Greetings to all belonging to the Buchanan clan!  Though it is halfway through January, here is the family news for December!  I’ll start with the parents and move on down the line.

It has been a pretty amazing week here at the MTC.  Today at dinner time we got to see all the new missionaries that came in today.  You could tell just by the eyes who was new without looking at the pink ‘newbie’ dot on their name tag.  I think it is pretty amazing how many missionaries are processed here.  When we came in on Monday we were one of the largest group of Senior Missionaries they received at one time.  There were about 100 of us.  The spirit here is full of the spirit of ‘Hastening’ that Pres. Monson has stressed lately.  Foreign missionaries used to stay for 12 weeks, now it is 9 weeks.  They expect the numbers at the MTC to double in the next few months.  Did I already mention the word amazing!  I heard Tuesday night a young elder from Singapore showed up 3 weeks early and came alone to the MTC.  What an experience!  Of course they found some elders to take care of him and get him going.  They have also had a outbreak of flu and you can only imagine the restrictions that has caused:  no handshaking, wash hands frequently.  They even separated the Senior Missionaries from the young missionaries at our evening devotional on Tuesday to limit contact.  We weren’t even in the same room, being video broadcast to the different rooms.  We are having a delightful time.  Having many Senior Missionaries has some of us staying at the Provo Marriott Hotel.  We were some of the lucky ones and have a lovely comfortable room.

I know they’ve had some updates since then, but they’ll be added into the January post.

The Biesinger’s Bit: This past December, lots has happened.
Xai was born, of course, on the 1st. He is super cute, and getting super chubby. Then, we had Szént Mikolas day on the 11th. Szént Mikolas is the Hungarian Santa Claus, and he came on the 11th with lots of presents for everyone (that night was a very bad one for me. All of the anticipation was rubbing off from the kids)! On the 13th, we celebrated Saint Lucia’s day, when Tova and Lily get up early to make cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate for an early breakfast for everyone. Yummmmm….
We all went Christmas shopping together! Fun and exhausting. We had to try and hide our presents from one another, and search for baking items in Hungarian. Hava got tired, and laid on the ground. Xai got fussy, and started crying, and Maia was …. I don’t know, I never saw her ;). But we all made it out alive, and Dad took us to McDonalds to eat dinner while we waited for the bus home (which was crowded, as usual).
A few days later, it happened. The one, the only, CHRISTMAS!! We acted out the nativity the night before, as always, and then settled down to sleep. That morning, we woke up to find “Baby Jesus” had filled our shoes with candy! (we’d set out our biggest shoes the night before under the Christmas tree). We had candy for breakfast, doughnuts for lunch, and I don’t remember what for dinner :). We opened presents all day, it seemed. Once with Norway grandparents, once with Utah grandparents, and once with Mom and Dad’s presents. It was very fun, and very messy :).
This New Year’s Eve, we started the celebrations with a walk to a new park which also had a field for soccer! I’d gotten a ball from Hyrum, and we used that until a dog came along to play. :O. Thankfully, the teeth marks didn’t make any holes. The poor dog was very friendly and followed us home.
That night everyone except the little girls stayed up until 12 am and welcome the new year. There were fireworks outside, but they only did a few at a time, so by the time we heard the *bang* *pop* and ran to the door, they were already over.
For New year, we celebrated the same way… SOCCER! I think it’s going to become our favorite sport, too (the atmosphere rubs off, what can I say). 🙂
We all love everyone and miss you all!

Now let’s hear from the Maine Buchanans!