Then One Foggy Christmas Day

 20 December - 26 December 2021

What a great week! We had a marvelous start to the week with my FHE group activity! I did so much prep work to make it a success. I combined with another FHE group (that way, there would be enough to do an activity, since only two people showed up the previous time!!!). We split everyone who came into four groups and assigned them to make a Christmas-shaped dish. We had candy cane (and other Christmassy shapes) pizza, a Christmas tree cheeseball, a wreath shaped salad, and Christmas tree/Santa's face fruit platters! I also had everyone write letters to children in hospitals and to old folks homes during any down time. People really enjoyed it--especially the part where we got to eat all the food. It was all very delicious, and everyone loved it!

Tuesday morning, I woke up a bit after 5am and got ready to go to the temple. I went to the 6am endowment session, and I loved it. It was the first time in a couple of months since the Gilbert temple has been closed, and it was a peaceful and spiritually strengthening experience to remember and think about Jesus Christ. I got to go to work at noon today, so I picked citrus for my coworkers for Christmas gifts. I also had time to play racquetball with my family. In the evening, I went to a wedding reception to see Becca Strong Harper. Her friend got married and had a reception down here, so she was in town. I was happy to get to visit with her, and I'm always so pleased when it feels like no time has passed and you can easily chat with old friends.

On Wednesday, we had a work meeting about the upcoming tax season, and though I wasn't feeling too worried or stressed, I definitely did after that meeting! Mainly because I didn't know a lot of what they were talking about... but I took lots of notes and have some time to prepare myself. Then we all went out to lunch at Charleston's, and it was absolutely delicious! The boss's wife gave us all Christmas cards, and mine had a $100 bill inside! I was surprised by how much food was wasted by others. I was the only one who ate all of my food, and only two others took food to go!

On Thursday, my two coworkers Kelli and Jill got me Christmas gifts. Jill got me the cutest bread teddy bear! She said even though I couldn't eat it, my family could enjoy it. Kelli got me a $10 gift card to Chick-fil-A. I spent a lot of time reviewing my notes and getting a feel for what I needed to learn. We got to leave the office early. I got a note from Valerie in the morning that my Christmas gift was coming early and to be ready by 6pm for an adventure. I was excited. She took me out to dinner at a new place in Chandler, and then we went to the Chandler Fine Arts Center... to a David Archuleta concert! I had no idea it was happening and was pleasantly surprised.

I didn't have work on Friday. We played racquetball in the morning. I went home early because I wasn't feeling well (since it was already 10am and I hadn't eaten). I ate and cleaned up a bit. Then Symantha came over in the afternoon. We played games and ate a yummy Christmas Eve dinner of smoked ham, potatoes, etc. I found a recipe and made gluten-free monkey bread.

Saturday was Christmas day. We all slept in! Lucy didn't get up until 7:30am!! I got ready so I'd look cute before coming down. I looked outside the front door with Lucy and Valerie and saw white everywhere... I almost thought it was snowing! Though it was just fog, we had a white Christmas! ;) It was spiritual to watch the nativity video, and then fun to watch everyone open presents. I was surprised Valerie got me another present, since she spent so much on me Thursday night. She got me a really cool necklace that has a stone you can peer in to see "I love you" written in every language! We had junk food for breakfast, then made pizzas for a late lunch. I ate so much stuff that I think my stomach grew three sizes too big! ;) I got exactly what I asked for, plus some lip gloss and a game from Lucy. Symantha and her friend came over to eat with us and play games after. I just relaxed the rest of the evening and ate way too much stuff. The present I gave to Jesus this year was that I would treat every day like Christmas. I know that sounds cheesy, but as I was pondering and praying about what I could give Him, David Archuleta's song "Christmas Every Day" kept coming to mind, and I thought about how much happier and excited and kinder I've been this past month. Christ has been spoken of so much more in preparation to celebrate His birth, people have been in the Spirit of giving and are more welcoming to each other. I want that spirit to continue and to be with me throughout the whole year.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...

Dad opening his gift from Sean by throwing tissue paper up in the air

Dad measuring how fat he will be by putting his Christmas snacks under his shirt.

Grandpa looking through my necklace stone to see the "I love you" message

Now don't I have the cutest sisters?!

On Sunday, I did not feel all that well. I slept in late. We had one hour church, which was kind of nice so that I could go home and crash after. It's been so nice to be around family. Sean has been so sweet and loving, and much less annoying and troublesome. I felt the spirit during church and had a new thought come to mind about how I spend my time. Sometimes I am bored or wonder if it's okay to do something on a Sunday or whatever, and instead of asking "what sign am I sending to God?" I am going to ask "How can I show God I love Him?" It is much more clear to me, and answers the question of what I should be doing. Something that shows Him my love.

