It's the most wonderful time of the year!

The Christmas package for that favorite missionary of ours was mailed last month,

but tomorrow we'll find out if he actually got it last week!

Included in the box was: two gallon size bage of homemade granola,

(his ultimate favorite- one to eat now and one that was wrapped to open on Christmas!)

under armour (white long sleeve top, black bottoms for those cold, cold days!)

peanut butter cookies (another favorite!), a pretty good size box of Dayquil,

a big container of vitamin c / airborne, mandarine oranges, deodorant, toothbrushes,

a giant chocolate bar (for his comp, not him!), a 2014 calendar that we custom

made with family photos / birthday reminders / etc, (it turned out so amazing that I just

might have one under our tree for me!!), the handprint Christmas tree with green paint to

add his handprint to the tree, and last but not least 24 AMAZING Christmas cards! 

We asked friends, neighbors, our Bishop, family, etc to all write on a Christmas card for him.

He was instructed to open one every day of December! But since he didn't get his box until last

week, he probably had to double up opening them! I really felt strongly that we needed to

share our love and testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ with him. That box was stuffed

full of LOVE, tons of LOVE! Merry Christmas Elder Call!!

Jeremy ready to mail the over-stuffed Christmas box!! 

 One Sunday afternoon we decided to create some hand-crafted / painted custom cards!

 Followed by ice cream sandwiches, yummmm!

 And here are our Christmas candy dishes (above) - for the life of me they refuse 

to rotate the right way!! Below you can see what our candy dishes hold -

Emergen-C and bananas!! The kids are hoping that will be changed soooon!

 And we may have come home one evening to the following signs!

Sooo cute! Grace and Zac were holed up in her room like busy little elves!

{did you know that we're home making a gift for everyone this year?}

 And my favorite family tree is hanging up.

I will be forever grateful that we did this craft project last Thanksgiving.

It has the handprint of everyone in our family - including Ellie's feet prints!

 And I confess, I may or may not be missing this kid A TON lately!!

I think it's because it's getting closer to the time that we get to talk to him,

and I'm sooooooooooooo excited - yet missing his guts like crazy!!

  I LOVED watching him play ball. He ALWAYS put his hands like this on the first free throw,

except when he was the shooter of course!

 One long game of Monopoly a couple days before he headed to the MTC!

{look how tiny Ellie was!}

 Driving him up to the MTC! WE LOVE YOU ELDER CALL!!

 Thank you for your love, service, dedication, and most

especially your Christlike example in all that you do! WE LOVE YOU!!

"There is no better time than now, this very Christmas season, for all of us to rededicate ourselves to the principles taught by Jesus the Christ. It is the time to love the Lord our God with all our heart—and our neighbors as ourselves. It is well to remember that he who gives money gives much, he who gives time gives more, but he who gives of himself gives all. Let this be a description of our Christmas gifts."

 President Thomas S Monson