Re: Letter from Blaine, December 28, 2014

Blaine that was such a wonderful, packed letter.  I love reading the details of your week, especially since it is Christmas.  What a great journal entry!   We missed you so much and yet I see lots of blessings for your little family as you are away and do so many good things to draw your family close together.  So glad you wrote.  And like you, I hope that somehow this tradition can continue after Max is home.

Sent from my iPad

On Dec 29, 2014, at 4:09 AM, Janey Nielsen <janeybassett@gmail.com> wrote:

So glad to hear you got a bit of a break this week from work. Hope your New Years is the same way. Thanks for sharing your weekly events with us! 

On Sunday, December 28, 2014, Blaine Bassett <blainebbassett@gmail.com> wrote:

Max,

As everyone else said, we sure loved getting to see you on Christmas. What a blessing to not only hear your voice but also get to see you. And to see the rest of the family too. We have a lot in common with you in that most of our interactions with everyone tends to be in the letters we write and in the letters that we get to read from them. So I hope that you coming home in a couple months doesn't slow down the tendency of everyone to write and keep in touch. We will just have to address our letters to the family instead of to you specifically, but I hope we can keep it going. 

Anyway, you looked great and it really was fun to see you and not get too stressed out that it was only for 40 minutes since the end is in sight. I can't wait to see you, but it is kind of sad for us because we don't have such a specific day like everyone else does that we can count down to. We really need to find a time that you can come out soon after you get home. It sounded like Rosey might be game too and I am planning on taking some time off in March for the kids' spring break, so I am just hoping and praying we can get something worked out so that we don't have to wait until like summer or next Christmas to see you. 

I think I miss you most when we watch home videos that you are in. This is basically every Sunday, thanks to BretFlix. Today we watched one that happened right after our wedding. You were in a school play. There wasn't much on film, but it was fun to be in the Farnsworth café-gym-atorium and see you walking around in costume, getting ready to do your thing. You were such a cute little boy, it just kills me. I look at those videos and love you like I love my own kids, but then it's weird because I remember that you are actually an adult now, which my kids are not. It will sure be weird when they are. 

But anyway, I digress. We had fun doing that today, as well as going to church and playing games with Grandma and Grandpa Genessy who are here for the week. We played a few new games we got for Christmas and enjoyed a yummy dinner of shrimp and chorizo (Mexican style, not Spanish) tacos. At church I taught my class for the last time, which was kind of sad. The manual was out of lessons so they said we could repeat a lesson or just teach about anything. It took me a lot of time to prepare, but making a lesson from whole cloth is one of my favorite things. There are not many callings in the church that ask you to consistently prepare lessons about anything you want, but I wish there was because I love that freedom. For this reason, my favorite position that I had in the mission was being district leader. I got to prepare a lesson each week about whatever I wanted and I think I still have all 12 lessons or however many there were that I prepared during my short tenure before I got transferred and became zone leader. Anyway, I (predictably) taught about goal making for the new year, but I like to think that I added a unique twist to it. I didn't have time to pass around a paper and have people write down their goals or anything, but I did go over four tips for setting goals, five categories of goals that we should focus on, and I tried to really focus on how our goals translate into who we become not just in 2015 when we turn 10 (which my students all will) but in 2025 when we turn 20, in 2045 when we turn 40, in 2085 when we turn 80, and even in 2155 when we have probably been dead for decades, etc. We talked about deciding what we want to get out of life, what we want to accomplish and be remembered for after we go, and then how to set different types of goals with different levels of specificity to make 2015 a good year but to also continually make sure we are aimed in the right direction to get the big long term things out of life that we really care about. Anyway, I loved preparing the lesson and learned a lot as I thought through all this. I don't know how much my 9 year olds took away, but I hope they got something out of it. I also hope you will get a chance this week to really focus on some goal making since you are finishing a big chapter of your life soon and starting a super important new one. Set goals for contacts and discussions and baptisms for the next several weeks, but also start thinking about what you want out of life when you come home. What are your education and career goals? What are you marriage/family/friend goals? What are your spiritual goals? What are your physical fitness goals? What are some fun hobby-type goals that you are passionate about? All of these are important and will help you be successful and fulfilled and well-rounded as you start into this new chapter of life of being an RM soon. 

Anyway, sorry, I don't mean to make you trunky, but goal setting and looking to the future is big on my mind this week. Of course, we had a lot of other things going on this week besides just my lesson today… :) Monday I worked about a million hours it felt like but Tuesday I only had to work a few hours from home and Wednesday I only had to respond to a couple emails on my phone. So that was nice. Tuesday we Tess's big eye surgery. You probably haven't heard much about this but it is something we have been worried about for awhile now and it is great to have it behind us. Kristi and Tess and I opened the door at 4:30 in the morning to find nice Easton there to watch the kids. We then arrived at the hospital at 5:30 and got all signed in. By about 8:00 they were ready and took Tess back. By 8:45 or 9:00 they were done and brought her back to us and by 10:00 we were out of there. Kristi may correct my timeline, but it was something like that. Anyway, it was amazingly fast and it has been miraculous how improved Tess's eyes have been since. They warned us that the eyes will still be "settling" for about 6 weeks so we should not be too excited or discouraged about any results until we get to that point. That said, Tess's eyes have been SOOO much straighter and we just hope it is helping her see better and have fewer headaches, etc. And of course, as cute as she was with her crossed eyes, she just looks so adorable now that they are straight. It's like a whole new girl and we love her. 

Wednesday, Christmas Eve, was really fun for me to just hang around the house with the kids, do a little last minute shopping, etc. I ventured to Target and even the Dollar Tree which is a scary thing on Christmas Eve. I even took the kids, which was kind of a gift to Kristi in and of itself. We didn't have any plans or parties on Christmas Eve but we had a great time with our little family and it was very spiritual getting to talk about the Christmas story with my kids without lots of other distractions around (I know when we are at a party, I am always visiting with others and don't necessarily give my kids my full attention). So it was actually a really special Christmas Eve that I hope the kids enjoyed and will remember. 

Christmas Day just flew by. By the time we got our presents opened, talked to you, talked to Mom and Dad and opened their presents, and spent a little time outside playing with our presents (I got an awesome four blade helicopter drone as well as a Ripstick caster board so it was a fun Christmas to live in warm Texas and go outside to play with my toys!), it was almost time for our Christmas night party. We had been invited to a friend's house, the Smoots, who have three little boys (the oldest one is Bentley's age), a little girl, and another on the way in a couple months. This is the guy who also happens to work with me at Baker Botts. Kristi made a yummy cheese fondue and we had a good time. Of course, I have to say, as I am always so flattered to hear Nick and others emphasize, that we did miss the family very much at these times. I try to not think about how much I miss everybody because it just breaks my heart too much, but it can be hard sometimes being out here "alone." We are grateful for good friends, for good technology like video calling, and for family who is willing to travel or take time to visit (often when it is convenient for us rather than when it is necessarily convenient for them) so that we don't feel so alone. 

The day after Christmas I also didn't work much and it was super fun to bum around the house with Kristi and the kids and get to exercise a bit. In the evening we let the kids watch their first PG-13 movie because A) we had read the book all together, and B) it is probably the tamest PG-13 movie ever with no profanity or sex at all and just kind of an upsetting scene that was no worse than we read in the book. The movie was The Giver and it is a great one to put on your list when you get home. During the movie Kristi drove to the airport and came home with a super fun after-Christmas surprise that we had not told the kids about—Grandma and Grandpa Genessy had come for the week! I did end up working all day Saturday but we drove out and saw some beautiful lights in Johnson City in the evening. And that brings us to Sunday, which I already wrote about. 

Sorry this got so long but I guess I was in a good mood to write tonight and I do hope we can remember some of the fun of this week because it was more fun and eventful than most. 

Love you so much—Max and all of you!--and hope you have a great week. 

Love,

Blaine  

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BWBassetts" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bwbassetts+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BWBassetts" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bwbassetts+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Re: My Annual Text to Caroline

Let it be known that dad and I are up for more phone calls.  We loved Christmas Day phone time with you!  Honestly the next best thing to being there.

