It's Coming on Christmas, They're Cutting Down Trees

Another Christmas season has come and gone. I was more nervous about this trip than any in the past because of the slight chance I could've gone into early labor. Luckily, the baby behaved and we were able to have a wonderful time visiting the Messerlys and the Jacks!

The weeks leading up to our trip kept us busy. We went on a tour of the hospital where we are going to be delivering, I went to a friend's baby shower, we had our own baby shower, and we went to a tamale making class. My bosses had gifted me a gift card to attend some cooking classes at Central Market a while ago and I figured we'd better use it before the baby comes or else it's never gonna happen! It was a fun night and they send you home with the recipe, but really it just taught us that we are never going to make tamales. We didn't even have to do all the steps and by half way through I was already over it.

Tamale class! (not sure if it's the bad lighting or the fact that my pregnant belly kept me from sleeping that's causing those dark circles under my eyes)

There were baby showers galore in December! It's kind of awkward having a baby in January because around the time people start thinking about throwing a baby shower it's December and no one wants extra stuff on their plate. So when Lizzy called me and said she and two other ladies in the ward wanted to throw me a baby shower I kind of felt bad saying yes. I was sure they were already very busy, but I knew I wouldn't be able to get out of it just by saying I didn't want to burden them. So we planned for the baby shower to be on the 15th, the day before Ben and I were flying to Utah. Minutes after I hung up the phone I got an email from Lizzy inviting me to another friends baby shower who was due in February. The baby shower was going to be the Saturday before mine! That made it all that much worse! Now I knew Lizzy was already hosting another baby shower and all the people I would be inviting to mine would have already been invited to one the week before! I stressed about it for a while, but eventually I decided that if people couldn't come they wouldn't and if I only had a few people there that would be fine. I also told Lizzy to put on the invitation that people were asked just to bring diapers and wipes as gifts. Ben and I had already done most of the shopping we needed, we had $200 from my work baby shower to spend on Amazon for things we still needed, and with how crazy work was and my general lack of energy I didn't really want to worry about adding things to our registry. I also secretly wanted to do a diaper shower because I figured that would eliminate the worst part of showers- opening presents. Although a baby shower is a much less weird environment than a bridal shower, I still always feel awkward having people watch me open presents. (Seriously, who enjoys bridal showers?? Why do we still have them??) Well that ended up totally backfiring. They still made me open presents, but every single one was either diapers or wipes!! How do you feign excitement when opening a bunch of diapers?? They had also put on the announcement to include a favorite baby book instead of a card so basically I just reacted to the book. Goodness.

Nayar & McIntyre crew. Losing their one and only white employee. 

Oh! I almost forgot! Another very important thing going on before Christmas was a gingerbread house competition at my work! Maria and Lakshmi bought us each a gingerbread house kit, but if we wanted to buy extra candy we were allowed to add whatever we wanted to the house as long as it was edible. After a few years in the Jack family I felt like I had a responsibility to win this competition! The houses were due the Monday that I'd be in Utah so I stayed up late Thursday night so that I could bring the house on Friday.

On Monday, while hanging out with the family in Utah, I anxiously awaited pictures of my coworkers gingerbread houses. After all the entries were in Lakshmi put them up on Facebook for people to vote on the best. Melissa was my only real competition, but in the end I pulled off the win!

Making sure no one would sneak a peak :)

For any one who didn't see my gingerbread house which one do you think it is?? 

The Sunday after the baby shower Ben and I headed off to the airport! We appreciated the fact that this would be the last time that traveling would be at all enjoyable. After this trip we will be looking at the horror of traveling with a child! Matt was kind enough to pick us up from the airport because Mom and Dad had an important choir practice. We had such a fun few days in Utah! It was even extra awesome because Britt was visiting too so we got to see her the whole time we were in town.

It was SO good to be home. I really miss being close to family. One of the first nights of the trip we continued the age old Messerly tradition of caroling! I'm lucky I married a musical man so he didn't have any objection to going caroling. During this trip I kept forgetting that Ben hadn't ever experienced a Messerly Christmas. We've been married so long I figured he had to have been at our house for Christmas at least one year. He was very upset on Christmas morning when he heard all the cute name tags being read on the gifts. He whispered to me, "You could have told me about this! I just put Em on your gifts!" Haha wife fail.

