What a beautiful morning, afternoon and evening we had here in Nauvoo on this Christmas Day 2015. Our morning began with our devotional and prayers. We then bundled up and headed out for our morning walk. It was just under 32 degrees and no wind! It was a wonderful and invigorating walk.
We came back home and quickly warmed ourselves up in our cozy little cottage. And we gathered together in our living-room and opened some wonderful notes and presents from our precious family and friends! Here are some early morning photos;
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| The stockings were hung with great love and care! |
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| Mom and I promised only one "casual" shot this morning! |
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| Casual shot #2 |
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| Look at this styling beauty! |
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| Taking good advantage of a Bobby "staple"... |
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| Whoosh, whoosh, tinkle, tinkle, tinkle.... repeat (many times) |
We sure love our family and thank you all for your love and greetings this Christmas season! At 1:00pm the Nauvoo senior missionaries got together for a Christmas dinner with all the temple missionaries. There were about 200 gathered together in the Stake Center Cultural hall and there was a lot of food! However, with the Rendezvous Play tonight, I could not eat as much as I sure wanted to!! Something about "game day" for me and my appetite!
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| Center pieces complete with letters from Emma Smith |
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| Look what Granny and Grandpa passed up! |
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| It was a full house! |
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| The Mission President being exposed to the whipped cream! |
That last picture was fun. President Gibbons is one of the best sports ever. He is so kind and always positive toward all. I am not quite "sure" who this guy was showing him how to do a proper swirl of whipped cream, but all my grandchildren would have been very very very proud....
We closed our Christmas Day with a full house at Rendezvous tonight. It was fun to have more people in the audience tonight. One family was there from Rigby and Rexburg. We spoke to them in the Visitors Center on Thursday morning and they remembered Gandolfos. However, even more impressive was that they always got hot dogs from me at Home Depot!! Pretty small world!
Mom and I have been so grateful to be serving our mission together here in Nauvoo. And the Christmas holidays have added such an exclamation point to this service! We not only are celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but we are celebrating His life and teachings, and His Atonement and resurrection.
When we watch the video, "A Savior is Born", it is suggested that we discover "why" He was born, and "why" we celebrate His birth. Isn't it amazing how Christmas combines everything about Jesus into "why" we worship Him? Because He was born, we will be born again.... from the video we learn;
On a quiet night, long ago,
The Savior Jesus Christ was born"
"He was born to change all hearts".
"End all goodbyes".
"Reconcile all debts".
"Atone for all sins".
"He is the only one",
"Who can bridge the lonely gap"
"Between God and man",
"And bring us home".
"This is why He came"
"And this is why we celebrate"
We firmly believe that this is the most wonderful time of year! And mom and I get to serve Him as we serve with our fellow missionaries!! We miss our precious family dearly, but let there be no mistake; we are grateful that we have not missed this opportunity to serve! Merry Christmas! We love you!!
Sounds like a very Merry Christmas! Umm can you tell the "styler" that only one scarf is to be worn at a time ;)! And I want to see some selfies!!!
ReplyDeleteI showed Maddie the pumpkin pie and whipped cream picture and she said " That sure makes me want a piece! " :)
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