and love of God as well. Through the Savior, Jesus Christ, we can be succored in our afflictions and feel the strength of Lord in our sorrows. He is the bread of life and our salvation. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

​Christmas morning is one of the most anticipated mornings of the entire year. I am so glad that even the older girls were excited for Christmas morning. Everyone slept in until a little after 7am. It gave me the chance to shower and get everything ready before we opened up gifts. The girls sat at the top of the stairs and posed for a quick photo. This is the smallest we’ve been in numbers ever since Madeline was born. One of my favorite things is watching the kids run down the stairs to see what Santa brought them. Everyone was so excited about their gifts this year. Madeline got a pink American girl doll remote controlled car equipped with a look alike doll. She was beyond excited. Abby got a white turntable and several vinyl records from her favorite artists. Emma got an iPad Pro for digital drawing and for college. Mike got an indoor Aerogarden equipped to be able to grow our own lettuce, and I got new mats for my Tesla as well as a ski rack and tire repair kit. We took turns opening up the other gifts under the tree. There were many fun things given to each other this year. The older girls mostly got clothes and Madeline mostly got accessories for her American dolls and a brand-new special edition doll from Grandpa Al. Mike got his traditional Lego which was a motorized lighthouse. One of the most cherished gifts this year were the albums my parents had put together of some of their history. A few years ago, we gave them a subscription to Storyworth where they answered questions about their earlier years. They assembled all of those questions and photos into a book. It was amazing and something we will all treasure for years to come. At long last, we finally got to talk with both the boys at the same time. Peter was able to call us even though it was not his p-day since it was a holiday that he celebrated. For that short period of time, it felt like we were all in the same room celebrating with each other. It made my heart so incredibly happy!

​This year Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday. We spent the morning working on our Christmas dinner and then got a quick family photo while we were all dressed up before heading off to church. The Christmas program during Sacrament meeting was fabulous and the spirit was really strong. I wish Christmas Eve could fall on Sunday every year. It really helped us get into the right mindset for the day. We were all smiles as we came home and got in our Christmas pajamas and stayed in those for the remainder of the day. We even ate our nice dinner in our pajamas this year. After dinner we got to talk with Peter which was amazing. He even saved his presents until the call and opened them up in front of us. It was so great to see his reaction to some of his gifts. He loved the wooden ocarina that he had asked for and laughed at the tiny violin gag gift we got him. When the call was over, Emma and Abby helped Madeline decorate sugar cookies before we read from the scriptures. It was a super low-key Christmas Eve which was nice, but I am looking forward to having the boys in our home next year for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It was a little sad to not have them with us in person this year. 

Today’s ski day was the best! Mike and I skied on demo skis. We tried the Nordica Santa Ana 93 for me and the Enforcer 94 for Mike. All I can say is I skied so well today. These skis were 100 times better than my decade old Vokls. That coupled with my new Nordica Speed machine boots and today was a dream even on the mountain that desperately needs more snow. We spent most of our time on Northwoods and Northstar and we even taught Madeline to parallel turn on the easier runs. We did make our way down the backside of the mountain on the Poppyfields run but it was not that great. I forgot how angled the bottom of that run gets. There were also some bare patches near the bottom. It’s no wonder why Blue-Sky Basin was closed. In all, it was another great day skiing with the family and when we were done I headed back to Christy's to purchase the Nordica Santa Ana 93 skis. 

​It was another great day on the slopes. It felt like there were even less people skiing today. We ventured to some of the black runs today off the Timberline Face. Northstar was groomed so we all made our way down that run to the bottom of the Northwoods Express lift. Madeline loved skiing North Star with us so much that she wanted to do it again. We decided to do it a few more times before heading over to the easier runs on Sourdough before lunch. We ate lunch at our normal spot at the Two Elk Lodge. Then we headed down Boomer to the bottom and did another black run off the Timberline Face. This time we all did the Northwoods run. Since Blue Sky Basin was closed we decided to head over to the middle of the mountain where we did the Lodgepole run and then took the Avanti express up and eventually made our way back to the Eagle Bahn gondola to complete our second day of skiing. ​Mike and I headed back out to the village again in the evening and looked at new boots for me. I ended up getting the same boots as Mike and then we set up to rent demo skis for our last day of skiing. 

​We were so excited to try out a new to us condo that we found on VRBO. The place ended up being better than we could’ve expected with updated furnishings, indoor garage parking where we plugged in Mike’s truck, and ski lockers and boot warmers with an exit right out the back of the building. It was only a short 800m walk to the Eagle Bahn gondola. Our first morning was great with pretty good snow for the early season. There were plenty of good runs and fairly light crowds which made for a fun first day. Madeline graduated to bigger skis this year and figured them out fairly quickly. We headed over to the eastern side of the mountain where we spent most of our time on some of the easier runs off the Sourdough Express Lift. We also did Flapjack several times all the way to the Northwoods Express lift. We decided to finish early to save our legs for the next few days. After getting the girls all settled back at the condo Mike and I headed back to the village to look at boots at Christy's sports. Mike found some new boots and both of us got some new inserts for our boots. On our way out we saw the lamp from the Christmas Story movie. It was hilarious!

​It is not uncommon to get a good snow storm in December. The girls were actually thrilled when school got cancelled and wouldn’t you know it, Emma and Abby got all ready to go out and play in the snow with Madeline. Emma even offered to drive everyone over to the elementary school to go sledding on the hill. It was a nice surprise and gave me the chance to do some errands. Of course, I stopped over to watch them have a little fun on my way out. It is so great having older kids to play with the littlest one. I hope one day Madeline remembers all the fun things her sisters did with her while they were still living at home. 

​Emma and I toured the United States Air Force Academy to get a feel for what it would be like for her to be a student athlete at the academy. It was intriguing to see what her schedule would be like and to see a little what it would be like to be a cadet. After the tour Emma ran with the team and had a really good time. She really liked the coaches and the team, and she didn’t seem to be nervous about the cadet life. Although I was trying to stay positive, I had my doubts that this was the right path for Emma. However, I tried to embrace what we have been telling her which is to keep all her options open.

Every year the kids look forward to our North Pole Breakfast to celebrate the welcoming in of the Christmas season. Madeline, of course, looks forward to the arrival of our Elves, Jack, and Jill. Luckily the first of December landed on a 2 hour late start for the girls which gave us plenty of time to enjoy our pancake breakfast which included the best buttermilk pancakes, bacon, fruit, and our traditional donut holes. This year we opted for sour cream donut holes instead of the powdered sugar ones we usually get. That was definitely an added upgrade!