Barrett's email - January 1, 2012

Happy New Year!

Christmas morning opening presents 

Christmas tree

Happy Birthday Ana

Skyping home

Seniors singing at the Christmas party

Okay, so I'm here in the "Dungeon". It's this dark, scary internet place in the basement of an electronics store that a lot of missionaries use because it's close to the church. Usually we go to the post office or the library, but today our library is not providing internet for whatever reason, so we had to come to the dungeon. Now it wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that the computers here do not give you a count down as you near the end of your time. At the post office, you get a timer in the corner, so you can write literally to the last second (which I usually do), but here it will tell me I have 5 minutes left, and then I'm on my own. It could happen at any moment. It makes emailing even more stressful than it already is.

What a week! Happy New Year!!! Holy cow, it's 2012! Only 354 days left til the end of the world. Japanese New year sounds like it was the funnest ever. I see a new tradition in our future.

In celebration of New Years, President approved the viewing of secular movies for one night only, so on new years eve we (our district and another) went over to a senior couples house and slept over and watched a ton of movies. It was a lot of fun. We watched Harry Potter 7.2, Kung Fu Panda 2, Letters to Juliette (twice), Old Dogs, and Flykids (or Flyboys, I'm not sure how it would translate back into English) then I went to bed, but some stayed up even later. Oh, man it was so much fun. All night there were people setting of fireworks, and I don't mean bottle rockets, I mean full-fledged, 4th of July fireworks right in the streets, out of their windows, everywhere. I'm not sure it was the safest activity (especially since I'm sure most of them were drunk) but it was way cool. We were on the 14th floor, so a lot of them would explode right at our level. It did get a little annoying after a couple hours and they were still going. At midnight we even got to watch a little tv to see the russian celebrations. It was a good night.

Then on Sunday, we had a bunch of bliny for breakfast. The perfect way to start off the year. Church was only one hour long (last week we had the full 3 hours. New Years is the big holiday here), and afterwards we went over to a member's house for dinner and had more bliny. What a day.

And today, in honor of Ana's birthday, which also happens to coincide with Free Museum Day, we went to the museum Kuskova. It was incredible. I guess it used to be this really fancy estate, and now it's a whole bunch of museums. Tons of old paintings and sculptures and ceramics and china. It was fun.

Did I mention that I got the package with all the christmas cards. Thank you so much! It was a ton of fun to read them all.

Well, I got the warning, so from here on out I'm not exactly sure how much time is left, so I guess I'll start wrapping up. Thank you so much for everything. Thank for the updates and the pictures. I'm not sure how important the brand or the size is for the underarmor. It's always under, so it doesn't really matter. Have a great week. I love you all so much.

Love

Elder Hamp

Barrett's email - Monday, December 26th



Barrett on Skype...Precious face!

Greg, Kristen and Ana checking out the matroshka (nesting doll) 

Holy cow! Sorry no pictures this week. I'm writing on a MacBook and I have no idea how to use it. I tried, I really tried.

Well, Christmas was just about the greatest thing ever! Saturday the mission had a devotional followed by a party, which included some of the funniest skits I've ever seen ("The District 3: Moscow Russia", etc.) It was a ton of fun.

Then Christmas day I opened my stocking and looked at all the pictures that I was saving for christmas day. Oh man, I love pictures.

After church we shoveled the snow out of the parking lot behind the church and then went to a senior couple's house for dinner. It was fantastic.

And then, easily the highlight of the evening, day, year - Phone Call Home!! Oh man it was incredible. Skype is the most incredible invention. I just can't believe I had a face to face conversation with my family 12 time zones away. I can't wait for the next one.

Well, I spent too long trying to figure out this silly computer and how to send pictures, so I gotta go. Thank you so much for the pictures of christmas. Tell Kristen I couldn't believe how tiny that matroshka (nesting doll) got either. Hope you all had the best christmas, too.

I love you all. Especially you, mom.

Happy New Year

Love

Elder Hamp

Perfect Christmas!



