AND SO IT IS CHRISTMAS

Always hard to be away from home at Christmas time.  We were glad Spence and Xan found family to be with in the East.  Though we missed being with our loved ones, we received the second best thing as each of children shared their testimonies with us, which is the greatest gift any parent could desire.

.

Christmas Eve with convert Huifeng Li and fellow missionaries the Harrisons and Smiths.

We tried as best we could to replicate the Craven family Christmas Eve traditions.  We invited some senior missionaries and Hiufeng Li, a recent convert to Elaine's clam chowder dinner. We took turns sharing what we were most thankful for this past year and then lit the candle fastened to our plate.  We had a meager "talent show" afterward with songs and stories and then sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and had some birthday cake.  Li thought that was pretty strange, but joined in, singing in his native tongue.

Feeling very loved as loved ones remembered us far away at Christmas.

Christmas day was a brunch with the area missionaries at the ward and then catching up with our kids and their families as they arose on Christmas morning 8 hours later.

Former South German Missionaries Elders Kimball and Pferdner who commented on the great influence President Fetzer had in their lives.  The woman in the background is a member here from Eagle Mountain Utah with her husband and 2 children for the skeleton world cup competitions in Europe then they go straight on to the Olympics in February (She would have to crash to not qualify.  She's fourth in the world right now. Watch for her in Russia, Noel Pace.)

A sunrise that made the downtown buildings look on fire.

Our dear zone leaders who work tirelessly for all the senior missionaries here in Frankfurt

Making the youth center at the church look as much like home as possible for the Christmas Brunch

Hot chocolate bar with real M & Ms from the States

Food, food and more food

The area office is effectively closed between December 23 and January 5th as all the employees take their final holiday of the year.  The Wise Men don't make it to Jerusalem until Three Kings day on January 6th, so most Germans try to stay home until then as well. We go in the office  to answer emails from our public affairs directors about preparing the 2014 plans and budgets which are due January 1st.  We also finished editing and uploading 120 photos to the Norway Newsroom library from our trip to Oslo earlier this month. It has also been nice to have some quiet time to prepare our sacrament meeting talks for Dec 29 - speaking on subject of a "New Year and New Beginnings".