Welcome Home Elder Holt!

What a wonderful Christmas it was for the our family this year! Allie was home from BYU, and Kimber & Brett joined us right after Christmas to welcome Elder Holt home on Friday, December 29th! Tyler missed his plane from Sao Paulo to Houston, so he spent the next 24 hours trying to get home. He was supposed to arrive on Friday at 11 am but instead he got in at 11 pm! After spending 36 hours traveling, he was exhausted but so happy to finally be home! What a fun reunion we had at the airport! The anticipation and joy that we felt was awesome! As a family, we decided to wait and celebrate Christmas when he got home. So we greeted him at the airport, took a few pictures at the airport (Dad said it was a lot more than a few!), hurried home, had Christmas dinner at midnight and stayed up until 2 am opening presents and listening to missionary stories! It was awesome! So good to have him home and be together as a family once again! Saturday, we had all the family and friends over for a party, and of course, basketball and jacuzzi with Tyler's buddies! It was wonderful! Sunday, Tyler spoke at church and did an awesome job! Ashley sung "A Window to His Love" and it was beautiful! After church, all the family and friends came over for Sunday dinner! We visited all night and played the Wii. Everyone had to participate! After much coaxing and persuasion, we got Grandma and Grandpa Olson to play Wii tennis! They were adorable! Monday, we watched football and packed. Dad was so happy to have his boy home so that they could watch the bowls games together again! That night we went to Ruth's Chris for dinner with just our family. It was wonderful to have a few hours to just visit and hear Tyler's missionary stories and be together as a family! Tuesday morning, Brett and Kimber flew back to NYC. We had so much fun with them and we are going to miss them! Tyler was excited to meet Brett and so happy to have a brother! He loved talking about his mission and football with Brett! Wednesday morning, we packed the car up and headed to Provo to get Tyler moved in and settled for school! It was a busy, but fun few days with Tyler! It was hard to leave him so soon...but we back in Utah in a few weeks so we will be able to spend more time with him. We are grateful to have him home and listen to his wonderful stories about the people that he taught in Brazil! We are so grateful that Tyler was able to serve a mission, grateful for the gospel and the joy that we experienced as a family when he was on his mission! And grateful for families and the love that we have for each other and to be reunited again! We are most grateful to be able to Welcome Home Elder Holt!! We love you, Tyler!