Merry (crazy late) Christmas!

Merry Christmas! and Happy New Year! We are still working on the whole being consistent bloggers thing... So, we're a little late on the festive holiday post. So here is a little bit about our holiday season:

Brittany: We had a wonderfully quiet holiday in Erie, PA (currently the snowiest city in the nation). Little background on Brittany: I hate the snow. So I am constantly thrilled with all of this white, cold, slippery stuff. Needless to say, I did not want to leave the house much during our holiday break. Our solution: blowing up the air mattress in front of the TV and having a two day movie marathon. Disgusting some may say, but we loved it. We also had the wonderful opportunity to video chat with Kayla who is currently serving an LDS mission in France! Super fun to talk to her and the rest of the family! The rest of our break consisted of food, friends, and fun presents! We also decided we didn't want to buy a Christmas tree this year. So, we got crafty and decided to make one ourselves. After some twine, push pins, and strategic ornament placing; we had our tree! A little ghetto, yes, but we loved it!

 

Our homemade, hand drawn sugar cookies.

Brandi: This Christmas was a bit different for me. I spent the last two Christmases (whatever the plural of Christmas is) in the Philippines, and I was really looking forward to being with my family again for the holidays in 2013. Well...that didn't go as planned. I am the only child left at home, as all of my siblings have bigger and better things going on. Thus, I spent a quiet Christmas at home with my parents. 

Since I had a bit of alone time...I spent a good seven or eight hours in front of the television watching classic Christmas movies. I watched The Christmas Story for the first time, and LOVED it! Immediately after, I watched It's a Wonderful Life. Good thing I was alone for that one, because it was a tear jerker. I took a nap, went to the boyfriend's family Christmas party, and ate my little heart out. 

Here's a picture of the lights at the MTC. I was there around Christmas two years ago as a missionary, and now i'm back as an employee! Nothing's changed but the color of my name tag. :)

Maligayang Pasko sa mga kaibigan ko!




Kayla: We spent Christmas Eve at the Antoine Family's house. They had most of their extended family at their house and it was REALLY fun!!! We were allowed to watch a DISNEY MOVIE!!!!!! So we got to see a little bit of ice age... that the kids were watching. Then they put on "Planes" in French for like 10 minutes... The kids left and we weren't understanding. So they put on "Home Alone" which is Bishop Antoine family's Christmas tradition. It was really funny. En plus, it was in English!!!

We had a really big, nice French dinner with lots of appetizers... I like shrimp, and smoked salmon, and fois gras... at least the fancy fois gras that they had. Then we had some sort of bird that wasn't a chicken or a turkey. They told me that name... I forgot it because it was in French. It was really yummy!! Then we had a really yummy dessert with chocolate and such!! They gave us each a little present. They are the best family EVER!!

For Christmas, we opened our presents--including an entire new wardrobe from my mother... I'm not allowed to leave Aix because all my clothes won't fit in my suitcase!!!!! Thanks for the presents though!!!!

We ate Christmas lunch at Sister Zassor's house. Before lunch, Sister Zassor prepared little bags of food, and we went caroling to the homeless people. We just wandered around the city until we found people who were begging. The people were very nice. I felt so happy to sing to them. I kept thinking of the scripture that says that God doesn't look on the outward appearance, but that he looks upon the heart. I know that everyone is a child of God. Everyone is important, and we should try our hardest to treat people well! Sister Zassor made us a Traditional Provencial Meal. Aoelie something or other... it also has a French name. It means something with garlic. It was yummy. 

So ten minutes before we had to leave to go to Soeur Zassor's, we remembered that we were supposed to bring a dessert... So we grabbed two muffin mixes sent to me by my mom, threw them in a pie pan with some water and popped it in the oven. We took it straight out of the oven, wrapped it in towels, threw it in a bag, and ran out the door. When we went to serve the dessert, we were both very nervous but... IT WAS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE. We pulled back the towels to see a beautiful little cake. Sister Zassor loved it!! Heavenly Father answers prayers!!

I got to Skype with my family. That was great! Technology is wonderful!!!

We hope everyone else had a great Christmas and New Year's!

Christmas