Much love,

Emily Burnham

Fire Hydrant Fiasco

 13 December - 19 December 2021

I finished up my classes this week! What is really nice is that my new job is slow right now, so I am able to do a lot of classwork in between tasks, which means that I officially finished my first quarter in my master's program with A's! To start off the week, we had a fun experience at the office. A guy driving a huge truck ran over a fire hydrant (which shook our building somehow because of the connected pipes) and got stuck. We called the fire department (because it didn't look like he was...) and then had an interesting time observing what was going on throughout the rest of the day. So if you're having a crummy day, just remember: at least you didn't run over a fire hydrant!

Monday night, I attended our ward Christmas party. It was fine, but just not really fun. I don't know what is missing in our ward (or is it just my attitude), but it doesn't feel like a ward family. At least not like it did in Utah. But, it is getting better as I continually become more familiar with people. 

I spent a lot of time practicing violin for our musical number on Sunday. On Thursday evening, I went with Sean to practice at Sicily's house. We are playing a violin duet of Silent Night with some light piano accompaniment. Sicily sent us home with mini Bundt cakes, which I gave mine to Valerie, which made her super happy.

I finally got to go to the temple on Saturday! The temple has been closed for a couple of months. Such a simple act of going to the temple fills me with God's power and strengthens my Spirit. The change is so subtle that I'd miss it if I wasn't consciously paying attention to it. I also finished wrapping all the presents I'm giving out and am READY for Christmas!! But also not ready. Because it's like Christmas ends right when you get to it, so I love to spend time in the anticipation leading up to it and to not rush into it. Saturday night was the Relief Society Christmas party. Lucy tagged along. We played games and ate treats. 

The musical number went well on Sunday. I got nervous and my fingers shook, but maybe that helped make some more vibrato?? ;) haha. Anyways, we got lots of compliments, and it was nice to listen to all of the other performances and feel peace and joy. We had a linger longer after church, decorating sugar cookies. They had gluten-free sugar cookies, and while they were not the best tasting, I was still happy to be included in getting to decorate and eat cookies! That evening, we went to Aunt Kim's house to celebrate Doug's birthday with the Burnhams, and I got to meet a lot of babies of my cousins for the first time.

I should also report that we went to the gym at 5am this week, and played racquetball a few of the days. I am getting a lot better (even though I did accidentally whack my dad pretty hard in the mouth with my racket...). I've felt a lot of joy in being with my family. I love them so much.

Much love,

Emily Burnham

Family Pictures

 6 December - 12 December 2021

I started my new job on Monday! And after surviving a whole week of working full-time, I can say I like my job so far! Especially because I have loads of time to do homework. My boss Jill says that things will pick up a lot during tax season, so to enjoy the slowness while it's here. Work is from 9 to 5, but I usually leave around 8:30 in the morning because Jill wants me to work down at the Mesa office to get trained, since the Chandler office is empty right now. I get home after five. It's so weird to have my whole day taken up, but I kind of love it because I am getting paid more money and feel more productive. 

Also, mom and Lu woke up at 5am to go to the gym for an hour before school, and I tagged along Tuesday through Friday. Let me tell you, I felt so much better by the end of the week! More energized, less sore and achy, less groggy and foggy in my brain. The after-effects of eating dairy weren't as bad! (Which, why I ate dairy will be discussed later in the email). 

The first couple of days working at Sun Income Tax, they trained me on some programs they use and on answering phones. They had me work on projects, such as scanning papers into the computer and then shredding them. I must have jammed the shredder at least five times while getting rid of that huge stack of papers and folders! By the end of the week, they didn't have much for me to do, so I got to just sit and work on homework and answer the occasional phone call. 

Monday night after work, we went shopping at Target, since I had a gift card there, to get some shirts for family pictures Tuesday night. I got a new bag for work, a nice professional looking one. Well, Val and Mom decided to get everyone in the entire family new shirts that correspond with each other. So Target made a lot of money that night! Family pictures were cute, but we didn't get digital access to them because my parents didn't want to pay the $100 fee to get access to all of them, but I got some screen shots of the sample photos they sent us.

Thursday night, I went with my parents and Valerie to play racquetball. I am getting better, pretty much as good as my mom. I also got to talk to Whitney on the phone and made the realization that if I hadn't gone to BYU specifically, I probably wouldn't know to go into marriage and family therapy, because back then I thought I wanted to be an individual counsellor, but now that I am learning more about MFT in my classes, I am so grateful that I get to focus on families in a whole and complete way, a newer way than previous methods. I have so many ideas and desires to help parents and children. God is so good.

