Day 4 - Twelve Days of Christmas

Day four and "super soft" blankets were under the tree! At my house there is always a fight over the two blankets that are on the back of the couch during scripture time. We thought it was high time that everyone had there own "super soft" cuddly throw to make scripture time more meaningful. (Do you think it will work?) If not, at least they will be warm while sleeping through scripture time:)

Day 3 - Twelve Days of Christmas

"The children were nestled all snug in their beds, with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads".

Today's gift a Christmas pillowcase. Each one made differently and each made with love.

Day 2 - Twelve Days of Christmas

Is there anything better than homemade fudge? It has been a few years since I have made my Christmas fudge. David and I thought the kids would love this little treat. Personally I think David wanted fudge this year and this was his way of insuring that he got some! Funny little story though about the fudge. I use this family secret recipe for my fudge - you know the one found on the marshmallow cream jar - anyway, they have changed the recipe. That really through me for a loop. I was trying so hard to remember how it went together, changing the couple of things that looked different to me. Then talking to Toshia she informs me, "Oh yeah, I went on line and found the original recipe." "You can do that?" I said. The last thing I think of when I need help with something is "google" and my kids that's the first thing they do - I think there's a generation gap there and I swore I would never be "old" to my kids:) With that this 2nd day of Christmas I think the fudge turned out pretty darn good!

Day 1 - Twelve Days of Christmas

We are doing a very different Christmas this year. For a couple of years now we have wanted to scale back - make things simpler. David and I wanted to focus more on giving - the giving of time and service. So we are starting a new tradition. We are doing the "Twelve Days of Christmas". How this works is that for the grown children not living at home they received a tote last night full of their twelve gifts. For the ones at home we are bringing them out one at a time during scripture time every morning. On Christmas morning we will gather for our name exchange - the kids draw names every year - and have a brunch and probably go caroling or something together as a family. I made quite a few of the gifts so I have been working fast and furious the last six weeks to get this all done by yesterday. I was totally finished on Saturday with all of our Christmas stuff so now I can sit back and relax and enjoy the holiday! David and I are so excited about this. I know the older kids not living at home will enjoy it - I do worry about Chloe, Chad and Noah as they are at that in between age and just don't see the point in some of it. But they will get over it as they move on and start their families. This morning Autumn was so excited - as everyone was still very sleepy she said "This is going to be so fun - I can hardly wait for each morning!" In addition to the gift - at my house I also have a small gift wrapped with a scripture attached. We read the scripture then feel the gift and try to guess what's inside by the clues read in the scripture. Now that woke up a few of them as they got to feel the gift. They liked opening up chocolate coins-treats in the morning always make you happy!



Today's gift:

The "Service" pillow. Every year we try do some sort of secret service to each other. I usually have some little thing that gets left behind then when you find it you do for some else and leave it for someone else to find. This year I made these cute pillows. I learned to do some quilting this year so applied those new skills to this Christmas pillow. David wrote the following poem that I attached to the pillow - (he's so clever with things like that)

The Christmas Service Pillow

Like the branches of the lovely willow
Spreading their influence through the air
Lives will be touched by the Christmas Service Pillow
Service shared is sometimes rare
Leave behind the pillow to show you care
Then with your pillow serve another and pass it along
This opportunity will fill your heart with song!

Happy First Day of Christmas!

10K Run

Saturday I ran in the the first annual "Reindeer Run". I placed 7th overall in the the 10K run. Even though there were not that many runners I was very happy with my time. I came in second in my age category. I wanted to do the 1/2 marathon but I had been sick the couple of weeks before so played it safe with the 10K. I don't know how many more years I will be able to do these fun runs so I want to take advantage of it every time there is one. My son-in -law Andrew did very well also - He came in first for the men and third overall. I hope next year more of the kids will run this one with me - now that would be a race with lots of Weitzels running in it!

