It's been confirmed... Santa goes to New Zealand

So... after almost two weeks of no news from Josh... I finally got to talk to him. But not without some serious jumping through hoops!

Last Sunday... no email telling me when he would call on Christmas Day. Hmmmmm. Practice patience. Have a little faith. Drum the fingers nervously. Wonder how in the world this is gonna work if I don't know when I'm supposed to be home to answer the phone. So... Christmas eve here is Christmas Day there... So again, I'm confused. When exactly will he call? Christmas Eve comes and goes. No ringing of the phone. Christmas Day comes. Morning... passes. No call. We go to a movie around 1:00pm. I'm a little concerned about potentially missing a call, but whaddya gonna do when everyone wants to go to a movie? So... off we go. Then there's talk about seeing a double feature. Gulp! Panic and worry in my gut. Please no. Not four hours away from the phone. You see, I have no answering machine on my home phone. While I'd much rather have an interactive conversation with Josh, I was really heartsick thinking he'd not even be able to leave a message that he had tried to call and we weren't there.

Whew!!! Valkyrie (sp?) over (yeah, yeah, I know it's not exactly a Christmasy kind of movie) and we are heading for the door and not the ticket booth again. We get home. I check the caller ID. No calls at all.

Just to end the suspense, I'll tell you I went to bed that night with... no call at all. Disappointed.

So, Monday morning I check my cell phone. The little icon for a phone message was displayed. I listen in and a very British gentleman has left a message for me. I don't know exactly when he left it. I put my phone on "silent" in the theater and forgot about it until the next morning. Anyway, it's Josh's mission president. Seems a few of the missionaries have been having trouble getting through... he thinks it must be a problem with their phone. So he has called to tell me it's alright if I call Josh. He leaves a number. I frantically write it down. And make the call... (Can you feel the suspense and excitement building?)

Ring.... Ring.... Ring. And a woman's voice answers. (That's weird.) I identify myself as Elder Chichoni's mother. She identifies herself as Elder MacDonald's mother... living in Melbourne, Australia. Now... I realize Josh has just been transferred, but really? To another mission? In another country? She's very nice. And politely explains it's 5:30 in the morning in Australia. Lucky for me, she has just sent her daughter off to a Young Adult Conference so I shouldn't worry my sweet self about waking her up... she was already awake. Then she proceeds to explain that she has a son in the Wellington New Zealand mission and she spoke with him yesterday. Seems he was having trouble with the phones so his mission president called her and explained the situation and gave her the number of her son's "flat" (apartment) and told her she could call direct. We put our heads together and figured that the president got the phone numbers confused when he called me. Instead of giving me the number of the flat, he gave me the number of the MacDonald family. "No problem," she says, "I've been a bit 'wicked' and didn't throw the phone number away. Let me get it for you."

Crisis averted. I get the number. Thank my new international friend with the cool Australian accent, and hang up. I call the new number. Ring.... Ring.... A male voice answers, "Missionaries." (Interesting way to answer a phone.) I explain that I am Elder Chichoni's mother and ask who I am speaking to. "Elder MacDonald." "Oh, I just talked to your mother." By now, I'm sure he's surprised. He covers well, "Sweet," he says. So I ask to speak to Elder Chichoni. He says, "Um, Elder Chichoni doesn't live here. I'll get you his number."

Ring.... Ring.... A male voice answers, "Missionaries." (Doubly interesting.) "This is Elder Chichoni's mom, may I..." "MOM!!!!"

And so it begins. He's fine. He's dandy. He says hello and Merry Christmas to you all!!! He sends an "I love you" to Grandma, Jon, Spencer, Kay, 'the girls', Uncle Mike, Brett, Rob, and a very efficient "everybody else." (By the way, lest you think he's inconsiderate not sending an "I love you" to his sister, Katie.. trust me, there was no need to send any message to her. He talked to her for 40 minutes.)

He talks funny. He has an accent. He says weird words in the wrong places in sentences. I smiled. I laughed. I listened. I talked. I DID NOT CRY. Until I hung up. And then it wasn't sad tears. Not a one. I'm just so grateful to the Lord for blessing my son with this experience.

Oh... and he's gained 24 pounds. Katie fondly calls him "Chubs." He claims it's all thigh muscle from riding a bike everywhere he goes. Ummmmmm... well..... okay.

Oh... and for those 'in the know': No worries. He informed us that Brittney is engaged. (Obviously not to Josh.) We are very happy for her. Wish her much happiness in her future life... without Josh. Whew!!!

Just your standard update

Jon is busy, busy, busy. Football is over, however all the other associations and clubs he belongs to are still going strong... with another one (DECA) to be added after the Christmas holiday. He was instrumental in getting a tree into the “Festival of Trees” this year. He is on the high school newspaper staff and so he raised the money for the journalism class to donate the tree. They entitled it “The Gift of Literacy” and decorated it with book-type ornaments and stuff. He got some bookstores around the valley to donate copies of the Twilight series, all the Harry Potter books, and a bunch of individual books as well. They placed all of those at the base of the tree as well. The tree sold at the auction before the public viewing event. He was thrilled to find that out.

Many of you have asked how Josh is doing. I wish I could tell you. But I haven’t heard from him since the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I check my email every Sunday afternoon (New Zealand is 18 hours ahead of us.) But, for the past two weeks, there has been nothing in my Inbox. I’m hoping he’s doing well. I’m assuming he’s doing well. Maybe next Sunday, I’ll know for sure.

Katie is busy. I don’t know exactly what she’s doing, but there’s a lot of motion and movement, so she’s at least busy. She works two part-time jobs and is still taking her Medical Assisting class. She has an active social life. She’s in Relief Society each week. That’s a little trippy. I’m used to be the only person I’m related to in Relief Society. Now, my daughter’s there every week.

Spencer is playing basketball for his school this year. We’ve been to one game so far. This week, his game is in Price, so I don’t know if we’ll make the trip. He was working at the same place Rob and Katie work, but I don’t think he’s working anymore, now that basketball practice and games take up most of his time.

My mom came to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with us. She arrived the Sunday before Turkey Day, so we had everyone here for dinner that night. Brett & Juliann were leaving the next day for California (and then London for Brett), so we had to squeak in a family dinner before they left. Mae is adorable. (Yeah, what else were you expecting? Of course, we are all COMPLETELY impartial and unbiased, right?) I’m sure my mom was anticipating seeing everyone, but, frankly, the thing she seemed to always say to me was, “I can’t wait to see *that baby*!!!” You know, I have to add here... as much as I love to see Mae (and wish we could see her more often), once Brett & Juliann get here, I seem to enjoy sitting and visiting with Juliann as much as having Mae in the house to pass around from arms to arms. She's a great mom and is very sweet to Brett. -- I think she kinda likes him ;) But, in addition to that she is open and friendly. She's interesting to talk to and visit with. I have to say... I like her a lot!

Rob and Rachel made the announcement that they have set an official wedding date: May 22nd. Oh gosh, now I’m not sure... was it the 22nd or the 23rd? Crud, I’ll have to call someone and ask. Anyway, Rob has moved into his own apartment. He and Rachel have been painting and putting up baseboards and chair rail... doing the ‘fix it up’ thing. Cool!

Well, I guess that’s the update.