Every year it looks the same but every ornament has a memory :)

Skyping with Bear

Dad opening his gift from Greg

Grandma with scarf from Russia

The card reads something about an adorable face...the reference being to Greg's and Bean's

Apparently the date stamp of my camera is off a day...ha.ha. Opening gifts from Russia and Owen opening gift from Gregory. Our boys are generous and thoughtful!

Christmas Day!
We skyped with Barrett at 8 a.m.  He wanted to take a tour of the house and then we talked about all kinds of random things....it was perfect except, next time, we definitely get Grandma up and over here...even though it was early, I know she was awake at her house waiting for us to pick her up.  We recorded the call.  I have already listened to it again and will do so again and again.  It was so fun to laugh together.  He was soooooo Barrett!  He showed us the view the the senior couple's apartment.  They overlook the river and on the other side is one of the seven sisters which is a name that english speakers have given seven buildings in Moscow that Stalin had built that are beautiful.  Funny we looked them up and they seem very functional and mundane in their use, the one by the river is an apartment building, but they architechture is gothic and they looks castle or cathedral like.  It was lit up for the evening and a cruise ship was lit and passing by and the scene was quite beautiful. 

After our call, I went and picked up mom and we had Christmas breakfast and skyped with Gwyne.  It was 10 pm in Kuwait and way past their bedtime so we didn't talk to Alan until the next morning for him which actual Christmas night for us.  We talked to them in our morning, then they went to bed and we did all of Christmas and we skyped again when it was their Monday morning and mom was still here at the house and ready to go home from a lovely Christmas....wild. 

After breakfast we went to church.  I LOVE when Christmas falls on a Sunday and we go to church.  It really makes the day very special. Owen and I were asked to narrate the program and we did pretty good.  Owen's first line made him nervous and he had to start over but after that it went well. Greg and mom came.  Mom said it was a nice program and I was glad Greg got a chance to see so many people at church who love him.

 After church we started dinner.  Mom bought a Raley's dinner in a box which turned out great since our ignitor for the oven went out the day before and no one was open on Christmas eve to get the part.  We improvised by using the broiler setting and covered the food with foil.  For some things it worked, for others, not so much :)  The Mackey's came by after church to receive their Russian gifts.  Oh I might say that Barrett told us that he had to borrow a suitcase from his companion to make his first transfer!  That boy is in trouble...he is already collecting to much stuff.  He is a p-day shopoholic I fear.  He said that we will have to come pick him up from Moscow so he can have three more suitcases to fill... scary! 

We opened presents and had a really generous Christmas all things considered.

Dinner was quite good and the best was that Brandon called during it!  He said he was going to see if he could get permission from his mission president to call us too.  He did and so he was able to briefly talk with us.  That was very nice!  He sounded great.  Every food he told us about was delicious :)  There was one food that he avoided so it could be that if he doesn't think he will like it, he doesn't eat it, but he seems to really like a lot of them!  He seems to love the people and he is doing what needs to be done.  He is driving a four wheel drive truck...awesome! 

He sent us a card with some pictures in it.  He looks really good and sounds happy.

Christmas 2010

Grandma Santa Owen
Mom's favorite
From Amy....beautiful and thoughtful
Greg with snow pick- be careful :)

Stockings first...oops.




Dinner...the works. Grandma and handsome
Barrett and Steven
Dad and vegan Barrett
Greg
Ana and Grandma

Merry Christmas 2009!

Merry Christmas 2009! Christmas was a great experience this year. For us, it has been a tough year but also a great year. Owen hasn't worked full time since November 2008. Over the months we have worked together to make lots of changes in our family spending. Everyone has worked together and I am proud of all of us. The boys have learned about the expenses of the home and have been so responsible for their own expenses and have helped with the household when necessary.


This year we decided to draw names for Christmas gifts and gave ourselves a spending limit. It took a lot of pressure off of mom and it was fun to concentrate on one person. Some additional gifts appeared as Santa had done some bargain shopping the prior year and found the stash when cleaning out for a yard sale! How funny was that?


Dad got a waffle iron that flips just like the ones at the hotel's free breakfast...that we ate a ton of going back and forth from Utah for over a year. It was a very thoughtful gift for him because Greg really paid attention to something that would make his dad happy.
Mom got an iron that she really needed and really wanted. Nice and heavy duty and does vertical steaming so I don't even need to get the board out :) Thanks Barrett.