We had a few families Mom wanted to carol, but no home was more highly anticipated than Ms. Melody's. Ms. Melody is Elena's preschool teacher and she obviously really loves her. So, we decided to head to her house first. Elena insisted on carrying the cookie plate as we walked there. I had little to no faith that plate was going to make it to the house intact, but there was no convincing her to let an adult carry it. In order to keep the peace Mom brought along a few extra plates. Elena walked carefully while holding her daddy's hand the entire way...well almost the entire way. As soon as the house was in view Elena started skipping with joy. Unfortunately, with just one hand holding the plate the first skip sent the cookies flying. Mom quickly whipped out her back up plate and Elena was hardly fazed. After all that build up it turned out Ms. Melody wasn't even home! We only sang to maybe 3 houses out of 6 or 7 that we tried, but the ones that were home gave us rave reviews. :)

Britt was kind enough to take some maternity pics of me and Ben. I had starting hating how I looked in all pictures at that point of the pregnancy so I tasked Midge with getting some that I'd like. She did an excellent job! You just need a photographer that will tell you to do something about your double chin!! Just let a girl know!

Probably the biggest surprise of the trip was hearing that Matt had a new game that he likes to play! Matt is VERY selective about the games he will play. I pretty sure before now it was Monopoly Deal and 5 Crowns...well add Mixtape to that list! The game gives you a prompt such as you are about to cross the finish line of a marathon. What song are you listening to? Then everyone finds a song on their phone and plays it for the group. After you hear everyone's song you vote on the best one. It's basically Apples to Apples with songs instead of words. Ben, Britt, Matt, Mom, and I played a few rounds and it was a blast. There were a lot of funny moments, but one of the best was when we had a prompt that said something like you're an astronaut flying about to lift off, what song is playing in the spaceship? Matt and Britt played their songs and then we got to Mom. She starts playing the Star Wars theme and we all lose it. It wasn't even worth trying after that. Mom stole the show!

Accurate depiction of how we spent most of our days. 

One thing that never fails when Ben and I visit Matt is that we will discuss Lin Manuel Miranda. I don't know if I've discussed any person more than I have discussed Lin Manuel Miranda. When Hamilton was first coming out Ben mentioned to Matt that he didn't really like LMM. He didn't think his rapping was very impressive and his singing leave something to be desired. Matt on the other hand thinks he's a hip-hop god. I agree with Ben, but I tend to avoid conflict so I discourage him from bring up the sore subject. Since we were going to see the new Mary Poppins movie it was inevitable that LMM would come up again. Ben, Matt, Britt, and I had a lively discussion about LMM's merits and why he was cast in Mary Poppins. I'm not sure how much stock Britt had in the discussion, but you know she likes a lively debate. Mom and Dad were slightly concerned with the volume of the conversation, but it ended with us still as friends. :)

Pregnant sisters, one trying to use angles to look less huge, one sticking out her stomach to show a little bump. 

After what felt like no time at all it was time to head up to Idaho. Mom and Dad were awesome and let us use their car to drive up there so we didn't have to use the shuttle.

The Jacks had everyone in town except for Tim who is on a mission in Argentina. So the house was full! We met Dan's new wife and 3 step-kids for the first time. The Jacks have lots of fun Christmas traditions so we painted mice, watched Hallmark Christmas Movies, and decorated gingerbread "houses". I say "houses" because we often try to get a little more creative than just a house. Last year I almost lost my mind trying to bring about our vision so we both decided we were going to keep it chill this year. We thought we could do something Texas related, but we couldn't really think of something feasible. First we thought longhorn...but how do you make that out of graham crackers?? The thought of longhorns some how led us to think of pioneers. We landed on a covered wagon! We told ourselves we were going to take it simple...it wasn't quite simple, but we managed to have fun with it instead of stressing about making it perfect.

Technically we made a wagon that had lost a wheel and has a donut on...don't ask me how we come up with this stuff.

Meredith sent out a message earlier in December asking if we'd like to go on a carriage ride when we came for Christmas. Picturing the sweet and romantic type carriage rides from Gilmore Girls I sent an enthusiastic YES in response. I thought it would be so fun! Flash forward to the day of the carriage ride. We all packed into three cars and headed to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Turns out the carriage ride was less Gilmore Girls and more ride a few hundred yards on an elk reserve. Although it wasn't what I was imagining it was still so fun. It was a fun change of pace from our typical activities.

See the brown lumps behind us? Those are the Elk. 

