Hello, hello, hello. It’s a wicked, wild life in Massachusetts. Here is how our month in December played out. Howard was in Massachusetts almost all month. He was scheduled to have several days off, but Tyco had some contracts pending in several different countries, which made it hard for Howard to not go in to work. He did manage to be home for several days when Melanie needed help with Young Women stuff. He did some work on the house, but we still aren’t done with the basement. He is still the Gospel Doctrine teacher and gave a wonderful lesson on the influence of the church in England.
Melanie had to plan a retreat for the thirty young women in her ward. It ended up being changed at the last moment due to the weather. The original plan was to have the young women go to Martha’s Vineyard and stay overnight at a church member’s home. The ferries were closed due to high wind, so Melanie had to scramble and pull together a retreat for a weekend, in one afternoon. It was a huge challenge, but it was a wonderful success. If we hadn’t had a ward member with a ten-bedroom home, it wouldn’t have worked out so well. Then Melanie had to change gears to prepare for Siovhan coming home, Christmas and Mikaela’s baptism. With all of the events of December and all she had to do, the month seemed to fly by.
Siovhan came home on the 15th of December and was relegated to babysitting on the 16th, so that her parents could go to Tyco’s Christmas party. She was willing to go everywhere with her mom and run all sorts of errands. She even attended the youth’s training and planning meeting on an early Saturday morning. She became her mom’s third counselor. On the 21st, she had her impacted wisdom teeth surgically removed. We thought that she was doing very well, but she started to vomit shortly after she came home and continued to vomit through the night. The next day, she was so sore and so tired. We all felt so sorry for her. She managed to keep the pain modified pain medication down for the next few days and even managed to enjoy Christmas. When Mikaela went to school on Thursday, she checked on Siovhan and brought her all kinds of things to take cheer her up, including a picture of the two of them together. All the children were so glad to have her home. Siovhan left for Utah on the 6th of January.
Braden tried out for the school musical, which is the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. He didn’t try out for a lead, which disappointed the director, who had heard about Braden from the other teachers. He is a townsperson, more specifically, the egg seller. He enjoys being active in band, chorus and school musicals. He is studying for finals, which are coming up this next week. He loves going to early morning Seminary and he tries hard to never miss. Sometimes his Dad will try to get him to sleep in, but it makes him more determined to be up and ready on time. We hope he will stay that determined throughout his whole High School career. We have eighteen months more before he and Ben are in the same Seminary class together.
Benjamin just endured one of the longest scout campouts ever. He forgot to take his raincoat, extra dry shoes, a sleeping bag and a few other items. He came home soaked through and tired. He has a new found appreciation for beds, warm, DRY shoes, mothers who nag about rain jackets and dads who bring relief in the form of dry clothes and hot chocolate. When he was asked to report on the camp out in Priesthood Opening Exercises, he said: “Well we just had a campout on Friday and Saturday. We all had a lot of fun. (Pause.) No, I cannot tell a lie here in church. It was a horrible campout. We all were wet, tired and cold. We all wanted to go home.” Of course all the men in the audience laughed, I am sure it was a laugh of camaraderie and experience. Ben is still working on his preparations to take the SATs at the end of the month. He is a bit nervous that the places close to home were filled and we have to travel to the larger city to take the test.
Mikaela was so happy that December was finally here. She was looking forward to her baptism. It was more exciting to her than Christmas, which was a good thing for her parents to see. She was also very thrilled to have her sister home for several weeks. She became very emotional when Siovhan left for Utah. She cried even more than her mom did. She is doing well in school and loves to go to Faith in God for Girls. She finally has her own church things to do. She has watched from the sidelines for so long, that she is so excited to finally being doing something while her mother is in Young Women and her brothers are in Scouts. She was baptized on December 31st in the morning. Grandma spoke on the importance of Baptism and Grandpa spoke on the importance of the Holy Ghost. Grandpa was a witness to the baptism and got stand in the circle when Mikaela received the Holy Ghost and was confirmed. The baptism was wonderful! Mikaela looked so beautiful in the dress that Siovhan picked out.
Well, that is about it for the Boltons. Howard is in Australia, Italy and England for the rest of the month. His family is dealing with sub-zero windchill conditions in Massachusetts and wishing we could be warmer.
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