Grandma got some clothes that she wanted from Owen. I had to help a little with the shopping on that, but he didn't expect me to do it for him. He asked for my help.

Greg really wanted a Stanley classic thermos, green with a handle. I never question why he likes what he likes but he was happy. He used it the next day when he worked outside all day in the cold. He put homemade Turkey soup in it and was happy that when he went to eat it the soup was still so hot he had to blow on it to cool it down. Note: he also made the soup! Barrett went window shopping to prepare a list of ideas for my mom, he came back and wrote his list: LOST Season 5 with 40 dollars attached to the list to pay for whatever the amount would be over the limit. It was funny. Mom found it on sale and he got most of his money back. He was happy.

Once all of the gifts were exchanged, Barrett took out a note from the "Stow Away Elf" explaining that he stowed away and brought special gifts for all of us. It read:

Sorry I couldn't put these into your stockings. The Big Man never turned his back long enough for me to get to them. He thinks I'm back at the workshop. Shhhhh...don't tell. Wel, got to go. I just heard Blitsen's signal, the sleigh is leaving. Merry Christmas, Secret Santa's Stow Away Elf.

I love this picture of Barrett reaching into his stow away bag (aks Raley's shopping bag) he has such a genuine look of joy. He was so excited to be the elf and to see our surprise. The spirit of Christmas: he gets it; I think we all did this year.

Dad got Band of Brothers and Greg and dad watched it for days. Well done but I can't watch war movies. It hurts.

Beans is always in the middle of the action. She got presents from Grandma and the Elf.

Let it Snow - It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

Today was full of exciting stuff. It was so cold that it started to snow. It is the first of the season and it came off and on. Of course, everyone is hoping for snow all night so the schools will call a snow day...this would affect the kids, Carrie and Barrett. We will see.

The first Sunday of each month, our ward, since we attend last in the building, has been doing a Break the Fast. So the regular Sunday night dinner crowd from our house all brought food for the Break the Fast. Because they didn't announce it last Sunday, only about five dishes showed up so they canceled. We came back to our house, with a few additions. Sean and the missionaries, who didn't have a dinner appointment because they were counting on the Break the Fast. Nice to have a full house. Steven, Sean, Carrie, Owen, Ana and Kristen

Brandon, Barrett and Steven.

Elder Stevenson, from Samoa, with Seth in the snow.

During church today Janice invited us over for a Christmas sing along. There family used to sing like this on Christmas Eve and Janice decided to bring a bunch of people together to have a sing along impromptu. So after dinner, we all headed over to Janice and Jerry's. Norma and Larry were there, Scott-Janice and Jerry's oldest, and the whole crowd from our house except the Elders who had another appointment.
Carrie was a good sport playing all the christmas tunes.

Brandon and Carrie

Scott, Greg, Steven, Ana, Barrett and Owen

Ana, Steven, Barrett, Owen, Janice and Brandon

Greg, Steven, and Ana

Scott, Kristen, Greg, Norma and Larry

Owen and Sean

Carrie, Scott, and Barrett

After singing, Janice read a Christmas story to the crowd. You could hear a pin drop.

Listening....Greg, Ana, Barrett, Steven, Seth, Brandon, Sean and Owen

After story time, we finished with one last song....We wish you a Merry Christmas! Followed by Spiced cider, brownies and ice cream. For me, it was my fifth brownie of the night :)

It was a great night. Until the singing at Janice's I really didn't feel much like Christmas. I wasn't down about it, but I just didn't feel it nor did I want to do the regulars like listening to carols on the radio, etc. Tonight got me in the mood. I am very blessed to have the family and friends that I have. In addition, I am grateful to have had this experience at Janice's. Janice and Jerry have lived in that house for about 50 years and Janice lives there as a child before that. For many of us there tonight, we have many memories of the Bennet's from either being raised in Placerville, or for me building a friendship with Janice. I will miss her being in that house. I am glad to have this new added memory - probably one of the last.