Sadly, no racquetball happened this Christmas. Probably because Tim wasn't there, but since I was hugely pregnant I didn't really mind. We did take some family pictures and did another mini maternity shoot. When the photographer told us to sit down for the first picture I lost all faith that he was going to get a good one, but they actually turned out okay! Although I'm not sure the prompt, "Look surprised!" made much sense. This belly has been growing for nine months! No one is surprised buddy!

If you look closely at this picture you'll see that the photographer was obviously not a pro because he made one of the worst mistakes you can make! You can see our stuff in the background! Poor Meredith went through a lot of pain trying to edit the door and jacket out of the picture. (I'm too lazy to get that version off facebook, but just know that she did it.)

On Christmas Eve we drove back down to Utah. The weather was looking a little questionable, but there were just a few flakes in Rexburg. Once we were a few minutes out the roads were clear. Thank goodness! We had the traditional Christmas Eve night and had fun Facetiming everyone. It's a little chaotic trying to get everyone set up, but it's worth it to feel a little more connected on Christmas Eve. I felt like a little kid because of how much I struggled sleeping that night, but it wasn't because of presents or Santa Claus. My giant pregnant belly was really starting to be a drag and I wasn't sleeping well anymore.

Christmas morning felt so odd! There were no young kids racing to the presents...I'm pretty sure we actually had breakfast BEFORE we opened presents! It's been so long and this is such a foreign idea to me that I almost think I'm remembering wrong...I'm pretty sure we ate breakfast first! Breakfast turned out to be pretty entertaining. Midge was on high alert whenever anyone reached for the strawberries. I guess her poor college student side was coming out because she was obsessed with people only using the strawberries they needed. She wanted to make sure there were enough for her to have leftovers for the rest of her stay. After Mom assured her there was more than what was on the table she calmed down a little. After breakfast we opened presents and before we knew it we had to head to the airport. It was bittersweet getting on that plane. I was happy we had reached the end of the trip without having our baby, but it's so hard leaving family.

Some how the only picture we got together was at the airport when I left. Oh well, love you Midge! 

Other random memories:
Ben and I starting and finishing a 1000 piece puzzle in one day. Mom saying, "I didn't know I needed to have a puzzle a day!"

Mom being very concerned about my swollen feet. She repeatedly asked me if I was going to stand up and move around after I'd been sitting for a while. I would always ignore the encouragement, but then regret it when I looked at my hobbit feet.

Singing the Quartet from the Secret Garden with Ben and I as Archie and Lily and Ana and Dad as Rose and Neville. I've always dreamed of being Lily to Ben's Archie so it was fun to pretend for a bit.

Trying to constantly encourage Britt to have better sleep habits. Telling her to go to bed early and encourage her to get up and go to the gym with Ana. (Although I learned soon after the trip that she went right back to getting no sleep when she went back to school)

Hello Bloggy, My Old Friend

Sooooo....the last time I blogged it was about Christmas....and it's about to be Christmas again. That's pretty pathetic. In my defense, I used to be pretty good at keeping a journal so at least I'd have some sort of record of my life, but the last few months I've been pretty bad at that too. I blame the pregnancy. I'm learning that basically anything wrong with you can be blamed on pregnancy. Last night I woke up with a stabbing pain in my right calf. It hurt so bad I reflexively squeezed Ben's arm and startled him so bad he thought I was in labor. Haha poor kid. Nope, just a ridiculously painful leg cramp caused by nothing. When I researched what could cause that it listed a few things that didn't really apply to me, stating that it's most common in people over 50 (thanks for that), but then at the bottom mentioned that certain medical conditions can also cause that to happen, pregnancy was the first on the list.

So yeah, I'm officially listing lack of motivation to blog under the infinite list of possible pregnancy symptoms.

Since I last blogged in January a lot has changed! Most notably, that we are expecting our little girl in just 3 months! Some other updates:

• Ben finished his 2nd year of med school
• Ben was called (again) as the Elder's Quorum President and worked through the changes that came with April General Conference
• Ben took Step 1 of his board exam and did great!
• We had our first family members to visit us (on purpose) in Texas! Erica and Rich made a brief stop in Texas and we loved seeing them for a bit. (Britt had technically been in our apartment before them, but that was only because a hurricane cancelled her flight...sooo...)
• I was released from Young Women's and called as the Primary Chorister. (But I can't seem to get out of my choir director calling...)
• We celebrated our 2 year anniversary!
• Ben spent 6 weeks down in San Antonio doing officer's basic training, a requirement for his army scholarship.
• I spent 6 weeks in a deep depression. 
• I spent some time in Utah and attended our AWESOME family reunion. 
• Ben started his 3rd year of med school, which means that he's out of the classroom and into rotations. So far he's done his Psych, OMM, and Pediatric rotations. Up next is Ob/Gyn
• We moved to a new apartment! (WAY bigger and the same price...definitely worth it.) 

