"...for it is good to be children some times, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself." Charles Dickens

Christmas is interesting.  

There is no other season that I contemplate 

my past experience.  Only Christmas brings the 

yearning of earlier times.   

Why is it such a powerful holiday?

If our hearts are where they should be,

the answer to that question is the remembrance 

of the birth of the Savior of us all. 

  His earthly life was amazing. 

And his atoning sacrifice cannot 

be comprehended.  We ought to celebrate his 

arrival here upon the earth!

It is the celebration that pulls 

at my memories.  Each phase of my life has

created different emotions.

As a child, I am sure I anticipated 

Christmas mornings like all children… 

.but those years have melded together 

into one.  I do remember loving Christmas music.

  And the Christmas my sisters convinced me 

that Santa had just left our house and

as I looked out the window to 

catch a glimpse….I saw him.  In my excitement

I actually saw him and his reindeer 

gliding over the field behind my home.  

 (So, when asked by my children

I honestly could say “yes,

I believe because I saw him”.)

I think my favorite feelings came

from my teen years and on

through college.  These were years with 

no responsibility.  It was a time with 

no distractions from the feelings of Christmas. 

I loved being with friends.   

I loved the holiday dances.  I loved wearing the colors of 

Christmas….fashionably.  I liked giving 

little gifts to people I loved.  I loved the music and

the programs at church.  

 My parents divorced when I was 15. 

Since they were no longer together 

at Christmas time I do remember 

that my dad was more of a Christmas person than my mom. 

  My mom’s thing was the 

Christmas tree.  She loved to decorate a tree! 

I loved my home at Christmas

and I loved going to Pinetop with my dad.

My married life (and parenting life) 

brought a whole different set of feelings. 

  Because I was a serious minded mother

I struggled with the gift giving.   

I hoped to raise unselfish children and

feared that all those presents 

would sabotage that desire.  

 I had a hard time setting aside my

responsibilities as a parent and just 

enjoying Christmas and all that comes

with it.  David, as always, was 

the balance to my thinking. 

If our children only knew!

It is in my adult life 

that Christ has become “the reason 

for the season”.  Yes, I always knew it was

because of him that Christmas came.  But the reason is more

real to me now.  He is real.  

 His birth signifies the beginning

of his mortal existence.  

 Celebrating his birth upon this

earth is right and good. 

We celebrate the birth of our Savior 

and Redeemer.  What he has 

done for us cannot go without celebration.

I try to set aside my grown up 

responsibilities every December 

so I can feel like I used to.

But I have decided that won’t happen. 

My Christmas present will never be 

the same as my Christmas past.  

 The child in me has given way to the adult

who needs to look forward….not back.   

And I do look forward to the day 

I can fall at the feet of my Savior and thank him 

for coming and thank him for 

making it possible for me 

to return home to my 

Father in Heaven.   Until then "I will

honor Christmas in my heart,

and try to keep it all the year."

Church Historical Museum

There are a ton of posts below.  

This is my last one tonight.

My fingers are getting sore and

my mind is a blurrrrr.....

We found the Historical Museum and

took a tour.  It was all so interesting.

We were very interested in finding

exhibits about John Taylor.  And

we were pleased with what we saw.

(I should clarify.  About two months

ago my oldest daughter, Jill, called

late on a Sunday evening and asked

why we had never told her that John

Taylor was David's greatgrandfather.

The simple answer is 'we didn't know'.

But somewhere back there we realized

that somethings were said 35+ years ago

in a conversation but it never registered really.

So Jill pointed out the connection which is

David's grandma Merrill

is John Taylor's youngest daughter.

That made perfect sense.  We knew her

name was Sarah Lorena Taylor. But what

Taylor we never investigated.

Well that is the long and short of it. Unless

you don't know who John Taylor is.  He was the

3rd President of the Church.  He was in Carthage

with the Prophet Joseph Smith.  He sang a Poor

Wayfaring Man of Grief to the men in that

prison the night of the martyrdom.  He also

was wearing a watch that may have saved his

life when the bullets started flying. 
A bullet hit the watch and stopped it from

entering John Taylor's chest.  He was also

a polygamist.  And I am assuming that Sarah

Lorena was a child of his last wife.  He was

in his seventies when she was born.

