Post-trip Recovery and Christmas Blues

We went to Germany!  Maybe someday I'll get around to posting pictures and journaling all of our adventures.  We saw three different Christmas markets, we sledded, we ate....a lot, we swam in the pool and hung out in the outdoor hot tub.  We saw Austria, an Olympic park, and stood on top of the highest peak in Germany (Zugspitz).  Benny had the pleasure of puking in not one, but two airports and an airplane.  There were more than a few moments when Jason and I had to just look at each other and laugh so that we wouldn't cry.  Traveling with four kiddos in a foreign country had it's moments, but it was fabulous and I'd do it again tomorrow if we could.

We made our way back to Sicily on Saturday.  It seems we didn't have time to even take a breath.  We are back in full swing here in Sigonella.  I am the Relief Society president in our branch and there are two big events this week.  I am hosting a cookie exchange at our house for our monthly meeting.  We are hoping to use it as a fellow shipping event also, so lots of friends and neighbors will be here, too.  Lots of ladies and lots and lots of cookies!  Our little town house isn't roomy, so it'll be tight, but hopefully it will go well.

This Saturday is our branch Christmas party, so we're trying to get the finishing plans in order.  Our branch presidency was reorganized yesterday, so for now, Jason is no longer in the branch presidency.  The new president hasn't called counselors yet.

Sullivan is starting to talk so well!  He says "Mama" and "Da-Da".  You have to imagine him yelling it, because he never just says it.  He says "Santa" and when he sees Jesus in the nativity he says, "Bay-Beee".  It's pretty darn cute.  He's currently going through Frozen detox.  During the trip, just to keep him happy, he was always either watching Frozen on the iPad or one of our phones or he was carrying one of our phones around and listening to the soundtrack.  He LOVES the "na-na" song at the beginning of the movie.  He loves "Frozen Heart" and "Do You Want to Build a Snowman".  In fact, when he's asking for Frozen, he clicks his tongue over and over again like Anna does in the Snowman song.  Do you remember that part?  He cries for it while yelling, "NA-NA, NA-NA!"  We have to hide our phone and the iPad from him.  It's too cruel to allow him to see it.  It would be like smoking in front of a man trying to cut the habit.

Graham and Benny both have their final flag football practices and games this week.  Lucy would have them, too, but she's in a cast with a fractured thumb.  She has a science fair expo tomorrow and auditions for the school play, Wizard of Oz.  She's hoping to be one of the Citizens of Oz.  She practiced her song last night and got up really early to practice some more.  I hope it goes well for her.  I can't wait to talk to her tonight when she gets home.

As I'm sitting her typing, I'm listening to the Johnny Mathis Christmas album that Mom and Dad sent in their package we got a couple weeks ago.  It brings back so many memories.  I remember listening to it every year growing up, all through December.  Mom and Dad had the record, so it would catch in places and we'd have to jump next to the player to get it going again.  I sit here wishing I was in our home visiting with my Mom as she makes cinnamon rolls for us and the neighbors.  My kids and their cousins would be coming in and out from playing and fill us in on the latest argument they've had.  All the while, Johnny would be singing, "It's a marshmallow world in the winter" in the background.  I miss my family.  I miss my house.  I wish I could picture them all there.  Lucy and I had a little pity party last night for ourselves.  I found it interesting that she was most upset about Sunday dinners at Grandma's house.  She said she loved walking home from church and then everyone coming over for dinner together.  I miss that, too.

Christmas, for so many people, is a time of happiness and celebration, but it can also be so sad.  I'm just missing a place....my parent's home in Layton.  Many, many people are missing other people.  I can't even begin to imagine what that will inevitably be like.  It's hard to be away from our loved ones, but my loved ones are there.  I can call them.  I can picture them laughing together, even if it's in a different house in a different town.

I am grateful for my Savior.  Even when those extra lonesome Christmases come and I'm missing someone that has passed, it is because of Him that I'll be able to look forward to seeing my loved ones again.  No matter how sadly sentimental I get, that testimony will get me through.