We have loved having Allie with us the entire week. I’m not so sure she has loved being here for Thanksgiving. It’s hard not being with extended family for the holiday. Not just for her but for us all.
Saturday morning Bode and I drove to Brenham (1 ½ away) to watch Zac play basketball with his team. He had a pretty good game. His team won which was nice. He really likes his teammates and thinks his coach does well at helping them work as a team.
Aaron and I spoke at the Richmond Stake Conference this past weekend in both sessions. It takes a lot out of me because I stress about speaking. Saturday I felt ok about the message I shared. Sunday I felt more prepared however as the time for me to speak I could tell we were pressed for time. I didn’t give the talk I prepared but instead I added my testimony to those of the recently called young women and man that have recently received their mission calls that spoke before me. They shared their desires and testimonies of why they believe and want to share the gospel message with others. I was so moved by their powerful witnesses of our Savior. It was a great meeting.
The kids have this whole week off from school. However, Zac has Basketball practice everyday from 10 to 1 except Thanksgiving. He has games Wednesday and again on Saturday. This kind of limits our opportunity to go anywhere too far away plus Aaron’s schedule is still full speed ahead. We are making the most of the evenings. We went to a popular tex-mex restaurant, Pappasitos, Monday night for FHE with the Nielsen family. Jessica Nielsen’s birthday was on Tuesday so I offered to watch her kids on Tuesday so she could have a kid free day for her birthday. Later that night we went to the movies. I say movies because four of us went to Hunger Games and the two went to Good Dinosaur. I am sure you can figure out who went to each of the movies. ;) Wednesday night I made pull apart pizza and had the sister missionaries over for dinner. Then the kids and I watched Yours, Mine and Ours the remake. It was a fun show for us to watch.
With Thanksgiving Day we tried to stick to our traditions as much as possible. The boys played basketball with the missionaries early and later went to the ward turkey bowl. In between, we decorated our tree and made pumpkin rolls. We also watched Elf prior to the Thanksgiving feast. After the Thanksgiving feast we went to the new James Bond movie Spectre. Our Thanksgiving dinner was at the Morton’s house. Sister Morton is the THSM financial secretary and her husband is a high councilman in our stake that is over mission preparation classes. They are huge blessing to the missionary effort. Only one of the their 7 kids were in town for Thanksgiving. We brought green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, raspberry tapioca salad, and a pumpkin roll as our contribution. It was a great meal and great company. We also had a fun time playing the name game with them.
Friday had an early start. We had a temple departing trip with our sisters and elders that go home on December 1. Bitter sweet for us because we just love our missionaries! It was a great day! The Temple President and his wife will be released on Monday. In gratitude for their service to the missionaries and the amazing learning opportunities they have provided us we gave them a framed picture of the Houston Temple that as surrounded with a mat that we had all our missionaries sign. They were very touched by our gesture.
Friday night we tried to go to the Zoo lights. A LOT of people had the same idea so we had to come up we an alternative plan. We went to a great Mexican restaurant called Torchy’s Taco’s. The tacos were awesome and the vibe was fun too.
Zac had another game this morning in Richmond (1/2 hour away).