New Years Eve

Tricia and Mom planned for us a fun New Years trip this year. We started at 6pm and every hour we took a culinary trip around the world.

We also watched a great mini-series called North and South based on Elizabeth Gaskell's book. She also wrote Wives and Daughters for those that like period books/movies.  We finished the night with English crackers (and their hilarious "prizes") and a toast of Martinelli's to the new year :). 

Christmas in Burley

We had Christmas in Burley, and Trevor’s and Lisa’s family came to visit us.  The kids were super excited about the gifts that Santa were going to bring them and could hardly wait for Christmas morning. When Alex found his toys, he said, “Santa came! I got my wish!”  The kids got a Criss Cross Crash (a kind of race track) and a Battle Arena for guinea pig toys??? (I don’t get it but apparently it’s a cool toy for boys) and Alex kept calling it the “ballerina.” He was so mad when we called it the Battle Arena and tried to correct us! It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend with snowboarding, movies, and naps :).   

 

Family Christmas Party

We had our family Christmas party on the 19th. This year was particularly difficult to schedule, so they planned it (while I was taking a nap) for Sunday at 4:30 pm. That means after the Burley Browns take care of Primary (Mom and Dad), Young Women (Chris), and Gospel Essentials Sunday school (Cindy), we drove down to Utah. Chris is now on Christmas break and Mom and Dad are retired so it works fine for them, but I had to ask off work on Monday. It worked out okay though. I scheduled the days with my boss and because the Courts are observing Christmas and New Years on Fridays and Doug is giving me off the 27th for Christmas, I only work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday for the next two weeks! Nice!

For the program, Tricia organized the niece and nephews to do a skit of Jazzercise. She dressed them up in 70s workout clothes and it was hilarious! I’d love to post pictures, but I’ve been, understandingly, asked by the teenagers to not include them online. However if you want to come to my house and look at my scrapbook... well, then, that would be different, wouldn’t it?! Dad and Mom sang Dad’s lyrics to his version of “Angels We Have Heard on High.” Brad’s family sang a beautiful song with four-part harmony. And, then we ended with Dad reading the Luke 2 and singing carols. One of our traditions is to sing the Primary song, “I Wonder When He Comes Again.” It has special significance to our family, but we especially love to sing it at Christmas time because it’s great to remember His birth and his 2nd coming.

Later we got to open presents from our gift exchange. I got Trevor and his family books this year and a little reading time snack (a chocolate bar, Hot Tamales, Milk Duds, and M&Ms). Tricia gave me an electric blanket, and I love it! It’s great to climb into a warm bed at night and my icy toes hardly ever keep me awake. It was especially fun to watch the grandkids open their presents. I love kids at Christmas!

Real Meaning of Christmas

Let Your Light So Shine...

So here’s some news. The Church had a worldwide leadership training last month and made a few updates. They revised the different organizations’ handbooks. Mostly, it's just procedural type things like they won't have both Correlation meetings for the heads of each auxiliary as well as Welfare meetings for just Priesthood and Relief Society leaders anymore. They'll combine them. Not really a big deal but it does simplify things a bit.

The other change is that they're not going to use Ward Activities Committees anymore. We'll still have ward activities, but now it will be planned by each of the different organizations. For example, Primary could organize the Summer Party, the Youth organizations could do the Harvest Dinner, and the Relief Society could take care of the Christmas Party. It's up to the Bishop and what he thinks is best for the ward. He could rotate activities or keep the assignments the same every year. Really, I think it makes a great deal more sense. For example, this fall the Young Men and Young Women invited the widows/widowers and singles for a harvest dinner, the Relief Society had a harvest dinner for the women, and the Ward Activities Committee hosted a ward party and dinner. It's just a bit excessive. And trying to schedule? Craziness! This should help streamline things, don't you think? The brilliance of it is that we get more people involved with each activity because each organization will pull from a different group of people for helpers and workers and volunteers!

So I figured I’d do a spotlight on my Ward Activities Committee’s last activity. It was beautiful! I am so thankful for the creativity and generosity of the committee members! We did a talent show with some delicious refreshments. We wanted to center it on the scripture in Matthew 5:16, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

We thought it would be great to involve different organizations, families, and friends by sharing a talent and provide tables for displays. Our Advertise Team got the word out in the ward. They had a sign up for those that wished to participate in the talent show as well as supplied flyers and reminder calls. Our Beautify Team decorated the cultural hall with lights and stars. They displayed on the stage and Christmas tree stars the Primary children made, “I can let me light shine by…”. They were very sweet. Our Chow Team provided cheesecake with Danish Delight (raspberry topping), sugar cookies, thumbprint cookies, candy canes, and ginger ale with orange slices (yum!!). It was a wonderful night and it was marvelous to see so many ward members participate :). Merry Christmas!!

A Visit to the Browns

This weekend I went down for a doctor's appointment and decided to spend some time with my cousins.  The adventure started off with seven year old David's first competitive gymnastics meet. I thought it was fascinating since I hadn't ever attended one before. 

Later we got to go out to dinner with all the Browns since it is Hailey's and Uncle Earl's birthday this week.  This morning Hailey woke me up, "What do you say to me?"  "Ummmm. Happy Birthday?" "That's right!" :) At the party she showed me her many faces: tired, angry, happy, and sad.

It was great to see everyone and catch up. I also took the opportunity to get to photos of all the fam. (Sorry if some of the pics are sideways. They won't upload the right direction... weird.)