Sent from my iPad

On Dec 28, 2014, at 10:55 PM, K Bass <kristi.bassett@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm glad you responded to this Jane because it helped me realize that he meant a different Jane! Haha, I totally envisioned you respectfully fulfilling the role of Mary (as I know you would ;). But this makes more sense :)

We miss you too Nick! Remember at one point how we were all supposed to have FHE together on the phone...or something? Seems like a long shot! But we definitely need to visit more. Even though we don't talk much you guys are a very real part of our lives and we are constantly talking about you guys! We watched a fun home video of Bret and Ben as babies, seems like yesterday!

On Dec 28, 2014, at 10:45 PM, Janey Nielsen <janeybassett@gmail.com> wrote:

I agree on what you said about Jane and Ned. It was so sweet to see them be so reverent. :) fun to have you here for Christmas. And yes, after max's successful phone call, maybe we can start doing more family calls. 

On Sunday, December 28, 2014, Nick Bassett <nick.w.bassett@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Max,

It was so fun to see you on our call! Seriously you looked so good, and it was great to hear your voice and visit with you.  We are all so impressed with the wonderful attitude you have always maintained and continue to maintain through whatever trials are placed in your path.  Not to get you trunk, but it's pretty wild to think that the next time we visit with you will be when you're getting off the plane from Spain! Yikes!!  Work hard and enjoy every minute these last few weeks.  

So the title of my email is (as you may have guessed) related to a forgotten carols song which contains "I cried, the day I took the tree down...".  Every year when we are taking the tree down, Caroline gets a text from me with those words.  I can't totally remember how it all go started, but it started one year down in St. George when both of us were walking around singing that song the whole time.  So...yeah - our tree is down.  

I can't believe Christmas has come and gone.  It was so fun to be able to be up here (which we always have been) but to also be able to come home and sleep at our own house on Christmas eve. This also meant that we were able to join Brent and Nancy for their very classy Christmas Eve party. A highlight of the whole season for me was that evening when nice Margy (and whoever else helps "direct" the nativity) assigned little Jane and Ned to be Mary and Joseph in the nativity.  It was so touching and I was very pleased with how reverently those two fulfilled their roles.  It's almost as if they could sense the importance of what they were representing (or maybe just that the lights were dimmed and everyone was starring at them).  In any case, it was very touching.  

As I think I mention every email, we certainly missed having B&K and kids around but we've managed to visit with them here and there.  We need to get better at it, but having your calls with everyone there is definitely inspiring like we ought to be doing more of that and not waiting clear till your bi-annual phone call.  

Enjoy your week, work hard, and know that we all love you!

Nick

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BWBassetts" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bwbassetts+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BWBassetts" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bwbassetts+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BWBassetts" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bwbassetts+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Week 93 - Max - Feliz Ano Nuevo

Week 93 - Max - Feliz Ano Nuevo

Monday, December 29, 2014

6:40 AM

 

I sure LOOOOOVED seeing all of you on Christmas. For those of you I wasnt able to see, you were missed, but I will be sure to see you soon! :) (not too soon though;))

 

(p.s. the e on my keyboard is not working very wll...so plase be patint) :) (Editor's note - I cleaned up all the words missing an 'e' so it shouldn't be too bad).

 

I hope you all had the best Christmas!!!! Its been fun reading about all the fun things that were done! I wont lie...it was a little hard at first to hear about Grandma W not doing the Christmas party. I completely understand. That must be tiring. But I hope she knows that that was one of my very favorite traditions and really helped my love for the winder family grow a TON!!!! I feel like I got to know people a ton better as I saw them there. It will be missed. But I completely understand. (p.s. I have to show Grandma the way to eat dates. A lady gave us some Saturday wrapped in bacon....soooooo good!!! Weren't those the things grandma loved?) haha

 

As I said the call was great! Biggest changes were all the nieces and nephews!!!! CRAZY!!!! I honestly thought Clay was Bret! haha And then the other which rally touched me was seeing Janey as a mom. As soon as I saw Jane walk on with little Griffen, and Warn Dawg behind her, I just felt a huuuuge love for the family. It just hit me looking down and seeing almost everyone together (B&K hadn't QUITE gotten on but I felt their love as well.)

 

So thank you all for the fun call! I loved it!

 

Christmas was great! We enjoyed the baptism of Roci and Carlos. I was able to play piano for their wedding and baptism. They are great!

 

Christmas eve, we were able to teach Vicenta. No better way to spend Christmas Eve than by teaching a lesson to a fecha! :) She is so great and is excited to be baptized on the 4th of January! Best way to start the new years for her, by accepting the gift that was given to her at Christmas time! :) 

 

It was different when we went to a house of a menos activo. It was one of the first times they had had missionaries over for a long time! It was so hard as they began the visit by basically ramming the church leaders for a good 20 minutes. Here we are on Christmas eve night, everyone is enjoying their Christmas meals, and this family couldn't forgive a leader for something that had happened many years ago. They just couldn't let him "win" they had to be right and they were going to prove that by not going to church. It broke my heart as they wouldn't even let us put a video on made by the church. Because of their inability to forgive, they weren't able to enjoy Christmas, and they really aren't able to enjoy their lives as a family. Oh man...it really made me see that holding a grudge is one of the main things (if not...THE main thing) that ruins a person's life forever. As you hold the grudge more and more...it gets harder and harder to let it go...when in reality...its more simple than you think!

 

So that was a hard part of Christmas eve, but it was a great lessoned learned!

 

I am also getting pumped for New Years! We have some big plans and it will be fun setting goals for things I want in the year to come.

 

2014 has been one of the best years of my life. I can honestly say that I have learned more this year than I ever have in my life. I think the biggest thing I can say that I've learned is that no matter how much we do, it's not enough. BUT...the Lord will always accept it! :) The least that we can do is give all that we can give.

 

I am excited for these last months to enjoy every second of GIVING IT ALL!!! :)

 

Life is good! Enjoy the holidays!

 

Carry on! A vencer!

 

Sure love you all!

 

Love, Elder Bassett

Re: Letter from Blaine, December 28, 2014

So glad to hear you got a bit of a break this week from work. Hope your New Years is the same way. Thanks for sharing your weekly events with us! 

On Sunday, December 28, 2014, Blaine Bassett <blainebbassett@gmail.com> wrote:

Max,

As everyone else said, we sure loved getting to see you on Christmas. What a blessing to not only hear your voice but also get to see you. And to see the rest of the family too. We have a lot in common with you in that most of our interactions with everyone tends to be in the letters we write and in the letters that we get to read from them. So I hope that you coming home in a couple months doesn't slow down the tendency of everyone to write and keep in touch. We will just have to address our letters to the family instead of to you specifically, but I hope we can keep it going. 

Anyway, you looked great and it really was fun to see you and not get too stressed out that it was only for 40 minutes since the end is in sight. I can't wait to see you, but it is kind of sad for us because we don't have such a specific day like everyone else does that we can count down to. We really need to find a time that you can come out soon after you get home. It sounded like Rosey might be game too and I am planning on taking some time off in March for the kids' spring break, so I am just hoping and praying we can get something worked out so that we don't have to wait until like summer or next Christmas to see you. 

I think I miss you most when we watch home videos that you are in. This is basically every Sunday, thanks to BretFlix. Today we watched one that happened right after our wedding. You were in a school play. There wasn't much on film, but it was fun to be in the Farnsworth café-gym-atorium and see you walking around in costume, getting ready to do your thing. You were such a cute little boy, it just kills me. I look at those videos and love you like I love my own kids, but then it's weird because I remember that you are actually an adult now, which my kids are not. It will sure be weird when they are. 