Our move was a pretty eventful Saturday. With Ben as Elders Quorum President we are only too aware of how many people are constantly asking for help moving so we didn't really want to send an email out to everyone. We reached out to a few of our friends in the ward, but no one could help so we just kind of told ourselves that we could do it on our own. We were really only worried about a few things and we didn't have THAT much stuff. We also had our new apartment for about a month before we had to be out of our old one so we were able to slowly move over the non-essential items. The day of the actual move we loaded up the truck pretty easily, but our new apartment is on the third floor and that definitely became a bigger factor than I wanted to admit. Keep in mind that at this point I'm roughly three months pregnant and I had strained something in my back while exercising and couldn't bend or lift without pain. Ben tried his best to do it all on his own, I'll never forget watching him basically wearing our coach like a backpack and walking it up the stairs, but eventually we got to the last item. Our electronic piano. There was no way one person could move that. After having moved a truck full of stuff in the CRAZY heat we were feeling pretty desperate at this point. We called a few other people last minute, but didn't have any luck. We eventually got the piano to the bottom of the stairs. We had a rough go, but we got it up the first set of stairs. At this point we started talking about the idea of a communal piano. We'd just leave it by the stairs and it'd be open to the community to play on! I mean they do that in some places right?? After about 15 minutes of recovery and dread we got ready to move the piano up the last set of stairs. There were a few bumps and bruises on the way, but we eventually got it upstairs. The only consolation is that we shouldn't have to move our own stuff again in the near future. We are planning to stay in this apartment until residency at which time we will have orders from the military so they will pay for us to get movers. Woo!

And now an update from the pictures in my phone:

N&M Crossfit day! It was the first time I'd tried crossfit and it was really fun! Mainly because I had a group of friends doing it with me. As you can tell by the tshirts we divided into teams. When Ashly found out she was paired with me her initial reaction was, "Oh man! Now I'm going to actually have to do the workout!"

When Rich and Erica arrived with Mckay and Macey we suddenly realized we don't have any toys for children. So we had to improvise a little bit...

Checking out the famous Fort Worth Stock Yards for the first time. Erica and Rich finally forced us to be tourists. 

I still don't understand why the Stock Yards is cool...but apparently it's worth it to see these long horns. 

One day I mentioned to Ben that I was craving caramel popcorn. I then I went to a YW presidency meeting and came home to THIS. It was the best day ever.

Ben and I chaperoned a Valentines Dance and we were in charge of the photo booth. 

Birthday Dinner to Sushi for my birthday! 

The theme of my birthday party was "Angel Emilye"

Maria (my boss) had a baby a few months ago and her baby shower was the weirdest shower I've ever been to. Maybe it's typical to have lots of drinking at non-Mormon baby showers, but it seemed a little insensitive to me! 

A girl in our ward was looking to expand her photography portfolio and asked for volunteers to be guinea pigs. I was excited for the chance to get pictures before I started showing so I signed us up! She was super nervous, but we got a few cute pictures so it was worth it! 

 

How I announced our news to my co-workers :)

Well this hasn't been the most amazing blog post, but it's a quick overview of what we've been up to! 

All I Want For Christmas

Oh Christmas. Our Christmas seemed to start right after Thanksgiving when we went to Elf with Ana and Matt. I failed to put these pictures in my previous post, so here they are.

