Boxing Day

Good morning world.  We're receiving posts from family and friends, back in the states, where they are in the midst of Christmas Day.  It's Boxing Day here in Australia, going to be above 95 degrees, and the smoke is still in the air.

The last two days have been quite peaceful and pleasant.  We arrived back at our flat, last night about 11:00 from Sydney.  We spent the day at the mission home with 5 other couples.  We wandered around the Temple grounds, thus a picture of a cockatoo in a tree, and had an excellent dinner.  Evelyn made an apple crisp for the dessert and others had brought ham, funeral potatoes, green beans, rolls, salads, a cheese ball, shrimp and lots of smiles and love.  We visited, shared Christmas memories and traditions, watched BYU lose their football game in Hawaii and then watched the movie about the fighting preacher.

Evelyn and I drove up the day before and took a new route.  We went along a back road to Wollongong and had a great drive, minus all of the smoke, through little towns like Moss Vale and Robertson.  Then we drove down Macquarie Pass.  It would be an amazing ride on a Harley.  The afternoon was windy and quite cool but we walked around the lighthouses and had lunch at a seaside restaurant in Wollongong.  I had the Barramundi and Evelyn had their fish and chips.  We even ordered dessert.  It was a pleasant drive up to Sydney where we stayed at a Courtyard for the evening.  Took a walk around the "technology park" and went into a "mall" where we bought some cheese, crackers, grapes and strawberries for our Christmas Eve meal.

It was definitely a different Christmas but it was nice to be together, see lots of Marco Polo clips from our family and be able to visit with my mom on the phone.  It's such a blessing to my heart to see our sons getting together, talking with each other and seeing the grandchildren laughing and making memories.  Sometimes, when I read the news, it seems there is no peace to be found in the world but then I watch the clips from our family and I am reminded that peace should begin with me, my home, my family and then line upon line we light the world.  When people ask us what are we doing here, our answer is easy, we're trying to love like Christ did

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