But anyway, I digress. We had fun doing that today, as well as going to church and playing games with Grandma and Grandpa Genessy who are here for the week. We played a few new games we got for Christmas and enjoyed a yummy dinner of shrimp and chorizo (Mexican style, not Spanish) tacos. At church I taught my class for the last time, which was kind of sad. The manual was out of lessons so they said we could repeat a lesson or just teach about anything. It took me a lot of time to prepare, but making a lesson from whole cloth is one of my favorite things. There are not many callings in the church that ask you to consistently prepare lessons about anything you want, but I wish there was because I love that freedom. For this reason, my favorite position that I had in the mission was being district leader. I got to prepare a lesson each week about whatever I wanted and I think I still have all 12 lessons or however many there were that I prepared during my short tenure before I got transferred and became zone leader. Anyway, I (predictably) taught about goal making for the new year, but I like to think that I added a unique twist to it. I didn't have time to pass around a paper and have people write down their goals or anything, but I did go over four tips for setting goals, five categories of goals that we should focus on, and I tried to really focus on how our goals translate into who we become not just in 2015 when we turn 10 (which my students all will) but in 2025 when we turn 20, in 2045 when we turn 40, in 2085 when we turn 80, and even in 2155 when we have probably been dead for decades, etc. We talked about deciding what we want to get out of life, what we want to accomplish and be remembered for after we go, and then how to set different types of goals with different levels of specificity to make 2015 a good year but to also continually make sure we are aimed in the right direction to get the big long term things out of life that we really care about. Anyway, I loved preparing the lesson and learned a lot as I thought through all this. I don't know how much my 9 year olds took away, but I hope they got something out of it. I also hope you will get a chance this week to really focus on some goal making since you are finishing a big chapter of your life soon and starting a super important new one. Set goals for contacts and discussions and baptisms for the next several weeks, but also start thinking about what you want out of life when you come home. What are your education and career goals? What are you marriage/family/friend goals? What are your spiritual goals? What are your physical fitness goals? What are some fun hobby-type goals that you are passionate about? All of these are important and will help you be successful and fulfilled and well-rounded as you start into this new chapter of life of being an RM soon. 

Anyway, sorry, I don't mean to make you trunky, but goal setting and looking to the future is big on my mind this week. Of course, we had a lot of other things going on this week besides just my lesson today… :) Monday I worked about a million hours it felt like but Tuesday I only had to work a few hours from home and Wednesday I only had to respond to a couple emails on my phone. So that was nice. Tuesday we Tess's big eye surgery. You probably haven't heard much about this but it is something we have been worried about for awhile now and it is great to have it behind us. Kristi and Tess and I opened the door at 4:30 in the morning to find nice Easton there to watch the kids. We then arrived at the hospital at 5:30 and got all signed in. By about 8:00 they were ready and took Tess back. By 8:45 or 9:00 they were done and brought her back to us and by 10:00 we were out of there. Kristi may correct my timeline, but it was something like that. Anyway, it was amazingly fast and it has been miraculous how improved Tess's eyes have been since. They warned us that the eyes will still be "settling" for about 6 weeks so we should not be too excited or discouraged about any results until we get to that point. That said, Tess's eyes have been SOOO much straighter and we just hope it is helping her see better and have fewer headaches, etc. And of course, as cute as she was with her crossed eyes, she just looks so adorable now that they are straight. It's like a whole new girl and we love her. 

Wednesday, Christmas Eve, was really fun for me to just hang around the house with the kids, do a little last minute shopping, etc. I ventured to Target and even the Dollar Tree which is a scary thing on Christmas Eve. I even took the kids, which was kind of a gift to Kristi in and of itself. We didn't have any plans or parties on Christmas Eve but we had a great time with our little family and it was very spiritual getting to talk about the Christmas story with my kids without lots of other distractions around (I know when we are at a party, I am always visiting with others and don't necessarily give my kids my full attention). So it was actually a really special Christmas Eve that I hope the kids enjoyed and will remember. 

Christmas Day just flew by. By the time we got our presents opened, talked to you, talked to Mom and Dad and opened their presents, and spent a little time outside playing with our presents (I got an awesome four blade helicopter drone as well as a Ripstick caster board so it was a fun Christmas to live in warm Texas and go outside to play with my toys!), it was almost time for our Christmas night party. We had been invited to a friend's house, the Smoots, who have three little boys (the oldest one is Bentley's age), a little girl, and another on the way in a couple months. This is the guy who also happens to work with me at Baker Botts. Kristi made a yummy cheese fondue and we had a good time. Of course, I have to say, as I am always so flattered to hear Nick and others emphasize, that we did miss the family very much at these times. I try to not think about how much I miss everybody because it just breaks my heart too much, but it can be hard sometimes being out here "alone." We are grateful for good friends, for good technology like video calling, and for family who is willing to travel or take time to visit (often when it is convenient for us rather than when it is necessarily convenient for them) so that we don't feel so alone. 

The day after Christmas I also didn't work much and it was super fun to bum around the house with Kristi and the kids and get to exercise a bit. In the evening we let the kids watch their first PG-13 movie because A) we had read the book all together, and B) it is probably the tamest PG-13 movie ever with no profanity or sex at all and just kind of an upsetting scene that was no worse than we read in the book. The movie was The Giver and it is a great one to put on your list when you get home. During the movie Kristi drove to the airport and came home with a super fun after-Christmas surprise that we had not told the kids about—Grandma and Grandpa Genessy had come for the week! I did end up working all day Saturday but we drove out and saw some beautiful lights in Johnson City in the evening. And that brings us to Sunday, which I already wrote about. 

Sorry this got so long but I guess I was in a good mood to write tonight and I do hope we can remember some of the fun of this week because it was more fun and eventful than most. 

Love you so much—Max and all of you!--and hope you have a great week. 

Love,

Blaine  

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BWBassetts" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bwbassetts+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Re: Letter from Blaine, December 28, 2014

Sweetie, could we be any more different? I can not imagine a more miserable calling than one where I had to pull a lesson out of thin air every week. My heart is racing fast just thinking about it. Ew. 

I love you, thanks for capturing a glimpse of our lives. It has been so great having you home a little more. 

LOVE YOU!

On Mon, Dec 29, 2014 at 12:15 AM, bret bassett <bretbassett@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Blaine.  I love your letters as always.  I too hope that everyone is building up that commitment to still write every week, even after Max gets home.  I am committed.

It sounds like you finally finished the Giver even after the network kind of crashed.  

IS your Smoot Family from Utah?  I work with an Alan Smoot at the church.  Great guy.

May ya'll have a great new years eve celebration.

Loves.

On Sun, Dec 28, 2014 at 10:30 PM, Blaine Bassett <blainebbassett@gmail.com> wrote:

Max,

As everyone else said, we sure loved getting to see you on Christmas. What a blessing to not only hear your voice but also get to see you. And to see the rest of the family too. We have a lot in common with you in that most of our interactions with everyone tends to be in the letters we write and in the letters that we get to read from them. So I hope that you coming home in a couple months doesn't slow down the tendency of everyone to write and keep in touch. We will just have to address our letters to the family instead of to you specifically, but I hope we can keep it going. 

Anyway, you looked great and it really was fun to see you and not get too stressed out that it was only for 40 minutes since the end is in sight. I can't wait to see you, but it is kind of sad for us because we don't have such a specific day like everyone else does that we can count down to. We really need to find a time that you can come out soon after you get home. It sounded like Rosey might be game too and I am planning on taking some time off in March for the kids' spring break, so I am just hoping and praying we can get something worked out so that we don't have to wait until like summer or next Christmas to see you. 

I think I miss you most when we watch home videos that you are in. This is basically every Sunday, thanks to BretFlix. Today we watched one that happened right after our wedding. You were in a school play. There wasn't much on film, but it was fun to be in the Farnsworth café-gym-atorium and see you walking around in costume, getting ready to do your thing. You were such a cute little boy, it just kills me. I look at those videos and love you like I love my own kids, but then it's weird because I remember that you are actually an adult now, which my kids are not. It will sure be weird when they are. 

But anyway, I digress. We had fun doing that today, as well as going to church and playing games with Grandma and Grandpa Genessy who are here for the week. We played a few new games we got for Christmas and enjoyed a yummy dinner of shrimp and chorizo (Mexican style, not Spanish) tacos. At church I taught my class for the last time, which was kind of sad. The manual was out of lessons so they said we could repeat a lesson or just teach about anything. It took me a lot of time to prepare, but making a lesson from whole cloth is one of my favorite things. There are not many callings in the church that ask you to consistently prepare lessons about anything you want, but I wish there was because I love that freedom. For this reason, my favorite position that I had in the mission was being district leader. I got to prepare a lesson each week about whatever I wanted and I think I still have all 12 lessons or however many there were that I prepared during my short tenure before I got transferred and became zone leader. Anyway, I (predictably) taught about goal making for the new year, but I like to think that I added a unique twist to it. I didn't have time to pass around a paper and have people write down their goals or anything, but I did go over four tips for setting goals, five categories of goals that we should focus on, and I tried to really focus on how our goals translate into who we become not just in 2015 when we turn 10 (which my students all will) but in 2025 when we turn 20, in 2045 when we turn 40, in 2085 when we turn 80, and even in 2155 when we have probably been dead for decades, etc. We talked about deciding what we want to get out of life, what we want to accomplish and be remembered for after we go, and then how to set different types of goals with different levels of specificity to make 2015 a good year but to also continually make sure we are aimed in the right direction to get the big long term things out of life that we really care about. Anyway, I loved preparing the lesson and learned a lot as I thought through all this. I don't know how much my 9 year olds took away, but I hope they got something out of it. I also hope you will get a chance this week to really focus on some goal making since you are finishing a big chapter of your life soon and starting a super important new one. Set goals for contacts and discussions and baptisms for the next several weeks, but also start thinking about what you want out of life when you come home. What are your education and career goals? What are you marriage/family/friend goals? What are your spiritual goals? What are your physical fitness goals? What are some fun hobby-type goals that you are passionate about? All of these are important and will help you be successful and fulfilled and well-rounded as you start into this new chapter of life of being an RM soon. 