(In case you are interested both David and I

are from polygamist ancestry.)

Portrait John Taylor

 I actually liked seeing this time line of pictures.

He looks a bit mean in the portrait.

 He wrote this book The Mediation and the Atonement.

The one thing that came to my mind when Jill

asked me about John Taylor was a book that

David's mom showed me when I first married David

with John Taylor's signature

in it.   (Honestly, my church history was bad at the time so

I don't think I knew who John Taylor was.)It was old. It may have been a copy of

the same book.  Thinking about it now it makes

me sick to think what might have happened to it.

 John Taylor signed this letter.  It was some 

communication.  I don't quite understand it.

 This is the very watch he was wearing in Carthage.

The hands have long since been lost.  But they

were stopped by the events of that night.  This is

how they know what time Joseph Smith was

killed.  Our tour guide said that there is

some question as to whether a bullet hit

the watch or as he tried to escape and

fell against a window it was stopped

by that.

.

I am glad Jill called to give me a talking 

to about our connection to a Prophet.

I plan to learn more about him and

his daughter Sarah Lorena.

It is kinda cool to have this connection

to the early days of the restoration.

Road Trip

We went to Salt Lake City on Wednesday

and came back on Friday.  

My brother Jeff's baby daughter

got married.  We were really glad

we were able to go and support his

family.  Kara was very glad that

family came.

 We had decided that James was Jeff's twin.

But seeing him in real life put that to

rest.  Although this picture does look 

like Jeff.  Kara is pretty, isn't she?

They were so happy.

 Becky waiting for the newlyweds to come out.

 Proud mom waiting.

 Jeff looked so good and happy.

Brother Ryan.  Nice man.

OK, so I'm so from the backwoods of Arizona.

I must be the only Mormon living in the United

States over the age of 50

who hasn't been in the Salt Lake Temple.

I actually thought we were going to enter the

Temple through those big wooden doors.

(I got that idea from wedding pictures

I have seen of couples standing at

those doors.)  And then I was all

excited to see the inside of the Temple

as we made our way to a sealing room.

Wrong again.  What actually happens is

they have an entrance to the north of the

Temple and you go underground and

enter the Temple after going up some

very ordinary stairs.  And then there

is this long hall with doors all the way

down it and each one leads to a sealing

room.  And that is as far as I got

on my tour of the SL Temple.  The

sealing room was beautiful and so

was the couple.  Then it was over

and we went out the way we came in.

But I did get some great pictures of the

Christmas lights on Temple Square.

I understand that they begin putting up

lights in August.  I believe it.  Not because

of the number of lights but the attention to

detail was amazing.  

 These are life size.  So sweet.

David has always wanted a blue tree.

So I made him stand there so I could

take a picture of him by one.

 Look at the detail to those trees.

And the man in front of them.

 This Nativity in the reflecting pool was beautiful.

When we walked through the gates into Temple

Square I was amazed at the size and stature of

the Salt Lake Temple.  I have become very accustom

to the size of the Snowflake Temple.  (When I was

a girl and it was said that one day there would be

a Temple in Snowflake this is what I invisioned.

Something on a grand scale like this....Could you

imagine?)  It is an amazing structure.

Christmas Decorations

I keep downsizing my Christmas decorations. 

This year I decided not to spend any money

on decorations.  So I tried to be creative.  And

over all really like what we have here.

I did visit a friend last week and she has

the cutest things.  I realized my stuff is

old.  I love it but I wonder if it is time

for me to rethink it.  Too late for this

year I know.  Hmmmm.

 My Santas are miniature.

But most of them have a

memory for me.

 

 We used to have great super Saturdays.  

And I made this sleigh at one of them.

 I made this Nativity for my mom when she

was in the nursing home.  It is my favorite this year.

