This week of Christmas was extra special, as I had the opportunity to enter the beautiful temple and make sacred covenants.  This is something I've spent my whole life preparing for, and though I still feel too young and naive for all this {wait this was my twentieth Christmas?!} it made me appreciate the holiday all the greater.  I am so grateful to be a part of this church and for the sacrifices of Jehovah. I couldn't imagine a better way to celebrate the birth of a Savior who allows for families to be eternal than to be with family.

This year most of my presents were for my mission, which is unbelievably in just over two months.  That afternoon we shared a delicious meal with two sets of grandparents, two sets of uncles/aunts and the cousins.  Us older girls watched Phantom of the Opera to bring some old memories and then I convinced the younger girls to carry probably twenty blankets/pillows/thermal sleeping bags out to the trampoline for a slumber party under the stars!  Unfortunately Olivia and Megan were talked out of it {I guess the 32 degree weather didn't sound appealing?} but it ended up being one of my favorite moments I ever shared with just me and Soph.  That girl has grown up so much since I left!  She still seems like the baby of the family, but in reality she's the same grade as I when Kendall and I started co-writing a novel about the Titanic. I loved chit-chatting with her as well as making bizarre noises/faces at each other and snuggling under our ridiculous amount of comforters.  Although we woke up with frost on the top layers, we were covered by so many layers that we were warm the whole night through!