When we moved here and the trees were full of leaves, we never noticed it. But since the leaves all fell, we noticed this towel up in the tree behind our apartment. We thought it was funny, but that surely it would blow down soon. And yet, through all of the winds, freezing rain storms, and snow, it continues to hang there. Every single morning now, it is like a challenge... when we open the curtains, will it still be there? And sure enough... it is !
It reminds me of that story by O Henry called The Last Leaf. - Briefly the story goes like this: Two young women are roommates in London during a period when there was a huge pneumonia outbreak and one roommate contracted the disease. Each morning when her roommate would open the curtains, she would see the tree across the way and count how many leaves were left on the tree. She saw that each day there were fewer & fewer leaves and told her friend that she was sure it was like her life. That when the last leaf fell from the tree, she would die. Alarmed as such discouragement, the roommate went downstairs to tell their elderly neighbor how her roommate kept growing weaker and weaker and thought she would die when the last leaf fell. Several of the next few mornings when the roommate opened the curtains there was one leaf left and she couldn't understand it. Then came word that the elderly gentleman who lived downstairs had been out in the storm and contracted pneumonia and died. The next day the girl told her roommate that she felt that seeing that one lone leaf clinging to the tree was a sign from God that she too, should cling to her life and so she was determined to recover. When the family of the gentleman who lived downstairs came, they told the girl that they didn't know what happened.. that he had been healthy, but for some reason had been outside during the storm, up on a ladder, with his paints. (So, he had painted the last leaf onto the wall behind the tree so it would appear that the final leaf never fell.) So, we've decided that perhaps that towel- clinging to the tree- is a metaphor for our mission. We are going to try to cling to this work and work very hard in this area to spread the gospel here. And, who knows... perhaps when that towel falls, it will be time for us to go home as well. (please do not even think of the other option - that if the towel NEVER falls, we'll be here forever...) Still, it makes opening that curtain each morning a real ADVENTURE, and a great way to start the New Year with the resolution to work HARD as missionaries!
Sorry, no "Stair Shot" this year... partly because our stairs are outside and it was very cold, and partly because it was Sunday and we were heading out to church. So, we took a couch shot with a present given to us by one of the members.
The mittens are for celebrating and rooting on Canada in the Olympics - thus the word Canada on one side, and the 2012 on the other. The young missionaries had spent the night with us and so it was a little on the hurried side for all of us to get ready for church... but we had them take a picture of us anyway. All the way to church I marveled at the stark beauty that winter has:
We went to church - only one hour! - then returned home to open gifts. Our young missionaries opened the gifts we had given them, and their stockings & do you think I ever even thought to get a picture of that??? NO!!! sheesh! Anyway Elder Mahaffey & I opened our gifts too. Under the tree for several days was a big present to me that felt so strange...like something with slats in it. Boy was I surprised when I opened it to find a shoe rack!!.
So now My shoes look all lovely and organized. (Guess I should have thought of getting that for Elder Mahaffey too, since this is the way HIS shoes look) ha! 
But, he also gave me this lovely Music/Jewelry Box that has our picture on it and plays We wish you a Merry Christmas. Inside was a beautiful necklace with a silver Maple Leaf on it.
I gave Roger this wonderful book & accompanying CD called Remembering Joseph- Recollections and stories from people who personally knew Joseph Smith. (On Thanksgiving our CES missionary couple read several interesting passages out of the book to us & we loved them!) and then I also got him the DVD - Cowboys and Aliens... which we had seen advertised in Walmart and he mentioned once that he would love to see that...since it's about COWBOYS, don'tcha know. A perfect Christmas...a little spiritual, a little secular..ha!
Our children were wonderful and sent us many great gifts and we loved them ALL!!! The Kreys sent framed pics of the Krey Krew for each of our desk..one says I (heart) my Nana and the other says I (heart) my Papa, and a wonderful book about the teachings of Pres. Monson.
The Monroes gave dad a gorgeous tie, me some snuggly warm slipper/boots, some warm neckscarves (which proved to be quite timely as I had just lost my wonderful blackwatch plaid neck scarf that I had bought in England! bummer ) and little monogramed stockings full of candy & hot chocolate packets
And Barbara & Dick sent us a gift card:
First the missionaries all get together in the RS room to watch a movie. This is a highlight for them & they are always really excited to see what the movie is. The AP's played a joke on them by telling them that they wanted to have a more spiritual Christmas this year & so they would need to choose from the movies : The Restoration, The Mountain of the Lord, Mr Kruger's Christmas.. etc. (which we have all seen about a million times because we show them so often to our investigators) The missionaries were crushed! Then they told them they were just kidding... and they got to vote on: Tangled, Rio, 17 Miracles, & How the Grinch Stole Christmas. They all voted for Tangled. It was more fun to watch those missionaries be so enthralled with that movie than it was to watch the movie itself!
