Merkley Adventures: Christmas 2014

We have been sick off and on, not usually 2 or 3 of us at the same time, but, for about the last month we have been ill in some form. This is the first time, I have felt well enough to go to church as a whole family- since so many illnesses have been circulating.

And, this is also the first time I've felt like I have a few free moments to post about Christmas.

Christmas this last year was pretty crazy. We kept trying to go every which way we could all within the same day, or the same 3-5 days traveling to pretty much all sides of the state, so it seemed to me.

Coming from a Family, which is Blended, or Broken, and then put back together in a new way is pretty interesting.

Christmas EVE EVE is what I call the 23. I am so thankful for that day. It was the last day I saw my Maternal Grandfather alive. He passed away on January 1, 2015- from complications and the effects of Pancreatic Cancer and a rare form of Blood Cancer. I told him Marry Christmas on the 23 of December, and gave him a kiss on his cheek. He said, "Thank you Chelsea." And those were the last words I ever heard him utter to me. I just came from his funeral and he has been on my mind quite a bit these last few weeks. I am very happy that my son and my husband and I came to see him that night, and that we got to say our final goodbye to him then, in person, before he passed. He was 87 and had lived a wonderful life.He was a brilliant cardiologist and worked withe Elder Nelson on President Kimball's heart conditions and several other Prophets and Apostles of the Lord's Hearts and Health. I love him and miss him. He was kind, loving, forgiving, helpful and usually happy. He and my Grammy Joanne sang in the Tabernacle Choir together for many, many years and helped grow our families' love of music and singing. One of my gifts from God, that I try to emulate and work well on everyday. I love my Grandad. He always had a great sense of humor. He was witty and very silly in his jokes. He told wonderful stories of Jocko and Jinko Monkey living in the Jungle to his children and Grandchildren. He was always a servant of God and loved God and his family first.

Elder Russel M Nelson spoke at my Grandfather Allan Barker's Funeral about how much fun these 2 cardiologists had on a joint family trip to Mexico, pooling their funds to be able to drive buses to Mexico City and to get a bus to go to a different part of Mexico and to Go Deep Sea Fishing. They both caught huge Sailfish. My Grandaddy's was bigger than Elder Nelson's and the dissected the hearts of the sailfish and found out that they have 2 chamber hearts. Which they thought was pretty cool. Then they prayed to be able to get back to the city, because no buses went back to Mexico City from where they were at- and someone came and took their families back to their cars. I love hearing fun stories about my Grandfather. I miss him, and I love him ever so much.

On Christmas Day we had Christmas Morning at our home from about 8-9:30 am and drove from South Jordan to Cottonwood Heights to see my In Laws and have breakfast, open presents at their home. Then we went to my Mom's home also in Cottonwood Heights, and opened presents and had a bit of brunch with apple pancakes.

At about 4 pm we were beat, but were able to leave my mom's at about 4:30 to head to my Dad's home clear in Woods Cross, Utah below Bountiful. Which is quite a ways. We opened presents there and then left a while after we talked and said Merry Christmas. It was just a pretty crazy day. That is the night I got sick. Right on Christmas Day Night.

Here are the pictures from my Camera from Christmas and some from New Year's. Most of the pictures were from my phone and were put on fb that day or a few days after, these are the ones from our camera.