In Which Christmas is Summarized

RoseE writes:

"Dear Mum and Dad,

Once again, aaaaah! Barely a second to write, 'cuz the darn on-train internet cafe disappeared. We went to Changwon today (faraway city) for a housewarming party for Sis. Ogelvie and her companion, who just moved to a new apartment. Lovely. We had a great time. Sisters Corrigan, Musser, and Matthews were also there, the latter two only for a little bit. Sis. Corrigan asked the dangerous question "So what is this Doctor Who* thing about?" and . . . well, it's a good thing she's going home in three weeks, that's all. She'll be able to find out what happens next without coming across Korea to find me and make me tell her more. And plus I always get the scene order mixed up in 'The End of the World." I should ask Bethe to write me a summary.

Sounds like a heckofa Christmas . . . merry chaos, as ever, but that's as is. Ours wound up being spectacular. After a few rounds of Yahtzee and Scrabble with the Tollett kids, we went to member Britta's house for her Christmas Dinner party (think Cara**, but an active member living in Korea. Other than that, pretty much the same person) and then straight to Suseong ward for the Christmas party there. Belly dancing was done . . . with the Elders. It was a lot of fun, and seems to have endeared my to all the Relief Society. Well, whatever works.

Other than Christmas, it's been a quiet second-half-of-the-week, which is good becuase I'm down to four minutes here. Eyes still open for your package. It's been Christmas plus weekend plus not seeing the mail-picking-up Elders all day. I'm not too worried yet. And I got through Christmas only crying twice: once Christmas Eve reading Luke 2 out loud to myself, and once after I hung up the phone***, but I hid in the bathroom and (bless 'em) the Tolletts just get it when the just-off-the-phone sister needs to hide in the bathroom for a bit. It wasn't too bad.

Regarding travel: I make no attempt to deny that having parents in Korea to show around would be all kinds of cool, but Dad's tantalizing offer--going to England# with all y'all afterwards instead--is intriguing as well. And it would be less headache for the mission. And I was pretty resigned to the idea of just going straight home for most of my mission anyhow. So I'm quite open to that idea. And flying 'round the long way to Korea, standby, is probably just unimaginably awful.

Outta time--love you

RoseE"


* Doctor Who: A BBC TV series that started in 1963 and is continuing to be--or is again--a big hit with fans on both sides of the pond, including the Hadden Family. http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/

**Cara: a friend of RoseE's from college who is crazy about shoes.

*** RoseE called on Christmas Eve and we put her on speakerphone (Thanks, Caiti & Jeff!) and talked for nearly an hour. We opened our presents from Korea during the call so RoseE could explain whatever needed explaining, and even got to talk to her companion, Sis. Pak. Some of us cried at the end of the call, (no names mentioned), but only at the end.

#We have plans to go to England in August 2010 to visit a Hadden aunt, and a famous author