Thanksgiving 2010

Weitzel family Thanksgiving! (minus - Ashleigh, Chelsea, Seth and a couple of other cousins Rachel and Meagan) I am so grateful for family gatherings like this. We had a great time and everyone had fun playing in the snow and playing games inside while we waited for the food to be ready. Last Sunday we had our own family dinner with all the kids and celebrated miss Autumn's 7th birthday. What an event that was! I have to say this has been the easiest Thanksgiving dinner preparations ever for me. Everyone helped bring food and so I just made the turkey and a couple of side things. It was so wonderful to gather and have David record what we were all thankful for this year. I am loving the holidays this year!

Lessons learned during a sleepless night

I really do have about a hundred and one things I want to blog about - but that would give away all my holiday secrets:) I have been really working very hard at a very special Christmas surprise this year. I will share all of it with all of you when the time is right. For now I don't want to spoil it for any of the children that might just happen to be reading in on my blog. That said I just wanted to take a few minutes tonight and write about some things that have been on my mind lately.

There was something that I was listening to late one night a couple of weeks ago. I was having a hard time sleeping and was worried about some things going on with some of the children. I always seem to worry about them because I want them to be happy and "choose the right" so they can feel all that Heavenly Father wants them to feel! Each child has their own kind of trials and struggles - some personal - some work related - some relationship related. As I was listening to this guy speak about how God helps us with our trials I stopped flipping through the channels and listened for a few minutes. Most of what he said made a lot of sense. I got what he was teaching about and then shut the program off and started searching the scriptures for examples of what he was teaching. I had an "ah ha" moment. I love it when that happens. So funny though because I was the one learning for myself when I originally thought I would be using this to teach to my children. I will eventually but for now I needed the lesson for some of my own struggles I am having at this time. What is it - well Heavenly Father uses what is close by us to help us through our own situations. When David had to fight Goliath he used stones that were on the ground. Heavenly Father did not give him something to use that he was not familiar with. He fought a great battle with some simple stones. Moses is another example. There are several in the Book of Mormon - Nephi, The Brother of Jared, Mosiah to name a few. I am sure if you think about other stories in the scriptures you can see that the prayers were answered using ordinary objects that were familiar to the person receiving the answer. Maybe you all realized this before but I had never seen the simplicity in what we can use to overcome the challenges that we face. As I read further into some of these stories I realized that in all cases faith proceeded their actions. I am sure if I was facing Goliath and looked and saw a few small stones lying on the ground my first thought would not have been to pick them up and use them - those would kill the giant - no I dare say I would not have thought that. I would have been looking around for something larger, or even someone else to fight off the man. As I read again the story of the Brother of Jared I realized that whatever uncertainty he had about himself he never doubted the Lord's abilities. When these scripture heroes of mine succeeded it was by "small and simple things" The scripture in Alma 37:6 states "that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass - (and I love this line of the scripture) and small means in many instances confound the wise." Now I will be honest I have never thought of this scripture as an answer to how to solve any trials I might be going through. I seem to always look for some big answer from the Lord. And yet when I look back on how my prayers have been answered - really it was by "a small means" - a word or song from a child - a note in the mail - a friendly phone call from a friend - a verse from the scriptures that I had never seen before (don't you do that sometimes, wonder where that little gem had been hiding all this time?) - a thought in my mind as to the right words to say at the right time. As I have been reading my scriptures this past week I have been looking for these "small things", these things that are right there - close at hand. I think that is what I noticed also is that the things were close at hand. I know that even if I doubt myself I can rely completely on the the Lord's abilities and recognize those things as He places them before me. As I have been studying the Doctrine and Covenants this year again to teach in seminary I am reminded that He is "in our midst". No matter how alone or dark we feel He is there waiting to help us all we have to do is "knock". Think about it - how close are our hands to us - we just have to "knock". I know that we don't literally knock on a door but the thought of folding my arms and down on bended knee seeking for the door of my heart to be opened to His will I can see how my hands play a role in that process. Another phrase that jumps out at me a lot this time is the one to "pray always" He reminds us to do that a lot.

So I guess in short as I look for an answers to my problems I will notice how the Lord uses what is familiar to me, what is close to me , and that His abilities go beyond anything I could do on my own. A nice little lesson learned for one sleepless night:)