And setting the tables, and working really hard in the kitchen:
Then when the movie is done we feed them a wonderful dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, peas and corn, rolls, and a jello salad on the tables.... and, of course, dessert. We served about 70 each day.
Once the dinner is over They get a visit from a wonderful man who always tries to help out all the missionaries - Daniel. 
He is there to kick off the gift exchange. Everyone brings a white elephant gift and puts it on the table: 
Then, after dinner, each person goes up to take a gift & bring it back to their seats. Sister Cannon then reads a story about the "WRIGHT" family who "LEFT" their home. During the story, everytime she says right or left, you pass the gift. 
At the end, you open the gift you end up with and then each person has one chance to keep or exchange his gift. Elder Mahaffey REALLY liked his gift this year... 
Here he is with Elder Florence... who got a LEATHER JACKET !!! sheesh!
Then it was time for each Zone's performance. I laughed so hard at our zone. They sang the song "Last Christmas" by Ashley Tisdale. The lyrics of the chorus are: Last Christmas I gave you my heart, But the very next day you gave it away, This year, to save me from tears, I'll give it to someone special." Then one of the Elders would step forward and read a dear John letter & then tear it up... then another chorus, then a sister would read her Dear Jane letter... it was just so funny to hear them read these letters, then sing that chorus... 
After that we took our group picture... this represents 1/2 of our mission.. the half that our district and zone are in. 
At the end the Missionaries all gave us a Thank-you card for all we did for them. It was signed by everyone. This is one of our AP's - Elder Jacquier. 
Of course, I got my own reward: 
We also took a picture of our wonderful mission President - Pres. & Sister Cannon
On the way out, each missionary had the chance to vote for the new mission Pin - or in French it is epangelete. Whoever wanted could submit a design and then they are going to have the winner made up into pins we can wear. This was the winning design:
Then our sweet district pulled us aside and gave us some presents from them:
They gave Elder Mahaffey a beautiful blue tie, and me an ornament made from the picture we took of all our district in the beanies we gave them. Then an elder in our district actually KNITTED these slippers for us. Slippers are a big deal here. I guess because so often you must walk thru snow and slush, that everyone takes their shoes off & leaves them by the door - but in the winter floors are still very cold, so most people bring along their slippers, or people have a bunch of them in baskets by the door for guests to put on. But who knew Elder Mollinet would have the time or the ability to KNIT us these slippers. These guys never cease to amaze me!! It was a long, wonderful day. Fantastic to be in the presence of all these great men & women in the Canada Montreal Mission!
Each one of the couples were assigned to bring something and Pres. & Sis. Cannon do the meat. I was assigned the dessert, so I made a Yule Long.
You make the cake, when it comes out of the oven, you roll it up in a towel that has powdered sugar on it to keep it from sticking, and let it cool. When cool, you unroll it, spread with cool whip & then re-roll it. Then frost it to look like a log. They were fun to do!
Here's the dining room group... Left to right around table: Elder Davis, Sister Davis (from Australia) , Sister Cheney, Elder Cheney (from Provo) , Elder Levitre, Sister Levitre (from Bountiful) , and Elder Mahaffey.. (sister mahaffey is, of course, taking the picture).
Here's the Kitchen group: President Cannon, Sister Giles, Elder Giles (from Midway, UT) , Sister Noble, Elder Noble (from AZ) , Sister Florence, Elder Florence (from Calgary, Alberta, Canada), and Sister Cannon. 
