The Fridge

We had a super fun family party just before Christmas. It was with my darlins side of the family. Our nieces little boy, Baylor, came up to me at the end of the party and said, “Somethin’s wrong with your fridge, when I tried to get ice -a chocolate chip came out.”

You need to know that the ice part of the fridge is broken and hasn’t worked for some years. The fridge is quite old, too. It still works great, but we just don’t have ice and water in the door anymore.

The funniest thing about what Baylor said is that, in the shelf on the door above the ice chute is usually where we keep a bag of chocolate chips.

And on occasion,

it has been known to happen,

that someone reaches in the freezer and get a hand full of chocolate chips. Usually in a desperate attempt to relieve a chocolate craving. Apparently, a chocolate chip made it’s way into the ice chute, and came out when Baylor tried to get ice. Funny!

Family History Friday: Collectables #5 Grandma Norma

This gorgeous hope chest was my Grandma Norma’s.

It is so beautiful.

It reminds me of her every time I see it. When my grandma and grandpa were alive, they worked hard. They didn’t have much, but they had some things that were very special and made to last. My mom inherited this hope chest from grandma, and mom gave it to me.

I love it so much.

Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy

Everything for a Penny!

One of my favorite traditions at Christmas time is,

 taking all the kids for Family Night, to All A Dollar to by Christmas gifts.

When the kids were little and didn’t have money,

we would give them each $5 to by some gifts with.

The rules were this: what you bought for others had to be useful or super funny.

The fun part was to find something useful or funny for each person in the family and keep it a secret until Christmas morning.

As we would go through the store the boys would go with dad,

and the girls would go with mom.

After checkout we would go home and the kids would wrap the gifts that they bought.

One year on the way to All A Dollar, Alex said,

“When I grow up I’m going to open up a store called, ‘Everything for a Penny’.

I smiled and said, “How are you going to make money?”

He said, “I will just buy everything and sell it for a penny.”

I have so many fun memories of going to All A Dollar at Christmas time.

Totally “Fort Worth” It!

Hermana Kelsey 11:1 -email-

We were able to talk to Hermana Kelsey yesterday for Christmas. It was so fun to hear her voice. She learned Spanish since she left on her mission. I finally got to hear her speak in Spanish for the first time. She was amazing. If case you don’t know how this works, when you are a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints you leave your home and family for two years (for men), or 18 months (for women). You work super hard everyday trying to help your brothers and sisters in the world learn about our Savior, Jesus Christ. We only email or send letters the entire time, except Mother’s Day and Christmas, then we get to talk to each other on the phone or Skype. So I haven’t talked to Hermana Kelsey since last Mother’s Day. Knowing that we will get to talk is the most exciting thing. She is having a great experience being a servant of our Lord. 

Hey family!

Long time no talk, eh? Our 40 minutes yesterday went by WAY TOO fast!! How long did Alex get to talk to y’all?

Elder R. (one of our elders in our district) is going home on the 3rd of January, and he is so sad. He said before now he wanted to go home, but now that he has to, he doesn’t want to. I wonder if Alex will be that way. I know that I will. I’ll be really excited to come home, but at the same time it will be sad, because you know you won’t be able to have the same experiences you have a missionary anymore. 🙁

Ha ha ha. My spanish is not that great. Especially for how long I have been out. That has been one of the things I have struggled with the most on the mission. But I am also really bad about having language study, which is something I can definitely work on. But hopefully I will be completely fluent by the time I come back home. I’ll just have Janet teach me some slang, and then I’ll be great. 🙂

I really miss playing board games sometimes. Yesterday, the C.’s (the family we live with), were playing Scattergories with some of their friends and I really really wanted to play. But I didn’t. I’ll just enjoy them when I get home. 🙂

Yeah, I already figured out when I will be coming home. The transfer ends on September _.

So a lot of stuff happened this week…but I forgot my planner at home so I don’t really remember a lot of things.

