Christmas Eve (The real Eve) / Christmas Day 2011

This year was the Wendell year. We got to go to Wendell on Friday and spend the weekend with Marks Family. We had a ton of fun while we were there, and ate way too much food. I think we had a full house of people at Gary and Ruths everynight that we were there. We played games, talked a lot, ate a lot, and just enjoyed the Christmas Spirit together. Marks Family celebrates Christmas Eve different than what I am used to, so it was fun to join them in their traditions. On Christmas Eve we had a big dinner and then Jason, Daniel, and Mark went outside and played a game Jason taught them that they played in the D.R., after they came inside we each got to share a scripture or our testimony with the family. Then we got to write down our goals for the year, and then we got to look at the goals we wrote down the year before and see how we did on them.
Here is Mark and his brother playing the game Jason taught them.


On Christmas Day we woke up and got ready for church, ate breakfast, and opened the presents that we brought to Wendell. Later on that day, all of Marks family gathered at Gary and Ruths and we had a big Christmas dinner that spread out throughout the whole day. I think we were snacking from 1-7 while we played games and visited some more. I also got a phone call from my favorite brother around 5, and we got to talk to him for almost an hour. He is doing so so good and it was so nice to talk to my pal on the phone. He told us some stories, and we just talked about all that's been going on. He was at a members home that was from Idaho Falls so when I got the call from him it said it was an Idaho area code. He thought it would be fun to trick me. I am very grateful for my little brother and for the sacrifice he is making in his life to serve the Lord and to spread the gospel, he is such a good missionary, friend, brother, and example to me. We had a great time in Wendell and it was so fun to be around family the whole weekend.