Thanksgiving

Hi Michael!

It was great to talk to you on Thursday! I’m so glad you had somewhere to spend Thanksgiving, and I’m so glad there are kind people in the world willing to befriend and feed the missionaries.  I love that you are meeting interesting people and making new friendships. Your Dim Sum experience sounds memorable! The pictures look pretty awesome, TBH. FYI: lobsters, octopus, and crab have now been recognized as sentient beings that shouldn’t be boiled alive, according to the UK government. Fascinating. It sounds like you have had a lot of success finding people to teach. I'm so impressed by that. And I’m really amazed by how fast you seem to be learning the language. Keep up the good work! 

News from home:

1. On Sunday night we had tithing settlement with the bishop. We were discussing home MTC and wondering why the MTC isn’t fully open yet despite availability of vaccines. Bishop responded that the church is being extremely cautious with covid. I told him I am more covid conscious than anyone I know, and even I think it’s probably safe to reopen. I mean the MTC would be way more safe than our primary program superspreader event! The bishop laughed uncomfortably, and your brothers were mortified.  But seriously, if everyone were a little more covid careful, maybe we could put an end to all of this nonsense.  Against my better judgement, I let Jett go play at the Bird’s house Monday night. On Tuesday Heidi texted me to say Mike, Jordan, and Romney had all tested positive.  Sigh. When I told Jett he was on quarantine, he burst into tears. He is supposed to go in for a test tomorrow, and if he tests negative, I think he is done with quarantine. It's kinda lucky it happened over Thanksgiving, so he didn’t have to miss a bunch of school and games. 

2. Because of Jett’s quarantine we decided to cancel our Thanksgiving plans with Great Grandpa. He is doing much better, but we didn’t want to risk him getting sick.  I think he hasn’t been able to get his booster shot yet.  I believe he was released from his rehab facility on Friday, and went back home. My dad and siblings did a lot of work to arrange for some extra help for him at his house with cooking, cleaning, and driving. He has a new walker that hopefully will be more stable, and also a new Apple Watch that can detect if he has a fall.  

3. Ethan was able to go get his second dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Wednesday! Pretty soon he will be fully vaccinated. It feels like we have waited so long for this! Jett and I were really disappointed to have to postpone his appointment. He is scheduled for tomorrow as long as he gets a negative test result.  There has been international news of a new covid variant called Omicron first detected in South Africa.  This variant appears to have a lot of mutations that have not previously been detected.  There are concerns that it may be even more transmissible than the Delta variant, and may be able to evade vaccines.  So. The world’s experts are scrambling to study the variant, and governments are imposing new travel bans in hopes of containing the variant.  But it has likely spread across the world by now. Should have more information in the coming weeks on how serious this development is.

4. The kids passed their dental exams with flying colors and no cavities. Except Jett. Had to reschedule that too.  

5. Tate’s hair continues to vex me.  And he has started to copy Jett’s habit of wearing his clothes backwards. Never underestimate the influence you can have on younger siblings who look up to you and watch what you are doing!

6. Thanksgiving prep is no joke! I spent several days creating the menu, shopping, and researching how to cook a turkey and gravy and rolls. This year’s turkey prep included spatchcocking, dry brining, wet brining, and smoking. Spatchcocking is a term for cutting out the spine of the turkey, breaking the breastbone, and pressing the turkey out flat on a cooking sheet. 100% do not recommend. When I was finished, my kitchen looked like a crime scene, and I was officially vegetarian. BUT, on the big day, the turkey cooked beautifully. My dad said it was the best turkey he had ever had, and your dad gushed about the gravy. So I'm counting that as a success, and counting it as a blessing that I don’t have to do it more than maybe once a year. We had a lovely day together and enjoyed being able to talk to you after dinner. My mom and dad joined us, and so did Maddy and Matthew. We finished up the evening with a round of Wingspan. We had so many leftovers.  So many. I’ll have to tone it down a bit if I host again. 

7. The Christmas tree is up!

8. Ty FINALLY got his bindings. I thought the kid was going to have and aneurysm waiting.  Ty and I had a *lengthy* conversation late into the night about racism and the Kyle Rittenhouse case. It reminded me of some of the conversations I've had with you. 

9. My window plants are flowering and producing new shoots. Hopefully some of those flowers turn into lemons, and the orchid shoots will be flowering soon. 

10. Dad and I went to the South Jordan temple last night. We had dinner at a place called Oh Mai and had Bahn Mi and Pho. 10/10 recommend.

Spiritual thought: Sister Jacobs gave a fantastic talk about family history today. She shared a lot of stories about how her ancestors influence her life today—even just remembering the relationship she had with her grandpa, and how his legacy prompts her to do good. She told about how her adopted son was sealed to their family. Later they took a family trip out off the country, and the kids in primary were amazed that her kids had seen, and been inside a temple. She reminded us how lucky we are to have the temple in our lives. Taking photos and journaling are also ways we can do family history without realizing it. I’m so glad you are taking the time to write good letters and take photos, because those records will be valuable to you later.

Love you!

Mom