December was a very full month, but mainly full of fun things so I'm not complaining! It started off with us going to a Christmas party thrown by some friends in the ward. Overall the night was really fun, but it did start out some what stressful. I had worked that morning and because we hadn't been able to get to the temple in November (and the temple was closed in October) Ben came with me to work so we could head to the temple together once I was off. By the time we got home it was about an hour before the party. We check the mail because our white elephant gift was supposed to arrive by then. As I was walking to the mail I see a man in a white mail van go to the office door, see that it's closed, and drive away. When we check the status of the package on amazon it now says that delivery was attempted and the person wasn't home. WHAT?! First off, amazon always drops off packages in front of your door. Secondly, that man did NOT try and see we were home at all. (We have learned since this incidence that some of our amazon delivery people are the worst and never even try to drop it off at your apartment. They just dump them all at the office. The other day we had three packages at our door from amazon and only the top one was actually addressed to us.) So by this time I'm fuming. All my middle school insecurities are rushing back to me as I contemplate us being the only people without a real white elephant gift. I will not be the kid that brings the unwanted present! I'm not reliving 7th grade math class! Also, around this same time I have this horrible feeling that we were supposed to bring a treat with us to this party. I reread the invitation and it definitely says bring a dessert or favorite dish to share. I was so focused on thinking of a cool white elephant gift that I totally spaced it! So now we've got 40 minutes to whip something up. Ben goes racing to Walmart as I start preparations on some peanut butter kiss cookies. By the time we arrive at the actual party I'm grumpy, stressed, and dreading the moment we tell everyone our present is actually empty. After mingling for a bit and eating some of the treats people brought our moods lifted a bit. Then we played some group games which were a lot of fun! At the white elephant gift exchange people seemed to be okay with the fact our present would need to be delivered a little later and let us play along. It was pretty fun even though the gift we ended up with was pretty useless. It is a water fountain thing. Something you'd have at an office or something. Apparently it was a gift from last years party and when the lady went home with it she immediately stuck it in her closet to be her gift for the next year. So I guess we will keep it just in case we get invited to this same party this December. Also, there was this terrifying moment when I thought we were going to go home with a real fish. Luckily, the host of the party took pity on me because she saw my face as I opened it. Pets are bad enough if they are cute! I'm not taking care of no fish! Also, I have no clue where we would have put it. Maybe on the back of the toilet? And then one day if I accidentally tip the bowl over and the fish happens to fall into the toilet.... Anyways, it was a good thing we didn't go home with that fish.

The next weekend we had two Christmas parties. The ward party on Friday and a doctor party on Saturday. I could not WAIT to get the ward party over with. We were in charge of the service project. Recently, some experiences with different callings has made me realize that problems arise when you are put "in charge" of something, but you really aren't in charge. When something is delegated to you it is best if it is all put into your hands instead of you being the face of it, but someone else is still telling you want needs to happen. Basically, things did not go as smoothly with this service project as we would have hoped. It was just having the members make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but somehow it ended up being way too complicated. Add to that the fact that the choir was performing during the program and you'll understand why I was happy to be done with the ward party. But the ward members seemed to enjoy it so we will go ahead and place it in the win pile.

They went all out with the decorations...this is the candy cane forest.

Then on Saturday we went to a party being thrown by the clinic that Ben will occasionally volunteer at by translating for the doctors. The clinic is for low income families and is completely run by volunteers. It was a little awkward at first because we didn't really know hardly anyone there, but Ben wanted to go because apparently only one med student went last year and that's all they've been hearing about for the last year. It was a rough start. Conversation around dinner all had to do with doctor things which gets boring reaalll quick for me. (I know, life's gonna be fun.) Luckily things picked up after dinner when we started the white elephant gift exchange! (Which I believe was called a Chinese gift exchange on our invitation to the party...ahhh Texas.) This was the best kind of gift exchange because we didn't actually have to provide any gifts! The board for the clinic provided them as a thank you to their volunteers. At first it didn't look like I was going to participate because there were only enough gifts for a few spouses to get one, but the cutest old man (who had taken a liking to Ben and I when he heard us speaking Spanish) came up behind me and gave me his ticket. At first, people were a little hesitant to steal, but then I picked these really cute bowls and people stopped being shy. After someone stole my bowls I picked a cute fruit bowl and then a candle...basically Ben and I unwrapped more presents than anyone else because we kept picking the good stuff! We ended up stealing back the fruit bowl and some towels. The best part of the whole thing was one of the doctors totally loved me. He kept talking about how I had the magic touch and would only let me pick the gifts that he opened. Haha it was fantastic! Then after the gift exchange I found out that him and his wife always wanted a daughter and they would have named her Emily. So I've basically been adopted. Just thought y'all should know. It was seriously hilarious.

The next Christmas party was the most highly anticipated. The Nayar & McIntyre Christmas party!! (Yes that's right....4 Christmas parties. When we saw a 5th invite we couldn't bring ourselves to go.) We went to this fancy Moroccan restaurant. The food was fine, but I was most excited about Ben meeting my coworkers. I wanted him to see how fun they are and for them to see how awesome he is. He fit in perfectly, as I knew he would. My coworkers really liked him. The girls have told me on multiple occasions that Ben and I are the only people who give them hope that love exists. The other day I was telling them that Ben and I spent New Years Eve watching movies and doing a puzzle together and she said, "You two really found each other." I couldn't agree more. :) The craziest part of the N&M party was when Lakshmi and Maria gave us our Christmas presents which were APPLE WATCHES. When I saw the shape of the box I guessed it was a watch, but never in a million years would I have guess it would be the new apple watch. There are perks to working in big and small companies, but I really prefer the small company. We are such a close group it makes work parties fun and not awkward (I'm looking at you ZRT Christmas party of 2015).