Anyway, sorry, I don't mean to make you trunky, but goal setting and looking to the future is big on my mind this week. Of course, we had a lot of other things going on this week besides just my lesson today… :) Monday I worked about a million hours it felt like but Tuesday I only had to work a few hours from home and Wednesday I only had to respond to a couple emails on my phone. So that was nice. Tuesday we Tess's big eye surgery. You probably haven't heard much about this but it is something we have been worried about for awhile now and it is great to have it behind us. Kristi and Tess and I opened the door at 4:30 in the morning to find nice Easton there to watch the kids. We then arrived at the hospital at 5:30 and got all signed in. By about 8:00 they were ready and took Tess back. By 8:45 or 9:00 they were done and brought her back to us and by 10:00 we were out of there. Kristi may correct my timeline, but it was something like that. Anyway, it was amazingly fast and it has been miraculous how improved Tess's eyes have been since. They warned us that the eyes will still be "settling" for about 6 weeks so we should not be too excited or discouraged about any results until we get to that point. That said, Tess's eyes have been SOOO much straighter and we just hope it is helping her see better and have fewer headaches, etc. And of course, as cute as she was with her crossed eyes, she just looks so adorable now that they are straight. It's like a whole new girl and we love her. 

Wednesday, Christmas Eve, was really fun for me to just hang around the house with the kids, do a little last minute shopping, etc. I ventured to Target and even the Dollar Tree which is a scary thing on Christmas Eve. I even took the kids, which was kind of a gift to Kristi in and of itself. We didn't have any plans or parties on Christmas Eve but we had a great time with our little family and it was very spiritual getting to talk about the Christmas story with my kids without lots of other distractions around (I know when we are at a party, I am always visiting with others and don't necessarily give my kids my full attention). So it was actually a really special Christmas Eve that I hope the kids enjoyed and will remember. 

Christmas Day just flew by. By the time we got our presents opened, talked to you, talked to Mom and Dad and opened their presents, and spent a little time outside playing with our presents (I got an awesome four blade helicopter drone as well as a Ripstick caster board so it was a fun Christmas to live in warm Texas and go outside to play with my toys!), it was almost time for our Christmas night party. We had been invited to a friend's house, the Smoots, who have three little boys (the oldest one is Bentley's age), a little girl, and another on the way in a couple months. This is the guy who also happens to work with me at Baker Botts. Kristi made a yummy cheese fondue and we had a good time. Of course, I have to say, as I am always so flattered to hear Nick and others emphasize, that we did miss the family very much at these times. I try to not think about how much I miss everybody because it just breaks my heart too much, but it can be hard sometimes being out here "alone." We are grateful for good friends, for good technology like video calling, and for family who is willing to travel or take time to visit (often when it is convenient for us rather than when it is necessarily convenient for them) so that we don't feel so alone. 

The day after Christmas I also didn't work much and it was super fun to bum around the house with Kristi and the kids and get to exercise a bit. In the evening we let the kids watch their first PG-13 movie because A) we had read the book all together, and B) it is probably the tamest PG-13 movie ever with no profanity or sex at all and just kind of an upsetting scene that was no worse than we read in the book. The movie was The Giver and it is a great one to put on your list when you get home. During the movie Kristi drove to the airport and came home with a super fun after-Christmas surprise that we had not told the kids about—Grandma and Grandpa Genessy had come for the week! I did end up working all day Saturday but we drove out and saw some beautiful lights in Johnson City in the evening. And that brings us to Sunday, which I already wrote about. 

Sorry this got so long but I guess I was in a good mood to write tonight and I do hope we can remember some of the fun of this week because it was more fun and eventful than most. 

Love you so much—Max and all of you!--and hope you have a great week. 

Love,

Blaine  

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BWBassetts" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bwbassetts+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

 

Bret Bassett 

Bret Bassett  - PMP | International Product Manager |

4268 Sherm Circle West Valley City UT. 84120

Home: 801.968-0760 | Cell: 801.815.5860 | bretbassett@gmail.com

 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BWBassetts" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bwbassetts+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Hey Max-

It's midnight and I'm listening to Blaine lecture Tess for the umpteenth time about keeping us awake all night :). Man, I got just a glimpse of a solid sleep when the night after Christmas she went to bed at 10PM and slept clear until 5AM. It was something of a miracle and a dared to dream we had turned a corner. Nope, no corner turned, but it was lovely all the same and I'll take whatever sleep I can get whenever I can get it :). 

I know Blaine covered our week already but I just wanted to chime in since it was such a huge week. 

The decision to do Tess's surgery was a big one and one that I was debating about almost daily even when I thought the surgery was a month away. I'm a big researcher and there is a huge school of thought that strabismus surgery is not the way to go to help people with eye problems like Tess's. Obviously it helps cosmetically, but there is this whole other school of thought about vision therapy that retrains the brain to work with the eye and results in much better vision (vs much better cosmetics). But then all of the sudden they wanted to do the surgery, and our insurance was changing to a way high deductible of next year ($6k as opposed to $600) and I was forced to make the decision quickly. I am so very very pleased with the results of her surgery cosmetically, and I just hope and pray that since it was done at a young age that she will be able to learn to use her eyes together and have better vision, and that we can do vision therapy in coming years to build on this foundation (some say you can't do the VT after the surgery). 

Having her go under anesthesia was hard for me. We had a big conversation with Ben Bassett when he was here visiting about it, because nowadays a lot of dentists do "pain free" dentistry which involves general anesthesia. Which is just crazy to me that people would opt to do that, or have their kids do that, for dental work. They obviously do not have a grasp on the risks of anesthesia (or perhaps the other way around). Anyway, Ben does not do that in his practice, as he does not want to take on that risk and sees no need to "take people to the brink of life and death" and then bring them back (his words, not mine). So all I could think during the surgery was how closely she was on that precipice between life and death. Then I turned that right around and thought, well, if she is balancing precariously there then I imagine it will be awfully easy for Heavenly Father to be in control of the outcome. Anyway, I never can quite explain my thoughts on paper as they go through my head. Just saying, I finally just had to trust that she was in God's hands, not just the surgeons. 

And wow. I am so pleased and overwhelmed at how successful the surgery appears to have gone. It was so hard when she came out of the surgery because her eyes were RED, like blood red (all the white parts were really red), and she was crying, so it looked like she was crying blood. It was really hard to see her that way, By the next morning though it was looking a lot better (another huge blessing as after most surgeries they stay really really red for weeks), and now she looks almost back to normal. I am amazed how HUGE her eyes look to me. It's amazing how big and beautiful her eyes are. It really is unfortunately to have an eye alignment problem, aside from the obvious vision problems, it is such a noticeable problem. If someone had a wonky foot you could know them for years before knowing, if they had a messed up her it wouldn't always be obvious or could be hidden, but if your eyes don't line up it is so blazingly obvious to everyone around. It was really hard for me to hear comments from kids (and adults), who weren't trying to be mean, but whose comments really stung me. Obviously, I didn't care what they said, what stung was thinking that I had such little time until Tess would be able to hear their comments too. Even really innocent things, like I was wearing Tess in her carrier and the principle of the kids' school was walking by and stopped and giggled "Oh you should see her, she is making the silliest face right now". Really young kids would often say, "mom that baby is silly". Or something. Oh gosh it was hard. And then after a quick (expensive) surgery it is so much improved. I am so grateful. I know that more surgeries could lay ahead, this type of surgery is often repeated one or two or three times over the course of years. But I am so so grateful for what appears to be a solid improvement. It makes me feel awful for people with esotropia (cross eyes) who were born before such surgery existed, or who can't afford it, and have to go through their whole lives with it. Just makes me cry.

