Dear famlings,
This week had a number of eventful happenings.
On Tuesday we had plans to drive to Anaheim and share a dinner with Kristina, Jen, and Liz (Kirk’s sisters). Jen and Liz were cleaning out their mom’s former home in Westminster, and we saw this as an ideal opportunity to see them during the Christmas season. Unfortunately, the water main in front of our house broke just minutes before we were to leave. An astounding amount of water gushed out in seconds, essentially canceling our dinner plans. Luckily, the break happened when we (Kirk and I) were both home to discover it, and we were able to get a plumber to the property within a half hour. Some of our front yard washed away, but the water did not get into the crawl space under our house. I cannot imagine how disastrous the event would have proved had we notbeen home at the time of the break. If we had arrived home around 9 or 10 p.m. as planned, the water damage would have been significant and our luck at finding a plumber would have been remote. So, we can say that the Lord blessed us by making an unhappy situation not as bad as it could have been.
For a couple of weeks, I’ve been looking for a place to take this year’s Christmas picture. In the past, we’ve taken it in front of our Christmas tree. But this year, due to the combination of Grandma Monson’s funeral and Christmas travel plans, we decided not to go through the work of putting up the tree just to be able to enjoy it for a week or so. We’ve also done the Christmas picture in front of holiday displays at malls. Surprisingly, in these past couple of weeks of searching, I found no good holiday displays. Sad was the Lauren without a proper picture background! All this time, Kirk went to work each day, passing a gorgeous Christmas tree in Medtronic’s atrium but not mentioning it to the disheartened Lauren. Finally, on Tuesday night, he remembered Medtronic’s tree. So, Wednesday morning, we dolled up the kids, sat them in front of the tree, and snapped some pictures. The tree’s ornaments went perfectly with the kids’ outfits, and we finally got our Christmas picture.
Wednesday night, we also finished my--I mean Arianna's--beautiful model of the Santa Barbara Mission. We get to spend Christmas break writing the report.
With the Christmas picture done, we were able to send off our Christmas letter—about 535 copies. I’ve said it before and say it again now: we need to stop moving because we already have too many friends! Still, it has been a great way to keep in touch with neighborhood, church, and school friends over these 10 years. And we enjoy receiving letters in return and hearing friends’ stories and happenings.
The kids participated in LILA’s Winterfest on Thursday. This year’s theme was “Dances of the World.” Carlos’s class presented Brazil’s capoeira, and Arianna’s class mixed dances by the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas (the most famous historic cultures of the American hemisphere). Carlos was so excited about the Winterfest that he treated us to daily teasers of the capoeira leading up to Thursday’s performance. He may not have had the best tricks for his solo during the capoeira, but he was clearly the most enthusiastic dancer.
On Thursday I also paid a visit to the dermatologist to get a cyst removed. Now I have two beautiful BLUE stitches by my left eye, which will be in all of the Christmas pictures this year. :-P
We spent Friday cleaning the house and packing. In the evening, we finally succeeded in squishing gifts, coats, and people into the car—and off we went. We arrived in Las Vegas around midnight. We spent most of yesterday (Saturday) driving to Orem to see Brad and Sharon. We are tired of driving but were blessed to have good travel weather (yay for no snow).
This morning, we attended church with Brad and Sharon, who sang with the choir as well as in some duets and quartets. The choir presented a very nice musical story of the nativity, and I sat there thinking that every Sunday in December should be musical rather than filled with tedious blah-blah sermons on the “real” meaning of Christmas. (Something like “doing” instead of “saying.”)
Happy birthday today to the late (but not forgotten) Susan Nordfelt Rytting, and happy birthday this coming week to Heidi Wilkinson Bayles and Jonathan Rytting.
To everyone, enjoy a very merry and blessed Christmas.
Loves,
Lauren et. al. 
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