In remembrance~

Yesterday after church, we joined the rest of the Whitchurch family in a drive up to Chris' older brother Daniel's grave. Every Christmas we go up to put a Christmas wreath on his grave, talk about memories of him and sing Daniel a couple Christmas carols. Never have I seen them leave without shedding some tears as he is very much missed in their home. Each time we go, I am reminded of the beautiful blessing of the atonement and for the opportunity we have to see him again and for me to meet Daniel. I am so so grateful for the knowledge that I and Chris' family has of the Gospel. To know that this time on earth is not the end and that we can all if we choose to be in a better place after this mortal life ends.

We then returned for a lovely dinner as always prepared by Fran. We continued that night and watched Home Alone 2 that was placed in NY which we loved and I loved now that I have actually been to NY and could recognize several places that were in the film! I love spending all this time with the family! Not that we do not see them weekly anyway but there is something different about it around this time of year. Maybe it is the knowledge that James, Fran and Britt are going to be in California and that we do not get to see James nearly as often as we did. Now that they are selling their home, it is sad to think that it will be our last Christmas in this home. I am however really excited to have Aaron, Josh and Annie in our neighborhood! James and Fran have all their selections picked out and McArthur should started building next month.

In preparation for today's FHE, Fran was slaving away in the Kitchen so that we can all make Christmas treats for our friends! We had a couple options of caramel popcorn and assorted cookies. We frosted cookies and put the popcorn in little Santa bags and gingerbread men bags. Put them on Christmas plates and then Chris and I went around our neighborhood passing them out while they were fresh! Not sure what we are going to do if the neighborhood continues to double! While we were passing them out we had run into Dayna and Nate Checketts that decided to do caramel dipped apples which I thought was a great idea!