Tuesday, we had a present exchange with the elders in our district. I had Elder R. (the one who is going home), and I got him a gift card thing for Farmville, because I wanted to get him something for when he goes home (like very trunky), and also because he loves Farmville. He has been talking about it like all the time. So he opened it, and just started laughing. Then his companion Elder J. tells us that all that morning he was talking about how he couldn’t “wait to get back to his cows”. It was really really funny. I wish I could send you the video of it, but it is too big to send in my email. But it was funny.

We didn’t have a white Christmas (no snow, and no baptisms :(), but we will be having hopefully two this coming Friday. We still need to talk to them about everything, but I think they will do it. They are ready. 🙂

We spent Christmas Eve caroling to a lot of our investigators, and recent converts, and less active members. We spent all day driving around and visiting people and singing Christmas carols for them. It was really great. In the evening, we ate with our ward mission leader and his wife. They fed us really well. 🙂

Dad: Hey, sorry I didn’t get to talk to you very much yesterday. 🙁 They didn’t give us very much time to talk to everyone. But I’m glad you enjoyed your Christmas. I wish I could have heard your talks yesterday. I bet they were great. 🙂 Feliz Navidad!

Emmysaurus Rex: It’s okay that you were crying a lot. Ha ha. You made me cry too. But that’s okay too. I am glad you are still doing good, even if you are wearing my clothes. 🙂 🙂 Jk, jk. But that’s cool. Anyway, you should write me a real letter. 🙂 🙂 Te amo!

That’s basically it for right now. I’ll try to have more to talk about next time. Hopefully, y’all had a great Christmas! I love you all! Les quiero muchisimo!!!

Love, Kelsey XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Howzit-Elder Flexy!

Elder Flexy 18:3 -email-

We were able to talk to Elder Flexy yesterday for Christmas. In fact, we were able to Skype with him. What an awesomely fun experience. If case you don’t know how this works, when you are a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints you leave your home and family for two years (for men), or 18 months (for women). You work super hard everyday trying to help your brothers and sisters in the world learn about our Savior, Jesus Christ. We only email or send letters the entire time, except Mother’s Day and Christmas, then we get to talk to each other on the phone or Skype. So I haven’t talked to Elder Flexy since last Mother’s Day. Knowing that we will get to talk is the most exciting thing. He looks great and is having a great experience being a servant of our Lord. 

Mama,

it was great to talk to the family. we had a great p day today. well theres not much that has happened since yesterday. but i love you all.

Love Elder Flexy

Dad,

sounds like sunday was great for you guys did larry win still in scrabble… anyway love you too

Love Elder Flexy

M,

it was nice speaking to you i hope you get better from your sickness and keep up being a good girl.

Love Elder Flexy

Merry Christmas!

“Part of the purpose for telling the story of Christmas is to remind us that Christmas doesn’t come from a store. Indeed, however delightful we feel about it, even as children, each year it ‘means a little bit more.’ And no matter how many times we read the biblical account of that evening in Bethlehem, we always come away with a thought—or two—we haven’t had before….

“I, like you, need to remember the very plain scene, even the poverty, of a night devoid of tinsel or wrapping or goods of this world. Only when we see that sacred, unadorned child of our devotion—the Babe of Bethlehem—will we know why… the giving of gifts is so appropriate” (Jeffrey R. Holland, New Era, Dec 1994, 4).

Hope your Christmas Sunday was the Best! Love, Joy

Winter Solstice.

Today is the shortest day of the year,

and tonight will be the longest night.

It is the day that the sun’s position is angled farthest away from us.

It’s not my favorite day, because it is so short

and I am very fond of the light,

but it being here means that from now on

until summer the days will keep getting longer, and the nights will keep getting shorter.

It’s like a new start.

As time goes by then the sun’s angle will keep getting closer and closer.

I love it when it is light outside until 9:30 or so in the evening.

So I’m going to watch for longer days, and more light.

You should too!