Thomas and Melissa: December- another year over

December was just as crazy as November, if not more so. Thomas was taking finals and my student teacher finished up a week before the break, so we were both very busy. I can't complain too much though, because as the 16th was my last day of work. Woooo hooo! We stayed in American Fork until the 23rd and then stayed until the 27th. On Christmas Eve, my brother Cody called from his mission in the Phillipines. It still weirds me out to think he is that far away and in a country so different from ours. He LOVES it there tho and is really starting to get into the swing of missionary work. Unfortunately, his calling card only lasted for about 30 minutes and right in the middle of the conversation, it cut out. We didn't keep track of the time very well and we were all left kind of depressed at not being able to say goodbye. My poor parents were heartsick, however, later that night, he was able to get a quick message to them saying sorry for the cutoff and that he loved us.

Christmas morning was different this year as we had church at 9 am. My brother Devin had a solo singing "O come, O come Emanuel" and he rocked it! I was his accompanist (sp?) and that was a cool experience. He asked me on Monday to accomany him - 6 days before he was to perform (he had just been asked that day too). Now, I can learn a song and do decently on it if I have a month or so and can get really comfortable with it..... so I was VERY nervous with only 5 days to learn it. I know without a doubt that I had help from above in learning that song. It was very easy to know what fingering I should use and what notes I needed to/could leave out so that I wouldn't stumble through certain sections. My mind was always clear when I was practicing. It was truly an amazing experience to feel the Lord's hand in this and I am so grateful for it. Now, I am not saying I didn't mess up during the actual song, in fact I got more nervous as the song went on, getting more and more shaky, missing more and more notes, but I did way better than I should have based on my track record.

The rest of Christmas Day was awesome, and it even has a funny story to go with it :) A little back story: Leading up to Christmas, Thomas was really excited for the present he had gotten me and everyone else that he had told was excited for me too, but he didn't tell my parents.
So Christmas morning, the first present I opened was from "Santa", not Thomas, and it was a sewing machine! I was way excited because I always have to take stuff up to my mom's house to fix it. So we kept on opening presents, but I noticed Thomas wasn't as enthusiastic as he usually is. After a few more, I get to the one from him, open it......... and it is another sewing machine! ha ha ha ha ha.
The funny part is that about a month ago, my mom had called him and told him she was going to get me one. He thought that was a great idea and that was the last that was said. Well about a week before Christmas, he was trying to think of what to get me, and he thought about a sewing machine, completely forgetting the conversation he had had with my mom! I felt so bad for him because he thought he was being so thoughtful. It took him a while, but I think he can laugh about it now. However, the next time he claims that I didn't tell him something, all I am going to do is say "sewing machine". :)

Anyway, we loved spending time with family and friends and lookforward to many more opportunities to do so.

This is a picture of our Christmas Tree. (Ignore the toilet paper and golf balls in the background, they were both presents this year:) )