Sunday, December 4, 2011

Is It December Already?

Dec. 4, 2011
Dear Elder Alex,
Can't believe how fast time is flying by.  We're putting up Christmas decorations this week and it kind of feels like we're in hyper speed. I don't like that. I'm going to try hard to slow things down, relish each moment, smell the roses or the poinsettias, etc. 

I've already had my Material Girls Christmas luncheon complete with an ugly fabric exchange. We each brought a piece of "ugly" fabric in a brown paper bag a couple months ago. Then we exchanged bags. Our mission was simple-make something beautiful from something "ugly" and bring it back wrapped and ready to give back to its owner at our Christmas meeting. I can't believe how creative everyone was. The one who took my fabric made it into a chenille scarf. I made 4 organizer baskets out of the fabric I received. Not one person actually made a quilt from the fabric.

We've also already gone to Mike and Dawn Wright's house for their annual white elephant party. We almost came home with something cool, a DVD of Cars 2, but then Dawn decided to play the 'right, left' game where she told the story of The Night Before Christmas and every time she said the word right, we passed our gift to the right and vice versa. so we ended up with a candle. But it was all fun.I have my RS progressive dinner this week (I'm singing in a sextet for it) and then the ward Christmas breakfast is this Saturday. Sunday is our Stake Christmas fireside.

We've also already gone to tithing settlement. So you see, half the annual activities are already behind us. I hope you're enjoying some festivities of sort there in Tennessee.

Kristina just stopped by the computer and said to tell you she had a date on Friday night. She went out with Cade Anderson (Trent's little brother), so we okayed him thinking that you'd probably be okay with that. She had fun.

We got good news today in church. Trish has set a baptismal date for this coming Saturday and she is very excited about it. She asked us a couple days ago if we would all fast for her so that's what we are doing today. I'm hoping her husband will be there to support her, but he's been kind of up and down with this. Trish is so excited to finally be a member of the church. It's so refreshing to see and feel of her strong spirit.

Today in RS we had a fun treat with Tanner Myler coming in and singing a song I hadn't heard before, but I thought it was beautiful and could hear you singing it sometime. It's called Welcome to Our World by Chris Rice. It's a song about welcoming the Savior into the world, a beautiful tenor song. Tanner had the accompaniment on his iPod and sang with it. 

I'm glad to hear you had a great Thanksgiving and the people there sound like they really took care of you. We're sending of a package to you tomorrow, a little something for you to open right away and use through the season. We put it together tonight while listening to the First Presidency's Fireside.

How are Alicia and Shawna doing? Remind me again how you met them and their story, etc.

Sean and Kirk are just about getting into their finals. I think they start the end of this week and go through next week. Sean got off 2 weeks from work so he'll be able to hang out with us the whole time. He's thinking of doing a couple shifts at the Blue and Orange while he's home too. Speaking of BSU, dad's not very happy about them not getting a BCS bowl. Looks like they're going to be playing Arizona St. in Las Vegas at the Poinsettia Bowl. They finished out 6th in the nation and no BCS bowl...go figure.

Kirk will be coming home for the next semester and he was able to sell his contract to Jake Jensen, so we're all happy about that. At least I am cuz now I don't have to pay $300 a month for a place he's not even living in. This next Sunday Devin Larsen will be giving his homecoming, so I'll report back to you on that next week. His brother is leaving on his mission just a couple weeks later. Good timing.

No other news that I can think of around here. Last week I read several of the talks that were given at our last Gen. Conference, but I read the ones from the Priesthood session. Wow, they were wonderful. I really enjoyed Elder Waddell's talk and thought of you often while reading it. So take some time and re-read that talk. I got several thoughts even for my upcoming ward conference talks I'll be giving, just putting a little RS spin into it.


It's been fairly cold here lately and we even had our heater go out for a couple days-good thing my bed warmer still worked :)  I hope you are warm enough. Do you need anything for Christmas that would come in handy?  Let us know. Send me your list...Hope you enjoyed Nikki's list, it's another classic. I'm secretly hoping she never really learns how to spell in life just so I'll get plenty of laughs from her lists, her future emails to me, future text messages, etc.

Have a great week. Help people around you slow down and appreciate the beauty of the season and the spirit of the reason. That's the only way to feel true joy and peace on earth.

love you much,
Mom xxoo

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