Whoaaaakay. Didn't mean to go on and on about that. Sorry :)

Christmas really snuck up on us this year, probably because it was like 75 dgs up until and during Christmas! I was feeling so boggy on CHristmas Eve that we had just hung around home and not done something more memorable, but at the end of the day I realized that it was the perfect thing for Blaine to just be around home. Just because I get to do that every day doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy it now and again :). 

Probably my favorite thing of Christmas Eve was about an hour after we had put the kids down, they were all still awake, so I went in the room. They had fought a lot during the day (is it just me or has Santa lost all of his power to help kids behave, if he is too much of a wimp to actually NOT come to the naughty kids he has lost any sort of behavior changing power he had--- because honestly, Gwen and Ivy were totally on the naughty list this year.). ANyway, I snuck in and read a Christmas book (Bear Stays Up for Christmas, that mom and dad gave Gwen on her first Christmas), and then we sang Christmas songs together. It was really sweet. We started with the boisterous songs, and I even made up new lyrics to Up on the Housetop, including the names of the kids "First comes the stocking of little Gwen, or dear Santa how good she's been, give her some books cuz she loves to read, also some candy and poppy seeds" or whatever came to mind and rhymed, they all got a huge kick out of it. Then we finished up with some quiet songs. This is the first year the kids really couldn't fall asleep and didn't sleep for long. I could hear them all awake before 5AM. 

It was super fun this year to see Bentley open his main gift. It was fun to have him want something SO bad and then to actually get it. And he deserved it too, he is such a good boy. He has been wanting Disney Infinity for years now, and he finally got it .I've never seen a kid so excited. Gwen got a digital camera, which was a gamble, but she loved it. Ivy got this really cool coaster Trike. I can't even explain it but it's like a big tricycle made by razor (the scooter people) and it is designed so you pedal fast and then turn and do sharp 360s and just spin and spin. She was not too pleased and seemed to latch on to everything Gwen received, but later in the day after giving the trike a try she grew to love it. So did I, my knees are banged up because I am way too big for it but I think it is so fun, I love to use it :)

My favorite Christmas moment was when I was opening my gifts and in one there was a baby carrier that I had had and used for well over a year. I was a little perplexed but figured maybe there was a gift card or something that Blaine had wrapped up in there. As I was digging around Blaine was like, "wait, let me turn off the video camera….wait…is that… that's one of your gifts right?". I laughed so hard. He has been so busy that I bought a lot of the gifts he was going to give me for myself, and I guess I had left that baby carrier a little too close to the gifts so it got wrapped up, ha ha! The other highlight was that Nick and Stef had sent us some Maleleuca products that I love (THANK YOU SO MUCH by the way!), they were sitting in a package on my bathroom sink, and somehow those got wrapped up and given to me by Blaine too :)He is hilarious, and honestly getting that baby carrier was like the most fun I've ever had opening a present!

I am loving the blender from mom and dad (and Blaine)! We've had it for three days now and have already made carrot juice, orange juice, baby food, whipped cream, pina coladas, green smoothies, a shake, and it's just even more awesome than I even thought it would be! 

Anyway, it was a beautiful Christmas and I really hope you had a good one too. We sure miss and love you and it was really fun to see you!

Love, 

Kris

PS Attaching some pictures of Tess. One of the photos is a combo of her one day before surgery and one day after, the other was her big beautiful eyes today at church. 

Thanks Max

I can't tell you how much we all loved getting handwritten, personal letters. That must have take hours!!! Did you get ours yet? We had the same thought as you :).

It was too fun to see you on the phone! You looked and seemed so happy! The mission is such a great place/time of life so try to enjoy ever last moment!!

Happy New Year- this will be the best one yet!

Love Ya!

-Stef :)

Sent from my iPhone

Re: Letter from Blaine, December 28, 2014

Thanks Blaine.  I love your letters as always.  I too hope that everyone is building up that commitment to still write every week, even after Max gets home.  I am committed.

It sounds like you finally finished the Giver even after the network kind of crashed.  

IS your Smoot Family from Utah?  I work with an Alan Smoot at the church.  Great guy.

May ya'll have a great new years eve celebration.

Loves.

On Sun, Dec 28, 2014 at 10:30 PM, Blaine Bassett <blainebbassett@gmail.com> wrote:

Max,

As everyone else said, we sure loved getting to see you on Christmas. What a blessing to not only hear your voice but also get to see you. And to see the rest of the family too. We have a lot in common with you in that most of our interactions with everyone tends to be in the letters we write and in the letters that we get to read from them. So I hope that you coming home in a couple months doesn't slow down the tendency of everyone to write and keep in touch. We will just have to address our letters to the family instead of to you specifically, but I hope we can keep it going. 

Anyway, you looked great and it really was fun to see you and not get too stressed out that it was only for 40 minutes since the end is in sight. I can't wait to see you, but it is kind of sad for us because we don't have such a specific day like everyone else does that we can count down to. We really need to find a time that you can come out soon after you get home. It sounded like Rosey might be game too and I am planning on taking some time off in March for the kids' spring break, so I am just hoping and praying we can get something worked out so that we don't have to wait until like summer or next Christmas to see you. 

I think I miss you most when we watch home videos that you are in. This is basically every Sunday, thanks to BretFlix. Today we watched one that happened right after our wedding. You were in a school play. There wasn't much on film, but it was fun to be in the Farnsworth café-gym-atorium and see you walking around in costume, getting ready to do your thing. You were such a cute little boy, it just kills me. I look at those videos and love you like I love my own kids, but then it's weird because I remember that you are actually an adult now, which my kids are not. It will sure be weird when they are. 

But anyway, I digress. We had fun doing that today, as well as going to church and playing games with Grandma and Grandpa Genessy who are here for the week. We played a few new games we got for Christmas and enjoyed a yummy dinner of shrimp and chorizo (Mexican style, not Spanish) tacos. At church I taught my class for the last time, which was kind of sad. The manual was out of lessons so they said we could repeat a lesson or just teach about anything. It took me a lot of time to prepare, but making a lesson from whole cloth is one of my favorite things. There are not many callings in the church that ask you to consistently prepare lessons about anything you want, but I wish there was because I love that freedom. For this reason, my favorite position that I had in the mission was being district leader. I got to prepare a lesson each week about whatever I wanted and I think I still have all 12 lessons or however many there were that I prepared during my short tenure before I got transferred and became zone leader. Anyway, I (predictably) taught about goal making for the new year, but I like to think that I added a unique twist to it. I didn't have time to pass around a paper and have people write down their goals or anything, but I did go over four tips for setting goals, five categories of goals that we should focus on, and I tried to really focus on how our goals translate into who we become not just in 2015 when we turn 10 (which my students all will) but in 2025 when we turn 20, in 2045 when we turn 40, in 2085 when we turn 80, and even in 2155 when we have probably been dead for decades, etc. We talked about deciding what we want to get out of life, what we want to accomplish and be remembered for after we go, and then how to set different types of goals with different levels of specificity to make 2015 a good year but to also continually make sure we are aimed in the right direction to get the big long term things out of life that we really care about. Anyway, I loved preparing the lesson and learned a lot as I thought through all this. I don't know how much my 9 year olds took away, but I hope they got something out of it. I also hope you will get a chance this week to really focus on some goal making since you are finishing a big chapter of your life soon and starting a super important new one. Set goals for contacts and discussions and baptisms for the next several weeks, but also start thinking about what you want out of life when you come home. What are your education and career goals? What are you marriage/family/friend goals? What are your spiritual goals? What are your physical fitness goals? What are some fun hobby-type goals that you are passionate about? All of these are important and will help you be successful and fulfilled and well-rounded as you start into this new chapter of life of being an RM soon. 

