We had an eventful month during November.
We went to the suburbs to check out the mall at Plenilunio, which was very large and very crowded and had a cool area where we could check out little powerwheels vehicles for kids and they could drive around the mall.
We spent some time at parks, as usual.
I went with Natalie to a youth activity at the stake center (stakes=regional parish of church comprised of several wards, ward=local congregation), which is on the same grounds as the temple. Always lovely to see the temple 🙂 Jacob and I also went to the temple one day.
Jacob and I went on a date to see Phantom of the Opera. Since a typical meal at a Spanish restaurant takes anywhere from 2-4 hours we decided to just grab some Taco Bell before the show 🙂 We were curious how the Spanish adaptation would be, and it was pretty good.
At stake conference we had a general authority visiting from Switzerland; I was able to provide interpretation services along with someone else, and afterwards Elder Weidmann was so nice and gave us some genuine Swiss chocolate 🙂
We celebrated Hazel’s 11th birthday! Some years it’s during Thanksgiving break, but that wasn’t going to be an option at all this year so she went to school as usual. Some sweet friends at school gave her some gifts, and we had cake and gifts at home as well.
Thanksgiving felt a lot different this year. I think the biggest thing for me about Thanksgiving is missing school, so without that it felt like a pretty normal day. I suppose we did have a little bit of Thanksgiving at my work; a big aspect of my job is sharing culture from my country, so we did have Thanksgiving activities in classes, and the English department and other language assistants headed up decorating the front foyer: they put up a big tablecloth on the wall, then we made tons of cutouts of Thanksgiving foods on which we had students in the English classes write something they were thankful for, and we put all the cutouts up on the tablecloth.
Our family did get together for a big dinner with some other Americans at church. I invited other Americans in my program but they had other plans.
I don’t know if I mentioned this but not too long after we got here I was called as young women president at church (in charge of youth ministry for girls ages 11-18). There are about 10 young women on the roster but none have really been coming to church or activities, but then a new family moved in with a young woman and they’ve been coming every week, and there are a couple who are moving up from Primary into young women now in January, including Hazel. In an effort to get to know the rising young women, and see who else on the roster we could get to know, we organized a get-together for girls and moms at a chocolateria near the temple after the ward did baptisms there. We had four girls come, which was great!
We planned a trip to Barcelona over a 5-day weekend at the beginning of December, which would include a trip to Gaudi’s famous Sagrada Familia. I really wanted it to be a good experience for the kids, so we watched a couple videos beforehand, and I also wanted to take them to another cathedral beforehand, so they could get some context for how amazing and unique Sagrada Familia really is. So the last weekend of November we went to the Almudena Cathedral next to the Royal Palace downtown. It is impressive in its own right, of course. The kids weren’t that impressed though 🙂 But it was a great experience anyway. That area of town is always bustling, and it was fun to see the different street performers and vendors and other interesting sculptures and displays and buildings.
We had a couple of sad family events the week of Thanksgiving.
My dad’s mom passed away a couple days before Thanksgiving, after a long and full life.
On the day after Thanksgiving, our nephew Chase and his new bride Kelsie of 4 months were in a terrible car accident, and devastatingly, Kelsie didn’t make it. But both families have shown such amazing faith and optimism even amidst the deep feelings of loss and mourning during this tragedy, and Chase’s recovery, though still ongoing, has been miraculous. People magazine did an article about them that did a good job highlighting their faith in Christ. We’re grateful to know about the ties that bind families together in the hereafter through temple ordinances and covenants. And of course we’re grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ who makes it possible.
