The McKenna Family: Christmas 2014....

Christmas is always my favorite time of the year. There's just something magical about it....the snow, the lights, acts of love and service. This year was no different but it was also very bittersweet at our home. We were missing Josh so much and were reminded of him at every turn. Aside from missing him we felt a connection with our Savior like none else. We knew he was exactly where he should be and honestly what he was doing was far more in line with the true Spirit of Christmas than anything we were doing. We felt truly blessed to have him serving our Lord and Savior during the Christmas season. We felt the love of our Savior so perfectly. Having a missionary out at Christmastime, although hard, is truly a beautiful thing and really made us evaluate and think about what is really important at Christmas. We are truly grateful for the sacrifice of His son and the love of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and feel honored that Josh continues to serve him full-time. What a blessing to our entire family.

As is tradition we had the Hansen Family party on Christmas Eve complete with a visit from Santa. What a great night. The kids love being with cousins, eating yummy food, exchanging gifts, doing a service project, and of course finishing off with the Nativity.

As we prepared to talk with our sweet boy on Christmas day, I thought it would be fun to have matching shirts that said Tucson and also send him one as part of his Christmas PJs. What a fun surprise when we started skyping with him....for everyone to match him...right?? Well, after the shirts were custom ordered and everyone was super excited, we learned Josh would not be able to Skype with us. I was so disappointed at first and tried really hard to have a good attitude. I talked to a few missionary moms and some actually had done it both ways and preferred the talking on the phone instead of Skype. So I decided whatever it was, I was just excited to talk to my boy. We also knew Savanah would be home visiting for Christmas and thought it would be fun to surprise Josh with her being there.

The call finally came and it was AMAZING to hear his voice. He sounded so good and of course some of us cried just hearing him talk. We put him on speaker phone and talked for a little bit and then told him each of the kids had a question or two they wanted to ask him. As we went around the circle, we had Savanah ask her question (with Josh still not knowing she was there). It was the cutest thing ever. We didn't know if he would recognize her voice or wonder if it was Abi, etc. As soon as he heard her voice, he had a very long pause and then said "wait...who's this?" We all started laughing and she said "guess who?" He of course knew right away who it was and it was a pretty darn good surprise. We had a wonderful time talking with him and didn't want to say goodbye. I'm pretty sure it was everyone's favorite Christmas present. What a truly wonderful blessing it is to have a missionary serving our Lord.