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