Polar Express without snow

Sisters Kurt and Marsh (and?) at the "Polar Express" themed ward Christmas Party

No snow anymore; just periodic rain. It’s been in the high 30s/low 40s this week and I'm somewhat baffled, admittedly. ]: the threat of snow stresses me out more than just having snow, I think. I am not looking forward to snow, but I expect a white Christmas... Who knows though? Seems Iowa weather is finicky at best.

Our Ward Christmas party was polar express themed. We had bits done from a bunch of different countries as 'stops' for our train. Mostly Spanish countries but it was cool. Also lots of papoosas and tamales among the normal Christmas food fare. We got sent home with some of it too. My comp and I made flower crowns to wear. A couple of dollars at the dollar tree. :) They were well received. We'll take them down to Nauvoo this week when we go to the Temple (a last minute trip!) and will take pictures for our Christmas cards. Transfers are next week, so we're a little antsy about who's getting transferred, if any.

We've started doing family history a little more, attaching source hints that come up, and we helped a member find a great uncle she didn't know she had. Hopefully that will help encourage her to make the effort to go to the Temple.

I'm glad Jake likes the handkerchief- I thought that would be right up his alley.  (She monogrammed a handkerchief for his birthday.)

I hope Nick will be good to go when it comes time to skype home. I will be very displeased if he isn't online. (Nick will elsewhere for Christmas….when Christine Skypes…we hope to get everyone online together.)

I will likely try and send another box home soon-ish with a few of the odds and ends we've found here; at least a bottle of millstream cream soda from here. It’s a local thing apparently. Amish colonies.

Sad day on the Mrs. Knott's building! I hope they still keep it true to the general atmosphere though. That whole strip definitely needed an overhaul, but it’s still sad to see it go. (The Knotts Berry Farm Chicken Dinner Restaurant will be overhauled soon – we went to take our annual family Christmas Photo, and found out that it will all be very different next time.  We took photos of the restaurant.  Hoping they keep the same recipes!!)

Investigators:  Our professor went off the radar because some family back in the home country passed away. It’s a mess and he's especially heartbroken because he can’t go back to go to the funeral.  Rough stuff. The sick single mom of 4 has also dropped off- she hasn’t responded to our calls for a while.  We'll see what happens with her. There will be a lot more finding in the near future. Yay Tracting! I just feel bad because my companion hasn't seen a baptism of our own yet and we aim to baptize at least once a transfer. Here we are at the end of our second one and no one in the water. So she doesn't feel too great about it. But we're trying. A lot of seeds planted I guess.

Love you! :)

Christine