I guess the Holidays don't technically start until after Thanksgiving but it felt like they began when Mark arrived home in the middle of November! Months in advance we were given notice of his travel plans and we were counting down the days.
His flight was scheduled to land at 9:57 in SLC, so with plenty of time to spare we were on the road by 8 am. Excited for his return, I was happily watching the scenery pass by in the passenger seat when I pulled out my phone to check the status of his flight, hoping he was on time. Never in my wildest dreams did I consider that his flight would have left early.
Not only did his flight leave early, but unbeknownst to me, his departure time had been moved up by 30 minutes. He was now scheduled to land almost an hour earlier than expected and there was no way for us to arrive any quicker as we were already on the road speeding down the freeway at 80 miles an hour, and what was once a happy little road trip down to Salt Lake quickly turned stressful and full of motherly disappointment, knowing he'd arrive after being gone for 2 long years and nobody would be there to welcome him home.
After my panicked prayer pleading for peace and help realizing it was out my hands, I remembered that Mark had mentioned several weeks ago that there was a chance that he'd be allowed to bring his mission phone home with him. Doubting he'd connected to the plane Wi-Fi, even on the off chance that he did have a phone on him, I sent off a message via Facebook and hoped for the best.
As we approached the airport, Jotham dropped the kids and I off at the curb and drove off to park the car. Anxious to finally be there, we hustled our way through the airport and spotted him happily sitting down and visiting with my parents who had arrived a few minutes earlier. I couldn't hold back the emotion and was surprised as my hustle turned into a scurried run as soon as I saw him.
He'd miraculously gotten my message and in traditional Mark form just took it as it came, completely unfazed. He calmly gathered his luggage, took pictures for other missionary families and happily waited.
He came home wearing shoes that definitely showed the tell- tell signs of a well-lived missionary life. The suit he was wearing had hole in the hip seam and he was so proud of it because he'd found it hanging on a church house coat rack with a "free" sign after the suits we'd went sent out with him no longer fit.
There are differing opinions on how much he's changed.
He's definitely filled out, but overall I don't think he changed much, still our Markie in the Middle.
After he was officially released by the Stake President, we came back home and Mark drove head first into his totes to look for something besides proselyting clothes to wear. He'd gained almost 20 pounds on his mission and I was embarrassed to discover that he'd been wearing such ill fitting and tight clothing out in public. He spent a good 30 minutes trying on some of his old high school pants hoping to find something with a looser cut, but to no avail.
It was at this point in the evening that Tori and the rest of the Newswander's showed up a little earlier than expected for dinner. Jotham answered the door and was trying to explain that Mark would be out in just a minute since he was still looking for some pants that fit. Oh, but no. Mark rushed out wearing pants still a tad too tight exclaiming "I've got pants! I've got pants!" He'd waited two years and the lack of well fitting pants was not going to hold him back. Oh, how we laughed!
Jotham's Nifty-Fifty birthday was few days later. He'd been eyeing this rifle for years. Its a replica 1873 .45 caliber carbine lever action rifle that is used in mounted shooting. Somehow, I hope it softened the blow of turning 50 a teeny tiny bit.
Thanksgiving was enjoyed at Grandma Jo's.
And we played hard all weekend.
Such a joy to have everyone home all together for the first time in years!
We played pickleball and went ice skating.
On Saturday we cut down our Christmas tree.
It was such a weird sensation watching my kiddos make adult plans to go out to dinner together without us. Dave's Hot Chicken Wings is now Gavin's favorite place.
The Holidays continued with more Choir performances.
And Gavin threw us for a loop when he decided he wanted to try wrestling. Every weekend in December was spent on a bleacher. He won his first three matches and I cried every single time, by the fourth one was I thought I was cured but that's the first one that pushed Gavin over and he cried. By his 5th match we were both hardened and we've done much better. Its been so fun watching Jotham dust off his old moves and get to spend his weekends with one of his kid's doing something that he loved first.
I also went to SLC to chaperone a choir trip.
Other notable holiday festivities including a Jenny Oaks Baker
concert where Hollie and Erik's choir accompanied her violin.
It was gorgeous!
Making wreaths with Mark and Tori.
Catching our first snow of the season as we celebrated Jordan's graduation from BYUI.
After the commencement exercises we enjoyed a Back to Bethlehem dinner.
Then another one at home where Hyrum could join us.
And Hyrum Graduated too! His school only offers commencement
ceremonies in the Spring, so we'll have to wait till then for better pictures.
Jordan and Hyrum both received shot guns for graduation and
we had our own little Hatch family shotgun party on Christmas Eve.
We enjoyed having everyone home again and later that afternoon we strolled the sidewalks downtown on a gingerbread house walk instead of the planned xc skiing because, alas there was no snow in these here hills.
We were blessed to have both sets of grandparents join us for our Christmas Eve feast where we shared our favorite stories of Jesus and expressed our gratitude in remembrance of all He has done for us since His miraculous birth two millennia ago.
Matchy-Matchy Hatch Family Sweatshirt for the WIN!
Christmas Morning!
After all the wrapping paper was corralled and we'd loafed around longer than was good for us, we found our shoes, and our hats and we headed to the park to try out Mark's new golf discs. Too many water traps made it exciting and stressful due to the race against the setting sun- but gosh such good company!
One thing that I'll always remember from this Christmas was this thoughtful gift from my kiddos.
Apparently its was four years ago that I hung up some large, matching black pictures frames above the couch in the basement. For four years those frames have graced our walls with the stock photos still glaring out behind the glass. I'd had so many ideas of what to photos to put in them, but every time I became crippled with indecision. It was always something I was going to get around it... and yet four years later... they were still full of the original non-descript concrete steps that were originally there way back when they lived at the store.
Christmas morning I noticed the frames had been cheerfully wrapped in Christmas paper and hung back up...
Little did I know...
Those cutie-pa-tooties I'd given birth to (plus Jordan)
had conspired against me and posed together for an awkward family photo shoot.
Oh, they printed out their favorites with no hesitation
and
filled those lonely frames full of giggles.
It was a good Christmas!
No comments:
Post a Comment