Anyway, sorry, I don't mean to make you trunky, but goal setting and looking to the future is big on my mind this week. Of course, we had a lot of other things going on this week besides just my lesson today… :) Monday I worked about a million hours it felt like but Tuesday I only had to work a few hours from home and Wednesday I only had to respond to a couple emails on my phone. So that was nice. Tuesday we Tess's big eye surgery. You probably haven't heard much about this but it is something we have been worried about for awhile now and it is great to have it behind us. Kristi and Tess and I opened the door at 4:30 in the morning to find nice Easton there to watch the kids. We then arrived at the hospital at 5:30 and got all signed in. By about 8:00 they were ready and took Tess back. By 8:45 or 9:00 they were done and brought her back to us and by 10:00 we were out of there. Kristi may correct my timeline, but it was something like that. Anyway, it was amazingly fast and it has been miraculous how improved Tess's eyes have been since. They warned us that the eyes will still be "settling" for about 6 weeks so we should not be too excited or discouraged about any results until we get to that point. That said, Tess's eyes have been SOOO much straighter and we just hope it is helping her see better and have fewer headaches, etc. And of course, as cute as she was with her crossed eyes, she just looks so adorable now that they are straight. It's like a whole new girl and we love her. 

Wednesday, Christmas Eve, was really fun for me to just hang around the house with the kids, do a little last minute shopping, etc. I ventured to Target and even the Dollar Tree which is a scary thing on Christmas Eve. I even took the kids, which was kind of a gift to Kristi in and of itself. We didn't have any plans or parties on Christmas Eve but we had a great time with our little family and it was very spiritual getting to talk about the Christmas story with my kids without lots of other distractions around (I know when we are at a party, I am always visiting with others and don't necessarily give my kids my full attention). So it was actually a really special Christmas Eve that I hope the kids enjoyed and will remember. 

Christmas Day just flew by. By the time we got our presents opened, talked to you, talked to Mom and Dad and opened their presents, and spent a little time outside playing with our presents (I got an awesome four blade helicopter drone as well as a Ripstick caster board so it was a fun Christmas to live in warm Texas and go outside to play with my toys!), it was almost time for our Christmas night party. We had been invited to a friend's house, the Smoots, who have three little boys (the oldest one is Bentley's age), a little girl, and another on the way in a couple months. This is the guy who also happens to work with me at Baker Botts. Kristi made a yummy cheese fondue and we had a good time. Of course, I have to say, as I am always so flattered to hear Nick and others emphasize, that we did miss the family very much at these times. I try to not think about how much I miss everybody because it just breaks my heart too much, but it can be hard sometimes being out here "alone." We are grateful for good friends, for good technology like video calling, and for family who is willing to travel or take time to visit (often when it is convenient for us rather than when it is necessarily convenient for them) so that we don't feel so alone. 

The day after Christmas I also didn't work much and it was super fun to bum around the house with Kristi and the kids and get to exercise a bit. In the evening we let the kids watch their first PG-13 movie because A) we had read the book all together, and B) it is probably the tamest PG-13 movie ever with no profanity or sex at all and just kind of an upsetting scene that was no worse than we read in the book. The movie was The Giver and it is a great one to put on your list when you get home. During the movie Kristi drove to the airport and came home with a super fun after-Christmas surprise that we had not told the kids about—Grandma and Grandpa Genessy had come for the week! I did end up working all day Saturday but we drove out and saw some beautiful lights in Johnson City in the evening. And that brings us to Sunday, which I already wrote about. 

Sorry this got so long but I guess I was in a good mood to write tonight and I do hope we can remember some of the fun of this week because it was more fun and eventful than most. 

Love you so much—Max and all of you!--and hope you have a great week. 

Love,

Blaine  

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BWBassetts" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bwbassetts+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

 

Bret Bassett 

Bret Bassett  - PMP | International Product Manager |

4268 Sherm Circle West Valley City UT. 84120

Home: 801.968-0760 | Cell: 801.815.5860 | bretbassett@gmail.com

 

Re: Happy New Year!

Poor mom! I swear you always get sick on or just after Christmas! I mean, a lot of people do, but I feel like you do especially. It's probably because you put so much work in to it, that when you finally get a break your body revolts! At least that's our theory with why Blaine always got sick right after finals. I was about the sickest I've ever been last year at Christmas at your house, I was pregnant and coughed so hard I wet the bed (don't worry, I cleaned it up!! Agh!)

We sure missed being there for all the festivities! Sounds like you managed to muddle through without us ;)



> On Dec 28, 2014, at 9:16 PM, Wendy Bassett <wendy.bassett@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Max,
>
> What a delightful Christmas phone call we had with you. I think it was our best yet! You looked so handsome in your new suit. You looked and sounded a bit older a more mature. And I loved having your comps pop their heads in to say hello. It was fun to ask questions and get an immediate answer. Tonight after dinner Rosey said that she wished that we could just pick up the phone and call you - it's so much more efficient! But here we are again on the computer.
>
> Even though we visited I wanted to give a quick run down of our Christmas week. I had to work full days on both Monday and Tuesday. Monday night was the Christmas Kevin/BAWB/whatever-you-want-to-call-it party. There were just 10 of us, 11 with baby Griffen. We started with yummy appetizers and slush (I cooked deluxe sausage in a blankets that were exceptional). Then we all sat down to steak, salad and baked potatoes for dinner. Dad was enjoying his appetizers so much he sort of forgot about the steaks he was cooking on the grill and they were pretty crispy. (And for once I had splurged and bought more expensive steaks!). After dinner we did a few numbers on the chimes. Then Rosey pulled out the piñata. That was followed by the gift exchange and then the little boys went downstairs and the adults did a white elephant exchange (instead of dollar gifts). Janey and Warner gave an awesome thumb wrestling book!! No one spent the night since both dad and I had to work the next day. But it was a very fun party!
>
> Tuesday night was the extended Bassett party up at Cottage Grove. We enjoyed refreshments and hot drinks and then headed out to the barn where the nativity was done. Scott and Beatrice and their new baby Ben were Joseph, Mary and the baby. There is something so sweet about sitting in a barn singing Christmas carols and reading scriptures. It was a sweet night.
>
> Wednesday I didn't have work and I didn't have the temple so I had the day to cook and get ready for that night and the Christmas morning breakfast that we hosted. For Christmas Eve dinner we headed over to Yorgasons and Nanc had all the tables set so nice. It was the "on year" for the Yorgs so there were over 35 of us. We ate the traditional lamb and did the nativity. Little Neddy made about the cutest Joseph ever, and Jane was Mary. That party never lasts too late so we went home and Janey and Warner joined us for The Nativity movie. I still love that!
>
> I think I told you that our weather has been pretty warm with no snow at all in December. Well at about 8 am on Christmas morning it started snowing. It was so beautiful as we (all three of us - Rosey, dad and I) sat in our "snow globe" opening gifts. Snow just makes it feel like Christmas! Rosey was psyched with her backpacking stuff. Then we cleaned everything up and set our gifts in the front room to pull out tables and chairs for the big breakfast. We hosted everyone (Bassett's and Yorgs) here complete with the sausage casserole, bundt cake, cookies, fruit, oj, hot chocolate and whip cream. It turned out really nice. Then we got to talk to you! That was the highlight of the day! After that we skyped with Blaine and Kristi and watched the kids open our gifts. Then we opened gifts with Janey and Warner and Nick's family. It was fun to stretch gifts out all day! Grandma Winder cancelled her house stuff so I did roast beef here and then we went over to visit her later. It was just such a nice, calm Christmas day.
>
> Dad had to work on Friday. I was glad to be home as I could feel a cold coming on. It hit me full force today and I have pretty much lost my voice. I hate that!!! I did make it to the temple on Friday afternoon and we tended Bret, Clay and Ned late afternoon before heading over to Kent and Suzy's for the Layton party. Dad came with me and that made me happy. I really do have some wonderful Layton cousins and this is about the only time I see them.
>
> Yesterday Rosey helped me clean the house. Then Dad and I went to the new movie, Unbroken, and I LOVED it. I was very moved by the story.
>
> So that wraps up the week. What a wonderful week it was. Now if I can get feeling better. My nose is raw from blowing it so much. And I sound terrible. I have to work in the morning and I am getting to bed early in hopes that rest will heal me!
>
> I will close with a thought from my brand new calendar. It's by Thomas Edison. "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." So as grandma Bassett would say "Carry On!"
>
> I hope you know and can feel how much we love you and pray for you. Have a great week! Sure love you.
>
> Love,
> Mom
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BWBassetts" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bwbassetts+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Week 93 - Dad - Christmas report

Week 93 - Dad (t-9) - Christmas Report

Sunday, December 28, 2014

8:20 PM

 

What a great phone call on Christmas.  It was so fun to see you and talk to you about your mission life.  You seemed genuinely happy as a missionary.  You were loved by your companions and vice versa, and we got to see that.  You were being obedient, and we got to see that.  You were flexible and open and we got to see that.   You looked so natural and comfortable as a missionary.  It made me so happy to see your confidence, your love, and your desire to be all things missionary. 