On Friday, I made homemade gluten-free cinnamon rolls for the first time. I was so excited as I made them because they were actually rising and looking great! But they didn't turn out as good as I hoped. Saturday night, I attended a Christmas party a girl was throwing in the ward, and after an hour, I was bored, so I went into the movie theatre room and watched a movie by myself. It was kind of dumb, but oh well. I also got my last essay of this quarter written up, so school should be a breeze! It ends next week, and then I have three weeks off before the new quarter starts. With my new job, I should be able to make enough money to not need to borrow money from anyone. Sacrament meeting today was full of musical numbers. Sean and I are playing a violin duet next Sunday. I invited a nonmember friend from my old job to come hear.

Much love,

Emily Burnham

Man-tent Wii

 29 November - 5 December 2021

This was my last week of working at the ice skating rink! I kind of feel bad about how excited I was to not work there anymore, especially because people were sad to hear I was leaving. I did it! I finished strong. I endured. The highlights of this week include: 

Me talking Sean into playing a violin duet for the ward Christmas program with me! Aww yeah, it's gonna be so good!

On Thursday, I fulfilled the last wish I said I'd grant from the Relief Society activity all of those months ago. I delivered a singing Christmas gram to Sicily at her job (she teaches seminary). I don't know why in the world I thought it would be fun when I volunteered to do it, because let me tell ya, it was not fun! I was actually so nervous. I did it though! I walked into her classroom with a Santa hat on and music playing from my speaker and danced and sang to Feliz Navidad. The students were so confused and watched with blank faces, which was not very encouraging, but Sicily had a huge smile and she messaged me later to say I was an angel and she'd received a difficult text that morning and was struggling to put a smile on her face for her students, but then I came and genuinely cheered her up. I attended institute that evening and we had a talk about abortion, and while we didn't really get deep into that issue, we talked a lot about understanding people and being there for them no matter what they do or choose, and I had a great insight come to mind as we talked about not forcing others onto our path, because maybe it's not the path for them. I realized that God created three kingdoms of glory out of love for His children, knowing that all of them have different desires and wants. He didn't say, "Hey, there are three kingdoms" *wink wink* "but the Celestial Kingdom is actually the right choice." It is for those who desire to be and serve as God. I have that driving motivation to always be doing something to help others or better myself or create something new, and if I'm not doing that, I'm not happy or fulfilled. I will need to be in the Celestial Kingdom to maintain that lifestyle of focusing on others feeling loved and cared for. However, others get by day to day by distracting themselves with things that bring them instant pleasure, and they are nice on the surface, or they are nice because they want people to like them, but they would still betray or cheat in small ways, like "If nobody calls me out on skating without paying, I guess I get to it free!" Anyways, I don't even know if that made sense, and I can't completely describe the change in understanding that happened in my mind except to say that this gospel is true, no matter if you walk the covenant path or not. There is a place for you. You don't have to follow the "one and only path" to exaltation. Although that is what I personally want, and what we strive for in the church, if someone isn't living that lifestyle, God doesn't love them any less and has prepared a place for them where they will be happy.

How I was actually feeling:

On Saturday, I had the craziest busiest day at work. We had SIX birthday parties going on during the public skate that afternoon! I worked hard. Landon wrote me a Christmas card with a $20 gift card to Target as a going away gift, which I was NOT expecting, so that was kind. That late afternoon, I drove to a park in Mesa to meet a guy from mutual for a date. He roller-bladed around and I brought my unicycle. We did not hit it off, but I tried hard to connect. Then I came home and ate dinner. My parents had the Burnham siblings Christmas family party at our house, so it was busy. Lucy and I snuck down to watch them play some of the games and to eat some of the goodies, of course ;). Then we went to a bonfire in the backyard of a guy in my ward. It was huge! They just dumped a bunch of lighter fluid on the pellets. Lucy and I ditched to go play Wii Mario Kart in the outside tent man-cave and had a blast! The screen was SO old and we were hunched in camping chairs, and it was so fun. Then we left to go back home. 

Church today was good. I feel peaceful and grateful today for where I am at. I feel like my understanding of the world and of others is expanding, and is so much bigger than a year or two ago. I am nervous about starting my new job tomorrow because I have never worked full-time before in my life, let alone did it while also doing school part-time! But I fasted today for help, and the answer that came to me was that it'll be hard at first, but that I will adjust and learn trial-by-error until finding a balance that works for me. The hardship will not last forever (and by that, I mean the foreseeable and imaginable future). 

Much love,

Emily Burnham