 I quit putting my Wisemen with

the Nativity a while back since,

technically, they weren't there.

 

 Well, I lost my big sign for the

front porch.  I have idea what I

did with it.  So I made this one.

I think I like it more than the one

I lost.

 My tree has yellow lights.  They look like

candy lights.  I had two boxes of these lights

and decided to go with them.

 The books belong on this shelf.  I like doing that

more and more.  Just incorporate what is already

there so I don't have as much to do to return 

                                                       things to normal after Christmas.

 More tree.

 

If you look really hard you can see that these

are sleighs.  

It would be hard for me to part with

or shelve these things.  But I do like

all the cute stuff out there.

(Think Pinterest)

It is always best to take two vehicles.

After our last snow storm people were

caught a big off guard and had not

cut their Christmas trees.  David offered

to go with David Halls into the

woods to find his tree.....just in case

he got stuck and needed help.

Well.....it wasn't David Halls that

got stuck.

 Once

 Twice

 Three times

 Four times....it was only David that got stuck.

But I swear this just wets his appetite.

No shame in getting stuck cuz getting

out if 9/10's of the fun.

Snow in Whoville.

                           Need I say more?

Piper's blessing

Baby blessings are at the top

of the list when it comes to

gathering together.

I appreciate my children for seeing

the importance of supporting these days.

And I love to see all my men

in a circle with a new baby

receiving a blessing from 

her father.

And this was the case this

past Fast Sunday with baby Piper.

Life with the Bish Bish

I should probably explain.....I heard the term

"Bish Bish" at girl's camp in a skit.  I adopted

it as my affectionate name for David.

I have taken a few pictures of him lately.

They are in no particular order.

I think I have a 100 shots of him on this

porch swing.  This one he is in his standard

uniform.

Wondering how this little neighbor

got in our house.

Putting together our canopy at the Ward campout.

I had a friend tell me I would probably be

rich if I had a dollar for every time this canopy

was raised.  Probably right.

Bish Bish and Dais Dais.

Primary Party.  

Wondering if he should have worn a tie......

There have been a lot of changes in David since

he was called to be the Bishop.  

He is still David but there is more

now.  His heart is bigger .... and softer.

When he was first called he was

bewildered.  He called himself a lightweight.

I don't see that any more.  He just

puts on his shirt and tie and goes

and does.  And he loves our ward.

I think it is a good time for him to be serving.

He has a world of experience and

has lived along enough to know what

is really important.  

May god bless you, Bish, Bish.

 

Boo

It was well past time to

give Boo a hair cut.

I don't like to do this.....

But she is really very helpful.

I would like to know her

first owners.  They really

trained her well.

BEFORE

AFTER

Jeremiah's second family

While Lee's husband, Aaron, has been

gone these past six months Jeremiah has

been so good to Lee.

He has looked after her  and

her home and....

Daisy!

Piper Jane

 Piper Jane Joncas

The world whirls around us and we wonder

where it will all end and then a new baby

is born and everything fits in place.

Thank you, Piper, for helping me remember

what it is all about.

Congratulations Heidi and Jeremiah.

We are pleased and proud of you.

The Joncas Family

December 2011

( A picture says a 1000 words!)   

Fall! Where Did You Go?

As I write this post I can look

out the window and see a good

foot of snow.  And I am excited

about the possibility of a

White Christmas.  But fall

was a mere blip on the radar.

Apple Restoration

 Now that my canning work is well in the past

and winter has set in I can appreciate the fruits

and vegetables of summer.  

My agrarian mentality has an evolutionary 

cycle that starts in February and ends in December. 

(That leaves January to think about everything else.)  

I will spare you the process. 

I just wanted to say that I am grateful

for the apples.  I lost sight of that during

the canning process.  But I put 

these pictures on my computer and

remembered how pretty they were

and how grateful I was to have apples.

 I made an earlier post about juicing apples.

I found the secret to getting the job

done was to beg my husband to help.

He was on board and it made all the

difference.