 

I hate to think you're coming home so soon as now is probably the time you can do the most good out there.  You've learned so much and have so much experience.  But on the other hand, I can't help but think that now is the time when you are probably the most prepared to come home.  Now is when the things you learned can make the most difference to the rest of your life.    You have a firm foundation, and I know the Lord wants you to start building something of great worth on that foundation.

 

Now having said that, when I say 'now' I don't mean today.  I mean in 9 weeks when your release comes.  Today is too soon.  You still have that final trial to pass through where you give it all you got right to the end.  That faithfulness will help you to be true and faithful to the end of your days.  So work hard.

 

Just a thought about Christmas day.  It was different but wonderful.   We still had rosey sit in the hallway and run in to get her presents.  But rather than tear them all open at once, we went around in a circle and opened presents one at a time.  It was great being with Rosey.

 

This was our 3rd year fixing Christmas  breakfast for the Yorgasons and Bassetts.  After they left, we got ready for your call.  After your call the kids came over to get their gifts and that was so fun.  We talked to B&K and kids on 'Hangouts' and then we visited.  Mom made great pulled beef sandwiches for our BAWB family since Grandma Winder has announced that she has 'retired' from Christmas parties… just no energy.    And everything was great.

 

We finished our temple class this Sunday.  It was a great blessing to me to teach the class.  It got me thinking about the blessings of the temple.  IT got me thinking about our temple trips with the yorgasons.  It got me thinking about our temple trips before your mission.

 

 

It was a great day and our call to you made it all the best.

 

You'll be interested to know that Redford is down to T-1.  Imagine how excited his parents are.  His plans are shaping up for him to go to school at BYU_I with Tanner.

 

Mom and I saw the movie "Unbroken" last night.  We were both moved to tears.  It was powerful as we saw the challenges that were given to Louis Samparini in the war and yet how he endured.

 

May you be blessed as you begin a new year… As you set new goals.

 

I love you.

Dad

 

 

 

Re: My Annual Text to Caroline

I'm glad you responded to this Jane because it helped me realize that he meant a different Jane! Haha, I totally envisioned you respectfully fulfilling the role of Mary (as I know you would ;). But this makes more sense :)

We miss you too Nick! Remember at one point how we were all supposed to have FHE together on the phone...or something? Seems like a long shot! But we definitely need to visit more. Even though we don't talk much you guys are a very real part of our lives and we are constantly talking about you guys! We watched a fun home video of Bret and Ben as babies, seems like yesterday!

On Dec 28, 2014, at 10:45 PM, Janey Nielsen <janeybassett@gmail.com> wrote:

I agree on what you said about Jane and Ned. It was so sweet to see them be so reverent. :) fun to have you here for Christmas. And yes, after max's successful phone call, maybe we can start doing more family calls. 

On Sunday, December 28, 2014, Nick Bassett <nick.w.bassett@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Max,

It was so fun to see you on our call! Seriously you looked so good, and it was great to hear your voice and visit with you.  We are all so impressed with the wonderful attitude you have always maintained and continue to maintain through whatever trials are placed in your path.  Not to get you trunk, but it's pretty wild to think that the next time we visit with you will be when you're getting off the plane from Spain! Yikes!!  Work hard and enjoy every minute these last few weeks.  

So the title of my email is (as you may have guessed) related to a forgotten carols song which contains "I cried, the day I took the tree down...".  Every year when we are taking the tree down, Caroline gets a text from me with those words.  I can't totally remember how it all go started, but it started one year down in St. George when both of us were walking around singing that song the whole time.  So...yeah - our tree is down.  

I can't believe Christmas has come and gone.  It was so fun to be able to be up here (which we always have been) but to also be able to come home and sleep at our own house on Christmas eve. This also meant that we were able to join Brent and Nancy for their very classy Christmas Eve party. A highlight of the whole season for me was that evening when nice Margy (and whoever else helps "direct" the nativity) assigned little Jane and Ned to be Mary and Joseph in the nativity.  It was so touching and I was very pleased with how reverently those two fulfilled their roles.  It's almost as if they could sense the importance of what they were representing (or maybe just that the lights were dimmed and everyone was starring at them).  In any case, it was very touching.  

As I think I mention every email, we certainly missed having B&K and kids around but we've managed to visit with them here and there.  We need to get better at it, but having your calls with everyone there is definitely inspiring like we ought to be doing more of that and not waiting clear till your bi-annual phone call.  

Enjoy your week, work hard, and know that we all love you!

Nick

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BWBassetts" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bwbassetts+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BWBassetts" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bwbassetts+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Letter from Blaine, December 28, 2014

Max,

As everyone else said, we sure loved getting to see you on Christmas. What a blessing to not only hear your voice but also get to see you. And to see the rest of the family too. We have a lot in common with you in that most of our interactions with everyone tends to be in the letters we write and in the letters that we get to read from them. So I hope that you coming home in a couple months doesn't slow down the tendency of everyone to write and keep in touch. We will just have to address our letters to the family instead of to you specifically, but I hope we can keep it going. 

Anyway, you looked great and it really was fun to see you and not get too stressed out that it was only for 40 minutes since the end is in sight. I can't wait to see you, but it is kind of sad for us because we don't have such a specific day like everyone else does that we can count down to. We really need to find a time that you can come out soon after you get home. It sounded like Rosey might be game too and I am planning on taking some time off in March for the kids' spring break, so I am just hoping and praying we can get something worked out so that we don't have to wait until like summer or next Christmas to see you. 

I think I miss you most when we watch home videos that you are in. This is basically every Sunday, thanks to BretFlix. Today we watched one that happened right after our wedding. You were in a school play. There wasn't much on film, but it was fun to be in the Farnsworth café-gym-atorium and see you walking around in costume, getting ready to do your thing. You were such a cute little boy, it just kills me. I look at those videos and love you like I love my own kids, but then it's weird because I remember that you are actually an adult now, which my kids are not. It will sure be weird when they are. 

But anyway, I digress. We had fun doing that today, as well as going to church and playing games with Grandma and Grandpa Genessy who are here for the week. We played a few new games we got for Christmas and enjoyed a yummy dinner of shrimp and chorizo (Mexican style, not Spanish) tacos. At church I taught my class for the last time, which was kind of sad. The manual was out of lessons so they said we could repeat a lesson or just teach about anything. It took me a lot of time to prepare, but making a lesson from whole cloth is one of my favorite things. There are not many callings in the church that ask you to consistently prepare lessons about anything you want, but I wish there was because I love that freedom. For this reason, my favorite position that I had in the mission was being district leader. I got to prepare a lesson each week about whatever I wanted and I think I still have all 12 lessons or however many there were that I prepared during my short tenure before I got transferred and became zone leader. Anyway, I (predictably) taught about goal making for the new year, but I like to think that I added a unique twist to it. I didn't have time to pass around a paper and have people write down their goals or anything, but I did go over four tips for setting goals, five categories of goals that we should focus on, and I tried to really focus on how our goals translate into who we become not just in 2015 when we turn 10 (which my students all will) but in 2025 when we turn 20, in 2045 when we turn 40, in 2085 when we turn 80, and even in 2155 when we have probably been dead for decades, etc. We talked about deciding what we want to get out of life, what we want to accomplish and be remembered for after we go, and then how to set different types of goals with different levels of specificity to make 2015 a good year but to also continually make sure we are aimed in the right direction to get the big long term things out of life that we really care about. Anyway, I loved preparing the lesson and learned a lot as I thought through all this. I don't know how much my 9 year olds took away, but I hope they got something out of it. I also hope you will get a chance this week to really focus on some goal making since you are finishing a big chapter of your life soon and starting a super important new one. Set goals for contacts and discussions and baptisms for the next several weeks, but also start thinking about what you want out of life when you come home. What are your education and career goals? What are you marriage/family/friend goals? What are your spiritual goals? What are your physical fitness goals? What are some fun hobby-type goals that you are passionate about? All of these are important and will help you be successful and fulfilled and well-rounded as you start into this new chapter of life of being an RM soon. 

