After a Christmas vacation to Kennewick that was much too short, we were back to nursery. There is one girl at nursery who just adores Tyler (me, not so much) and she was so excited that we were back. Tyler had to drop some stuff off at the car, so I went up to the nursery room by myself. Of course it was locked and the lady with the keys was apparently not at church, so we were ushered into the next room and the little girl was so sad. Here's the conversation.

Girl (2 1/2 years old): I don't want to go in that room.

Me: We're all going into this room though.

Girl: Even you?

Me: Yes.

Girl: But what about, what about your dad? Is he coming too?

Me: . . . Well first of all, he's not my dad. But yes, he is coming.

Girl: *Beams and skips into the room, comforted in the knowledge that her favorite nursery teacher is going to be there*

Later, we are playing a game called Animal Show.  Here's how it works. We gather up all the animal toys in the room, and then I hold up each of the animals, ask what kind of animal it is, and then what sound it makes. Here's a sample of how it went.

Me: *Holds up a cow* What animal is this?

Kids: *stare dumbfounded* um... a pig!

Me: . . . no. . . Okay next one *holds up a donkey* What animal is this?

Kids: A camel!

Me: Nope.

Kids: A horse!

Me: You're closer.

Kids: A pig!

Me: Haven't you guys heard the story of Mary riding into Bethlehem on this animal?

Kids: Yeah! And the baby Jesus was still in her tummy.

Me: Yep, what animal is it?

Kids: A horse!

Me: Okay. This is a donkey. Mary rode a donkey when she was going to Bethlehem. So what sound does it make?

Little one year old in the back of the room who can't even talk starts making very accurate donkey noises.

Tyler and I stopped to see the Christmas decorations at the new Nuskin building in Provo. Still haven't quite figured out the purpose of the enormous building, but they had fantastic decorations. I am obsessed with the huge Christmas stars they hung.

They also had these pretty winter forest decorations set up. They had a prettier scene, but I didn't take a picture.

In other news, we had stake conference this weekend. It was pretty good I guess. They did a lot of encouraging members to be missionaries, which isn't really my cup of tea so I was feeling a little uncomfortable, but there were some really great messages. One of the messages was that we have to act on our beliefs. There was a story given that I really connected with. It goes like this. The guy, whose name escapes me but is a new member of the Seventy, used to be a mission president. Whenever they got new missionaries or sent missionaries home from the airport, it was totally chaotic because it's a bunch of young adult boys at an airport. So the Seventy man told one of the airport people who was always really helpful, "We are so grateful for everything you do for us, we couldn't do it without you." And the airport man says, "President, talk is cheap. We want donuts." Ever since then, the missionaries brought donuts with them. Moral of story, actions speak louder than words. Your beliefs mean nothing if you don't act on them.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks also spoke at conference. He was pretty funny actually. I got to shake his hand. It seems weird that it's such a big deal to shake an old guy's hand (okay, was that an inappropriate way to refer to an apostle?) but it really was. It was interesting to me mostly because I felt really calm and peaceful, and I'm really not a calm or peaceful person. (Fun story, when it was a crazy snow storm, Tyler was trying to teach me how to drive in the snow and he says, "the reason most people are so bad at driving in snow is because they drive too fast and they don't stay calm." And then I asked him if he was trying to politely tell me that I can't stay calm and he said yes.) But back to the Sunday story. It was a great experience and I felt really good afterwards.

So those are my feel good stories of the day.

We made an ice cream run tonight. I was really tired and wearing my capri sweats and a hat and a poofy jacket and a pair of boots that didn't even almost match, but Tyler said it didn't matter and I didn't really care, but as we were leaving I said, "I don't care what I'm wearing, I just don't want to run into one of my students." 

We get to the store and literally the very first person I saw was, in fact, one of my students. 

I have come very close to the end of student teaching. Tomorrow I have my exit interview, so everyone pray for me! I didn't realize how much I would miss my students until now though. One of my students wrote me the very sweetest card. One of my classes made me a card and they all signed it. Another student said the funniest thing that makes me laugh every time I think about it. Here's the conversations:

Student: You should bring us cookies or something so we can remember you!

Me: ...no... that's okay

Student: Are you going to remember us?

Me: Of course I am! 

Student: We're like your favorite class, huh?

Me: *non-committal shrug* (I have heard that question from many students.)

Student: Oh wait, we're not your favorite. We're probably your worst class. We talk too much. We're your worst class, aren't we?

Me: No, you're not. 

Student: *look of utter disbelief/astonishment* WHAT? Who do you teach, monkeys??

And it was basically the funniest thing that has ever happened to me. So I will miss my students, it's weird how attached you can get to people and how much you want them to succeed. 

Anyways, wish me luck/pray for me!

Well we're beginning to get into the Christmas spirit here. We put up our Christmas tree today (we got it from the Tyler's parents).

Here is the tree.

Here is the tree and our kitchen.

Here is our selfie with the tree.

I am reluctant to be a part of this selfie generation, but I will give them this- taking selfies is hard! So I am impressed with the ability to take good looking selfies. Clearly, we could use some improvement.

Anyways, that's our Christmas spirit thus far. It is freezing in our apartment, so I guess it feels like Christmas. Our apartment has been between 50 (literally 50) and 67 degrees. I am really not exaggerating, it is so cold.