After dinner we went downstairs to work on a service project. We were holding our senior couples dinner 2 days before the Missionary Christmas Parties. At that party they always hand out all the mail and packages that have come to the Mission office for the missionaries. Here we are just 2 days before the party and there are 25 missionaries who have not received ANY packages or mail from home! Can you imagine? Sister Cannon says they always have 3 or 4, and sometimes as high as 8 missionaries without anything, but NEVER this many! So, we mark some plastic sacks with the names of the missionaries & then we each take a sack & go around the tables to fill the sack. Wonderful people have given lots of things. One elder had an widowed aunt who sent about 50 little wrapped presents. Some send money to the mission home each year for them to buy things for this very purpose... so, we had wallets, socks, ties, CD's, blankets, slippers, and tons of candy. Some of us were madly wrapping, others were filling sacks so that these wonderful missionaries wouldn't end up with absolutely nothing on Christmas. Some of the missionaries live far away & often their parents don't send things... Tonga, Peru, Switzerland, Burundi, etc. and sometimes the parents just don't realize how long it takes the mail and the customs agents to deliver things and have just waited too long to mail, and sometimes the missionaries just come from homes that are either dysfunctional or poor or not very supportive and so don't send anything. It never dawned on us until tonight that we could help the missionary effort in any mission all over the world by just sending some money or gifts to your favorite mission home.
We did have a funny thing happen. President had told us that the Zarahemla Ward (Spanish) would be coming to carol to us at some time during the night. When these two came playing & singing, we just assumed it was them. Turns out they were caroling to raise money for ANOTHER church in town who is trying to build a new church! ha! So, of course, we gave money to them. This is the REAL group:
Then we went upstairs to the living room to relax and the President wanted each of us to tell about a memorable Christmas we've had.
We had a hard time choosing, but ended up telling about the Christmas in Modesto, California in 1979 when we first had the Twelve Days of Christmas done to our family. That started a long string of years of remembering. Many couples had also had the Twelve Days of Christmas done to them. The one I liked best, however, was the Giles' story. (couple in picture # 2 that are sitting on the left side of the couch- beside the sister with the colorful slippers) They said their most memorable Christmas was this one. Their children told them that they were sending a large box. In it were 20 presents. This was to be the "20 Grandchildren Days of Christmas". There was one present from each grandchild and they were to begin on Dec. 4 and open one per day. They told of the wonderful experience this had been growing close to each individual grandchild! What a neat memory! After everyone left, we stayed behind a bit to give Pres. & Sister Cannon our gifts.
Then for Sister Cannon. In the kitchen of the mission home is this tacky, funny statue of Happy Cat. She got Happy Cat when she was in Thailand and it is a silvery-gold statue of a cat sitting up on it's back feet and holding it's other paws up by it's head & one of the paws moves up & down like it is saying hello. She says it's just a funny little thing, but when she saw it in Thailand it just made her laugh & so she bought one & brought it home. Now everytime she looks at it, it just makes her smile! So, when I was purchasing all the ornaments for our family for Christmas, there was an hinged ornament that looked EXACTLY like Happy Cat! So, I got it for her. She LOVED it! We also gave them a white glass ball ornament that has a picture of she & Pres. Cannon on one side & "Merry Christmas 2011" on the other side. It was such a fun night. Again, I will have to say, I totally did not realize how much you grow together as a family of senior couples out here in the mission field. These are such wonderful people and we truly do all love each other! It's going to be a GREAT Christmas!
I know this photo will bring back YEARS of memories for our children when they sat at the kitchen table for HOURS and frosted sugar cookies! ahhhh... good times! (they, however, may remember those times a little differently!).. Anyway, we ended up making and decorating about 16 dozen sugar cookies! Our little tiny table couldn't even hold them all. We had to make about 4 dozen, frost them, then put them on TV trays and counters overnight for the frosting to harden while we started the next batch. We had cookies on placemats on the floor, on every counter and on every flat surface in our apartment!
We also dipped about a million pretzel sticks and later pretzel rounds with both white & milk chocolate, then rolled in crushed candy canes. Of course, not having too many kitchen dishes, we didn't have anything narrow and deep to melt the chocolate in... so we made a trip to the dollar store to purchase 2 tall, skinny mugs & we used those... one for the milk chocolate, one for the white chocolate. (Later they have made excellent hot chocolate mugs! ha!)
This particular plate was made for the senior couples- so it also has peanut brittle on it. What a disaster! I made about 4-5 batches of peanut brittle, trying to figure out what was wrong, why it wouldn't get crunchy... only stayed chewy. Finally, by replacing the butter from Walmart with a high grade butter, and throwing away my dollar store candy thermometer & just using "The Force" like I always used to, I finally got a good batch! Needless to say, all the other plates ended up only having cookies and pretzels! ha! Another year of wonderful memories! Thank heaven I have a wonderful companion who helps make the cookies and frosts them & even did the pretzels - or it never would have worked.