The week before Christmas we dressed up at work...I found this sweater at Goodwill in June and had the foresight to buy it. It will be my Ugly Sweater for the next 20 years. (see Mel's blog if you doubt the need for a good ugly sweater)

Not wanting to have to spend money on Christmas pajamas I'm wearing Ben's school shirt that has some evergreen trees and snow on it. 

After the N&M party it was just a few days until we headed to Idaho! I'm really lucky in that I really do enjoy being with my in-laws. I especially love watching Ben with them. He gets a few more laughs with them than he would get from me with his cheesy jokes. They all love him...it's so cute! We decided that in order to save money we were going to fly to SLC and then take the bus to Rexburg. That wouldn't have been quite so bad if we didn't also have a layover in Denver. Basically it was a 13 hr day of travelling. Probably never doing that again, but it honestly wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. It helps that I never get to be with Ben that long...it made the travelling not seem so bad as got to be with him.

Our week in Idaho was full of fun and zero responsibilities...it was amazing! We played lots of games, watched a bunch of movies, did some puzzles, and just had a great time!

This is a Sound of Music puzzle which was super fun. Whenever we were working on it at least someone would be humming some of the music.

Painting mice! I think this tradition is so fun, but I always wish I was better at it. I'm telling you it's got to be in the Jack genes. I don't know how they get such perfect lines! Ben graciously fixed parts of my mouse that I couldn't get to cooperate.

The second we picked out the kissing mice I knew I was gonna make Ben take a picture like this. I personally think it's adorable. 

So, last year we made a cute gingerbread house, but we were totally upstaged by Sterling and Dan's giant gingerbread rocket. This year I suggested we could create an American Ninja Warrior course and Ben liked the idea so we went with it. Little did we know in a few short hours it would tear our marriage apart......haha okay not really, but there was a point where Ben basically forced me to let him work on what I was doing cause I was losing my mind. In the end it all worked out and we were happy with our finished product.

See those Candy Canes with Life Savers hanging off of them...that's what almost robbed me of my sanity. 

Not pictured: all the hot chocolate we drank, tim-tam's we ate, handbells we rang, songs we sang, racquetball we played, and laughs we shared. One note on the racquetball- I played Ben's mom as he played with two of his brothers. None of us had played since last year, but man Ben's mom was killing me. We played three games and by the third game she was trying to give me points. I would get to serve as many times as I needed, but she'd never let herself get a second try. I've never felt so much pressure to win.  

One kind of unique thing we did was play a family history memory game. Ben's dad reminds me of our dad in a lot of ways. He wanted to include a little more worthwhile activity in our to do list so he suggested we all find an ancestor and play a game of memory with their name and a story from their life. Ben's family is a little different from ours in that they allow him to suggest these activities and don't mock him for his efforts. For real, in the end it was really fun, but at first all I could think was Dad would have had a LOT more resistance in our house haha poor Dad. The Jacks are a little less sassy than the Messerlys. I looked up one of our ancestors and we all went around and shared a story from an ancestor. It was fun listening to the stories, but I mainly enjoyed looking through our ancestors and reading different stories that are in the family search website. I believe the ancestor I found was Grandma Miller's father...I think. His Dad was killed by a tree falling on him when he was just a few feet away. It was a traumatic experience for him and he kept asking why it wasn't him that died. His father had kids to take care of, but he wouldn't have been missed. After struggling for a while he finally heard the voice of the Lord tell him that he didn't take him because he wouldn't have been of any use to him. He said his father was in the spirit world teaching the gospel and is of great use, but he would have been useless to him. I'm paraphrasing, but that's basically what it said. A pretty humbling experience! He later had a heath scare and almost died. When he saw his father calling for him to come join him he asked to stay on earth a little longer. Yall should look up his memories in family search because it's a good story, but I'm not gonna write it all out here. 

Anyways...we had an awesome Christmas. We missed our Messerly family, but I was so glad we got to Facetime together on Christmas Eve. Family time is the best time! Love you all!!

Happy New Year from the Jack/Messerlys!