Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday break. I feel feel so blessed. I got to spend a fantastic Christmas with our little family. Dave got me a bookcase. I was so excited I made Dave rearrange our whole apartment. And the poor man was just recovering from a whole week of being sick. I am so grateful for a patient husband who loves me enough to do that.

The day after Christmas we jumped in the car for a marathon trip to Colorado for the Barrand Christmas. We just barely squeezed in the middle of two storms that dumped over six feet of snow on Colorado.

Everybody was there except Don, who graduated from Marines training camp this week, and
Tiana, who is serving her mission in Virgina. The week was filled with gift giving and TONS of food and the "Train Game" ( Excellent game the real name is Empire Builder). We played it so much last year dad got the European version this year. A couple of times we had both games going at once. Its a fun game and the Barrands highly recommend it!

Dave and I both asked for nothing but clothes, because neither of us had actually purchased clothes since we got home from our missions almost three years ago. We got a pretty good haul, and probably won't buy clothes for another three years.

The best part of the week was going to the temple with Austin. He will be leaving on his mission at the end of January to Toronto. He got to get his endowments while we were all there. It was so special and wonderful to sit in the temple with all of the family and be reminded of the eternities.

Some of our New Years goals are-
1. Get rid of Dave's ulcer - we have to eat low fat, low spice, low taste food for it to heal:)
2. Improve Scripture Study
3. I'm going to write a Church magazine article about my sickness experience.
4. Prepare our Sunday School lesson earlier in the week
5. Pay off debt and save more
6. Make some good sales for IXG.

I just wanted to let everyone know how much I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We are so blessed. I know the atonement is real and we can all be healed from any hurt or pain. I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is truly God's church. He is at the head and is always aware of us. I know I will be with my family forever. I am so thankful for those blessings.

Love you all
Danica