Exciting month!

There are some exciting things coming up for us in the next month. 
My sister Emily is going to come home from her mission in ITALY on December 3rd (3 1/2 weeks!). 
Then in a month from tomorrow, my brothers and their wives and babies are coming here to visit for our family Christmas celebration!  Then of course Christmas is always wonderful. The whole season is. And no, I don't want to be different by choosing another favorite holiday. :)

I just have to declare that I'm 100% sentimental 
(surprise) and nostalgic, so getting together with my 
family + celebrating Christmas = an overload. 
I even had a dream recently about my brothers coming home and hugging them and crying (don't doubt that'll actually happen when I see them). I can hardly wait to see Ty, Elisabeth, Luke, Jake, Kari, Abigail, and Emily!!!!! 
My family is so important to me. 
I don't know if I'll ever get used to living in a different state than they do and only seeing them a few times each year. But at the same time, that probably makes it even better when I do get to see them.

I have missed Emily so much over the past year and a half. And the last few months senti falta dela (I missed her) even more because I started to let myself get anxious to see her, knowing it was coming fairly soon. She has been doing such an amazing job spreading the Gospel and bearing testimony of Jesus Christ. She has had a lot of health issues relating to her jaw, her stomach and hips. The worst has been her hips, since she relies so much on them for walking many miles each day. I remember feeling pain in my hips my first week in the mission field in Brazil, but then it went away as my legs got used to so much walking. I'm sure her difficulty is different than mine because it's still plaguing her. But she has persevered and continued with so much faith and long-suffering. 
I am proud of her for having such a great attitude.

 Emily and me, the night I said goodbye to her before she left on her mission.

I'm also excited to get to know her again. That doesn't mean that she'll be a completely different person. I just mean that I'm sure she has changed and grown in many ways, and it'll be fun to spend time together. Before she left, she had been up at Utah State for school, and I didn't see her very much and regretfully didn't even talk with her much on the phone. At that time, I was very busy myself with my last semesters of school and working full-time and performing with choir, etc. Now I'm only working and have more time to be nostalgic. :) In fact, I realized that since I got married, I value girlfriends so much more that before. I need girl time! 
...Which brings me back to my last post...