Christmas and New Years in NYC

This has been a busy time for us.  Unfortunately, that didn't necessarily translate to temple attendance.  It was really quiet in the temple the week before Christmas.  It was a little better between Christmas and New Years.  Temple attendance is the greatest gift we can give the Savior at any time of the year.

I want to bear my testimony of the importance of the birth, life, death and atonement of Jesus Christ.  I owe everything to Him. I love Him more than I can begin to express.  And possibly the blog isn't the best forum.  But I want you to know what my heart has been focused on.

That being said, the last two weeks have been filled with so many activities involving family and friends.  It has replenished my soul to be surrounded with love.

On December 18th the Sister Temple Missionaries all went to a tea party/brunch hosted by Carol Mumford who will be returning home next week.  It was at a darling little place called Alice's Tea Cup (as in Alice in Wonderland).

Later in that week, we had the wonderful Christmas treat of a visit from Ben (Spencer's oldest son), Kelly and their two children, Daimon and Ellie.  They attended the Concourse Ward with us in the Bronx.  We went out to delicious and wonderful dinners twice with them.  But mostly we just soaked up the visiting and enjoyment of being with family.  I'm having trouble uploading the picture from the Christmas night dinner.  Hopefully I can add it in later.

Late on Christmas Eve we went down the street to the Church of St. Paul the Apostle with a lot of missionaries.  The architecture and art  was amazing.  We enjoyed their Christmas Concert and readings.  We didn't stay for the midnight mass.  😏

In the meantime I'll move forward.  Christmas morning was pretty low key as you can tell from this photo of Spencer.  :-)  .  We loved FaceTiming and talking with our children and grandchildren throughout the day.  We reached everyone except Adam's family.  It was such a bonus seeing faces and hearing voices.  We love our family so very much!!

Spencer received tickets to the Harlem Globetrotters for Christmas (from me!).  We went on Tuesday night.  We had not been to Brooklyn.  We still haven't really seen it since the subway took us right to the Barclay Center.  They were a lot of fun and very entertaining.  We remembered some of the slapstick humor from our youth.  New players, old tricks.  But lots of fun!

 

At Chad and Ann Marie's home the big Christmas present for Rachel and Scott was a trip to NYC.  The arrived the night of the 28th.  I've enjoyed going to plays with them.  I've seen Elf and Anastasia and loved both of them.  We will also see Dear Evan Hansen before they go home.   They have done several other fun things while we have been serving in the temple.  Yesterday after church, we went down to see Times Square before the craziness began.  We went to Bryant Park and they went ice skating.  We wanted to visit more of the park, but they shut everything down at 6 PM.  I came home because I was cold, but they braved it longer and came back later in the evening. Last night for New Year's Eve we played Ticket to Ride on the iPad and went up on the roof to watch the fireworks in Central Park.  It was fun.  [Spencer slept thru it--which is HIS favorite way to welcome in the New Year!]  It has been really wonderful to have them here.  It is nice to host them, in return for all of the times we have crashed at their home.  They are always so warm and hospitable!!

Jason and Chandra's daughter Lucy sent Flat Stanley for a visit with us.  Many of you are familiar with that story.  He has gone with us for several of our adventures.  The timing was good, because soon it will be back to our normal routine and it is so darn cold, that we have decreased outside activities A LOT!

Please keep in touch with us.  We love you all.