Merry Christmas!

We started our Christmas festivities on the 23rd with our Walker side get-together. It was great that my dad was feeling good enough to come over this year and he did great throughout the evening. It's always fun to get together with these guys as there is always a lot of laughter. :)

 Next up was Christmas Eve at the Morrow's. My mother-in-law cooks the entire meal herself and it is always delicious! It's fun to get caught up on everyone's busy lives!!

 These guys decided they wanted to sleep in on Christmas this year (fine with me!) so we started opening presents around 9:00. Nick would've slept in much longer but Hailey was up and ready to go. This is the first year that I have actually been up waiting around for someone to come open presents. :)

 The BEST part of Christmas Day is the FaceTime call with Elder Morrow. It is so awesome to be able to hear his voice, see his mannerisms again and see his whole personality that you can't always see in pictures.

The most amazing part of the call with him came at the end when we knelt together in family prayer...he was actually kneeling in the bathroom at the members house for privacy. :) He began offering the prayer and the spirit enveloped us in a manner we have rarely felt. We were all, including him, overcome with emotions and as he continued on, I realized the feelings I had were the feelings of pure joy. It is not a feeling that you can buy with money or that you can get from opening a gift, it is worth much more and felt much deeper than anything obtained here on earth. That was truly a moment of pure joy for me and I believe for each one of us...joy for the opportunity Bryson has had to serve a mission, joy for the gospel in our lives and joy for eternal families.