Sunday December 20, 2015
Dear Cass -

Hi there! How was your week? I'm anxious to see some pictures of where you're living and the Hamburg area. Is it way bigger than anywhere else you've served? Have you been to another Christmas Markt?

So for here - we are in full Christmas mode. This week has been pretty crazy busy, but in a good way!

Monday was CRAZY! We had a very busy day planned and then it snowed, a bunch! Did you get my picture? I had to snow blow & shovel by myself in the middle of the day. I had to pick up the Jr. High carpool that afternoon and we barely made it up the hill! Then I had to take Hadlie to piano and Grammy & Papa were coming over for dinner that night. We met Grammy at the golf course and shuttled her up the hill. Colten stayed at school late so he didn't have to try to drive up the hill and then he met Papa at the Honeybaked store to pick up our Christmas ham. Luckily the snow plow finally came and Colt & Dad were both able to get their cars up the hill. We then all went in the van back down to go to the Festival of Lights. Everybody likes that! Then we ate a delicious dinner and then shuttled them back down the hill to their car. After that Dad snow blowed again.

Tuesday morning I think I was really anxious about the snow and getting everyone to school so I woke up at 4 am and snow blowed the driveway and sidewalk. It stopped snowing that morning and the big snow plow came to our street so it all turned out fine. Hadlie's choir sang at the malls that day so I went to the University mall to do some Christmas shopping and watch Hadlie. I tried really hard to make that my last shopping day, which of course didn't work. River also needed a white elephant gift so after school we hit up the dollar store for that.

Wednesday I helped in River's class for gingerbread houses. Remember how exciting that was in sixth grade?! Then I went to our NAET appointment and dropped off our Sub for Santa stuff at Mr. Buck's class. Then I had to do more shopping:/ That night everyone went to YM/YW and Dad and I took a whole car load of playground balls and equipment over to Aunt Wendy's house. I'm not sure if you heard that as the big St. John family we decided not to do presents for families and to donate a bunch of playground equipment to a family who is going to Mexico to restore a school playground.

Thursday I did my work at the barn in the morning and was actually able to spend most of the day at home doing laundry, etc. It was very pleasant actually. That afternoon Hadlie and I worked extra hard at the barn because Nancy was pretty much in a pickle and hadn't been able to clean the stalls properly all week. It was nice to be able to help her and we were tired! Hadlie then went to help at the Primary Polar Express activity and Colten went to the opening night of Star Wars!

Friday was pretty crazy too! I actually had time to go the gym so that was nice. Then I went visiting teaching with Sister Barney. Dad then took a half day off and we went to Five Guys! Yay. And then he helped me go grocery shopping! I mean, what a good guy! That evening I went to the Conference Center concert with Brooke and Chelsie. We ended up getting a few tickets and Dad didn't really want to go in all the traffic so I took the sisters. And it took us almost 3 hours to get there! There's just SO much traffic. No accidents even. We got there a few minutes late and it was enjoyable once we got there. It was good and all about Handel's messiah. It was a late night for me.

Saturday (yesterday) the girls and I got to go to the Nutcracker with Karron, Katie & Kortney. Grammy also came with us. We did our traditional lunch at Brick Oven and then the ballet. It was fun as usual. That night Colten had his fun Skate Date which I'll let him tell you about. Dad and I also watched Ricky & Natalie's kids while they went to the Conference Center concert. The boys were good but like Dad to play with them the whole time. Violet is a bit of a fussy baby but she did ok with us. River helped out a little and Hadlie was hanging out with Cassidy Christensen.

Today we had our Christmas program at church. The choir did awesome and we have multiple professional like musicians in this ward so it was really good! After church we made omelets. We've been on a good rotation of either having roast or making omelets. We've tripled our egg intake I think since Dad was diagnosed with diabetes. And here we are now. I made a whole batch of sugar cookie dough and the kids are making their allotted tray of cookies right now. We are all very excited to be on Christmas break now. We've scheduled some fun activities for the week here before Christmas. I'll be sure to take pictures:)

I love you VERY VERY much and hope you're happy and feeling more healthy! I'll be anxious to hear what the plan is for talking with you on Friday!
Love - Mom