December 1-15 was our scheduled trip back to the U.S. - time for making family and friend connections, shopping, and doctor visits. We were up at 4am on Saturday, Dec. 1. Little did we know we were going to have a very long day…December 1 lasted 30 hours for us!
Our first leg was flying from Warsaw to Frankfurt, Germany. In the lounge in Frankfurt, Mark found a comfortable place to rest…reading a newspaper, reclined and facing a lighted wall mural of a forest - so soothing. We were delayed in arriving and leaving Frankfurt due to weather conditions…so we made the best of our stay at the airport.
We flew 11+ hours from Frankfurt to San Francisco, where we arrived late and missed our connection, which added 2 or 3 hours to our trip. We made a later flight to Salt Lake City…arriving around 11pm (7am the next morning for our body clocks).
We made our way to the home of our good friends Kelvyn and Laurie, where we were going to stay while in SLC. They welcomed us warmly to their home despite the late hour….and soon afterwards our Melissa arrived. She is living there while she attends grad school at the University of Utah.
The next morning, December 2, my sister Debbie and her husband Jim stopped by to visit us before they drove home to Colorado. They had spent the previous week in Utah…where their beautiful daughter Natalie passed away the weekend before. The funeral was on the day we flew to the U.S.
I wish that visiting with Debbie and Jim had been under different circumstances, but I'm so grateful they rerouted their journey home to Colorado in order to see Mark and me.
Their visit with us was so uplifting…I'm grateful they could talk about Natalie, their week of planning for her funeral and the day spent honoring and remembering her. It was so good to hear them share tender thoughts and moments with us. I love my family!
For the past 30 years….December 2nd has been a very important day in the Pickett Family….it is the birthday of our Melissa! How lucky we were to be with and spend the day with her!
Mark's sweet sister Kathleen flew to Utah when she heard we were coming to Utah ….and she brought her two daughters - Alycia (a student at Utah State in Logan, Utah) and Andrea (wife and mother to almost 3 children living in Roseville, CA).
After attending church with Melissa, we went over to where Kathleen was staying and enjoyed a delicious birthday lunch and celebration for Melissa! How fun for Melissa to be with her cousins on her day!
Happy….
….Happy Birthday, Melissa
Kathleen surprised Melissa with candy from the University of Utah…Melissa is not sure what to think of the UofU treats. She tells us she is a loyal BYU blue fan…but we think she can be a loyal fan to both schools (unless they are playing each other in sports).
One of the highlights on Melissa's birthday was attending the First Presidency Christmas Devotional at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. I have only attended one other event here (October General Conference 2006)…so being in this grand conference center was a wonderful experience.
The First Presidency Christmas Devotional is a wonderful evening…where our prophet and president of the church we belong to (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and his two counselors give Christmas messages. The messages were wonderful, as was the singing by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra. I loved when the audience sang Silent Night with the choir!
Kathleen (Mark's sister from Seattle) and Mark…I just love the two of them!
We had great lower center seats...
Here is our whole group that attended the Christmas program together…Alycia's friend Kyle, Alycia, Kathleen, Mark, me, Melissa, and her friends Julia and Whitney (who will start singing in the Tabernacle Choir in 2013).
After the Christmas Devotional we walked around Temple Square and saw so many beautiful Christmas lights. The weather was cool but relatively mild…not the bone-chilling cold it was when we were here for Thanksgiving in 2008.
I love Temple Square during the Christmas season….the Salt Lake Temple is simply breath taking!
Love this picture…though we are missing Jamie and Caroline in this family photo!
Kathleen and daughter Alycia...
We look so nice and dry in these pictures….
…. which were taken just before we headed to our car because we felt a few raindrops. But we did not get to the car before the sky opened up with pouring rain and pelting hail. Melissa, her friend Julia and I were soaked from head to toe…we screamed, laughed, and ran to the car. Mark somehow was calm….and hardly got wet….he ran faster!
Happy Birthday Melissa…we had a wonderful day sharing it with YOU!
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