Anyway, sorry, I don't mean to make you trunky, but goal setting and looking to the future is big on my mind this week. Of course, we had a lot of other things going on this week besides just my lesson today… :) Monday I worked about a million hours it felt like but Tuesday I only had to work a few hours from home and Wednesday I only had to respond to a couple emails on my phone. So that was nice. Tuesday we Tess's big eye surgery. You probably haven't heard much about this but it is something we have been worried about for awhile now and it is great to have it behind us. Kristi and Tess and I opened the door at 4:30 in the morning to find nice Easton there to watch the kids. We then arrived at the hospital at 5:30 and got all signed in. By about 8:00 they were ready and took Tess back. By 8:45 or 9:00 they were done and brought her back to us and by 10:00 we were out of there. Kristi may correct my timeline, but it was something like that. Anyway, it was amazingly fast and it has been miraculous how improved Tess's eyes have been since. They warned us that the eyes will still be "settling" for about 6 weeks so we should not be too excited or discouraged about any results until we get to that point. That said, Tess's eyes have been SOOO much straighter and we just hope it is helping her see better and have fewer headaches, etc. And of course, as cute as she was with her crossed eyes, she just looks so adorable now that they are straight. It's like a whole new girl and we love her. 

Wednesday, Christmas Eve, was really fun for me to just hang around the house with the kids, do a little last minute shopping, etc. I ventured to Target and even the Dollar Tree which is a scary thing on Christmas Eve. I even took the kids, which was kind of a gift to Kristi in and of itself. We didn’t have any plans or parties on Christmas Eve but we had a great time with our little family and it was very spiritual getting to talk about the Christmas story with my kids without lots of other distractions around (I know when we are at a party, I am always visiting with others and don't necessarily give my kids my full attention). So it was actually a really special Christmas Eve that I hope the kids enjoyed and will remember. 

Christmas Day just flew by. By the time we got our presents opened, talked to you, talked to Mom and Dad and opened their presents, and spent a little time outside playing with our presents (I got an awesome four blade helicopter drone as well as a Ripstick caster board so it was a fun Christmas to live in warm Texas and go outside to play with my toys!), it was almost time for our Christmas night party. We had been invited to a friend's house, the Smoots, who have three little boys (the oldest one is Bentley's age), a little girl, and another on the way in a couple months. This is the guy who also happens to work with me at Baker Botts. Kristi made a yummy cheese fondue and we had a good time. Of course, I have to say, as I am always so flattered to hear Nick and others emphasize, that we did miss the family very much at these times. I try to not think about how much I miss everybody because it just breaks my heart too much, but it can be hard sometimes being out here "alone." We are grateful for good friends, for good technology like video calling, and for family who is willing to travel or take time to visit (often when it is convenient for us rather than when it is necessarily convenient for them) so that we don't feel so alone. 

The day after Christmas I also didn't work much and it was super fun to bum around the house with Kristi and the kids and get to exercise a bit. In the evening we let the kids watch their first PG-13 movie because A) we had read the book all together, and B) it is probably the tamest PG-13 movie ever with no profanity or sex at all and just kind of an upsetting scene that was no worse than we read in the book. The movie was The Giver and it is a great one to put on your list when you get home. During the movie Kristi drove to the airport and came home with a super fun after-Christmas surprise that we had not told the kids about—Grandma and Grandpa Genessy had come for the week! I did end up working all day Saturday but we drove out and saw some beautiful lights in Johnson City in the evening. And that brings us to Sunday, which I already wrote about. 

Sorry this got so long but I guess I was in a good mood to write tonight and I do hope we can remember some of the fun of this week because it was more fun and eventful than most. 

Love you so much—Max and all of you!--and hope you have a great week. 

Love,

Blaine  

Re: Happy New Year!

Great week synopsis. Thanks for all the good and fun. Love ya! 

On Sunday, December 28, 2014, Wendy Bassett <wendy.bassett@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Max,

What a delightful Christmas phone call we had with you.  I think it was our best yet! You looked so handsome in your new suit. You looked and sounded a bit older a more mature. And I loved having your comps pop their heads in to say hello.  It was fun to ask questions and get an immediate answer.  Tonight after dinner Rosey said that she wished that we could just pick up the phone and call you - it's so much more efficient!  But here we are again on the computer.

Even though we visited I wanted to give a quick run down of our Christmas week.  I had to work full days on both Monday and Tuesday.  Monday night was the Christmas Kevin/BAWB/whatever-you-want-to-call-it party.  There were just 10 of us, 11 with baby Griffen.  We started with yummy appetizers and slush (I cooked deluxe sausage in a blankets that were exceptional).  Then we all sat down to steak, salad and baked potatoes for dinner.  Dad was enjoying his appetizers so much he sort of forgot about the steaks he was cooking on the grill and they were pretty crispy. (And for once I had splurged and bought more expensive steaks!). After dinner we did a few numbers on the chimes.  Then Rosey pulled out the piñata.  That was followed by the gift exchange and then the little boys went downstairs and the adults did a white elephant exchange (instead of dollar gifts).  Janey and Warner gave an awesome thumb wrestling book!!   No one spent the night since both dad and I had to work the next day.  But it was a very fun party!

Tuesday night was the extended Bassett party up at Cottage Grove.  We enjoyed refreshments and hot drinks and then headed out to the barn where the nativity was done. Scott and Beatrice and their new baby Ben were Joseph, Mary and the baby.  There is something so sweet about sitting in a barn singing Christmas carols and reading scriptures.  It was a sweet night.

Wednesday I didn't have work and I didn't have the temple so I had the day to cook and get ready for that night and the Christmas morning breakfast that we hosted.  For Christmas Eve dinner we headed over to Yorgasons and Nanc had all the tables set so nice.  It was the "on year" for the Yorgs so there were over 35 of us.  We ate the traditional lamb and did the nativity.  Little Neddy made about the cutest Joseph ever, and Jane was Mary.  That party never lasts too late so we went home and Janey and Warner joined us for The Nativity movie.  I still love that!

I think I told you that our weather has been pretty warm with no snow at all in December.  Well at about 8 am on Christmas morning it started snowing.  It was so beautiful as we (all three of us - Rosey, dad and I) sat in our "snow globe" opening gifts. Snow just makes it feel like Christmas!  Rosey was psyched with her backpacking stuff.  Then we cleaned everything up and set our gifts in the front room to pull out tables and chairs for the big breakfast.  We hosted everyone (Bassett's and Yorgs) here complete with the sausage casserole, bundt cake, cookies, fruit, oj, hot chocolate and whip cream.  It turned out really nice.  Then we got to talk to you!  That was the highlight of the day!  After that we skyped with Blaine and Kristi and watched the kids open our gifts.  Then we opened gifts with Janey and Warner and Nick's family.  It was fun to stretch gifts out all day!  Grandma Winder cancelled her house stuff so I did roast beef here and then we went over to visit her later.  It was just such a nice, calm Christmas day.

Dad had to work on Friday.  I was glad to be home as I could feel a cold coming on.  It hit me full force today and I have pretty much lost my voice.  I hate that!!!  I did make it to the temple on Friday afternoon and we tended Bret, Clay and Ned late afternoon before heading over to Kent and Suzy's for the Layton party.  Dad came with me and that made me happy.  I really do have some wonderful Layton cousins and this is about the only time I see them.

Yesterday Rosey helped me clean the house.  Then Dad and I went to the new movie, Unbroken, and I LOVED it.  I was very moved by the story.

So that wraps up the week.  What a wonderful week it was.  Now if I can get feeling better.  My nose is raw from blowing it so much.  And I sound terrible.  I have to work in the morning and I am getting to bed early in hopes that rest will heal me!

I will close with a thought from my brand new calendar.  It's by Thomas Edison. "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up.  The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."  So as grandma Bassett would say "Carry On!"

I hope you know and can feel how much we love you and pray for you.  Have a great week!  Sure love you.

Love,
Mom



Sent from my iPad

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BWBassetts" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bwbassetts+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.