Christmas Past

This Saturday my dear friend Camellia called... we were missionaries together in Montreal around Christmas, and had the BEST times ever. :) I MISS THOSE DAYS!!!! Not that I don't love the days I'm living now... I just can't wrap my mind around all that has past, and where I am. How did I get here??? It is amazing to me how most of the big events little girls look forward to come practically all at once--- a whirlwind of realizing dreams... and then there you are! A woman! A wife! A mother! So many changes in NOT so many years. Not three years have past since these pictures in Montreal... it feels only a week, and an eternity all at once. :) I do take comfort though, knowing however surreal my sentiments, they are not mine alone. All,at times, marvel at the passing of time, and life. We are born, we blink, and then ... 24 years have passed... and on it goes. Such is the beauty, and mystery of life.

So... I praise God! What if this were it? I would not be content. It would be far too short, and discouraging! Like going to Paris for an hour... what would you do for that hour? What if it was only an hour- no matter your circumstances??? What if for 45 minutes of that hour you were stuck in a broken metro? Through no fault of your own, the majority of what little time had already been allotted to you would have been wasted!

So, I am grateful to God for creating a beautiful plan for our existence, which though encompasses our time here, far surpasses it.

So, for the sake of reminiscing, I post these pictures. Snapshots of one of many happy seasons which were, though many are yet to come.

Here we are! Two little girls living in a winter wonderland. Here is a contract we made... in just a few months, I gained 35 pounds... living off rice crispy treats will do this to a person. It's a good memory.

A funny little snowman......................................and our view out the balcony at the back of our apartment... I've said it before, and I'll say it again... VERDUN was MAGICAL.

Sniff sniff... One of our VERY favorite families there... la famille Levesque. Here we are with Rachel and Genevieve. Check out our slippers! Everyone wears these in Montreal. :) I miss them!!!! We spent Christmas Eve with this family... and reenacted the Nativity--complete with costumes of the donkeys and singing carols. What a perfect evening.

There were wonderful snowstorms... which actually buried the cars in the streets....

And of course, we went Christmas tree shopping. Here we are with some other missionaries. The Elders got the big tree..... ours was the Charley Brown.

we thought it would be grand to take our tree on the metro... and so it was... but we pictured us with the Elders tree... it was just so much bigger. :)







I love the face of the girl in the metro car staring at us, trying to figure out what in the world we were doing. This is the picture we sent as Christmas cards to family and friends... wishing a Merry Christmas from the metros of Montreal. :)
Here I am with our Charley Brown in the metro car.

And then home again home again jiggidy-jig. :) Though surely we didn't leave the tree in front of the kitchen sink for always... neither myself or Camellia can recall where we placed it for the holidays! BOo. Details details... not important, but I'd like to remember them anyway.