Understanding the scriptures

Yesterday we had the missionaries over for dinner.  They shared a thought with us before they left. It was about Nephi and his willingness to be obedient to the Lord's commandments.  The elders were asking our children about some details to see if they remembered the story.  Isaac recalled that Laman and Lemuel murmured a lot about going to retrieve the plates from Laban in Jerusalem.  But they had no problem going back for the ladies.

Christmas Advent Activities

My original idea was to post a different activity daily that our family did to celebrate the advent of Christmas during the month of December.  Well...life happened and I'm behind.  Instead, I'm just going to post a list of what we are doing instead.  Maybe some pictures will come later.  We'll see.  As soon as school is out then we'll finally be able to slow down a bit and enjoy our stay-at-home vacation this year.

1. Put up outdoor Christmas lights
2. Cut paper snowflakes
3. Decorate gingerbread houses
4. Decorate Christmas Tree
5. Advent Sundays 1, 2, 3, and 4
6. Christmas Sing Along
7. Jingle Bell Run
8. First Presidency's Christmas Message
9. Carol at the assisted living center
10. Bake cookies: sugar, pepparkaka, chocolate chip, wagon wheels, oatmeal raisin, snickerdoodles, and more
11. Deliver treats to the neighbors
12. Make candy: including fudge, brittle, marshmallows, candy canes, taffy, carmels, suckers
13. Have a fire in the fireplace and roast marshmallows. 
14. Have hot chocolate in front of the fireplace
15. Doorbell ditch friends; leave goodies
16. Get new christmas CD
17. Watch a Christmas movie
18. Read Christmas stories
19. Design Christmas cards
20. Make up new words to carols
21. Attend a performance of Handel's Messiah
22. Trail of Lights
23. Attend Aspen's one act play performance
24. Make Swedish cardamom bread and pigs in a blanket for Christmas Day breakfast
25. Attend Aspen's band concert 

Favorite Christmas Stories

I love children's books.  Heck (how utahn is that word?!), I love most books.  I thought I'd share a list of our Christmas stories.  Perhaps you'll find a new one for your family to enjoy.  Share your favorites so I can find new ones too!

Annika's Secret Wish by Beverly Lewis   I like this book because it reminds me of my swedish heritage and my Grandma Kerksiek.  It has beautiful pictures and a nice story.

Hannah's Christmas by Melissa Peterson Another book that supports our Swedish heritage.

The Miracle of the Wooden Shoes by Deborah Pace Rowley A story about the true meaning of Christmas and serving others. This story also reminds me of my German Heritage (We are a mish-mash of heritages. Just means we have lots of different traditions.) It might be fun to start the shoe tradition in our family.

The Tomten and the Fox by Astrid Lindgren This is a swedish story. My parents read this to us as children every Christmas. I love the pictures of the isolated farm at night and the story of the little tomten watching over the humans.

The Tomten by Astrid Lindgren The other swedish tomten book from my childhood. Love it still.

This is the Season Beloved of the Year artwork by Simon Dewey I love Simon Dewey's artwork. This pictures go along with the words to the primary song of the same name. There are always timely quotes by prophets and apostles and scriptures from both the Bible and The Book of Mormon.

A Night Without Darkness A Nephite Christmas Story by Timothy Robinson This story tells of events in the Americas among the Nephites leading up to Christ's birth.

Jesus is Born by Sherrie Johnson This book was written by the mother of my good friend from Dallas. It is about the birth of the Saviour from the Nephite point of view.

A New Star in Heaven A Christmas Story from the Bible and the Book of Mormon by Val Chadwick Bagley, text by Tamara Beckstrand This is a lift-the-flap board book and great for a quiet sacrament meeting activity.

The Night Before Christmas A Little Golden Book Edition. This classic story is from a classic publisher. Love Little Golden Books!

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer A Golden Book I love Little Golden Books. Great illustrations for a must have story.

The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore illustrated by Bruce Whatley I love the illustrations in this version of the classic poem.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Robert L. May illustrated by David Wenzel This is the original version of the holiday classic. Mr. May wrote this story when he worked bor Montgomery Ward department stores. The store asked him to write a sotry they good give away to customers. Eventually he persuaded the company to turn the copywrite over to him and the rest is history!

The Littlest Angel by Chales Tazewell I love this story and it's retro illustrations. I don't read it aloud often because it is quite long for a picture book. But it is one of my favorites.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens illustrations by Roberto Innocenti Classic. Must read. I love the illustrations by Roberto Innocenti. It is the original text, unabridged

Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett Books by Jan Brett have such wonderful page layouts. There is another story going on in the pictures on the borders of each page.

Christmas Trolls by Jan Brett Another cute story from Jan Brett. I like the trolls especially.

A New Improved Santa by Patricia Rae Wolff This book has a nice vintage feel with a new twist about Santa. Super cute.

Clifford's First Christmas by Norman Bridwell One of my children picked out this book. Mostly it is one the little kids like to read.

Angelina's Christmas by Katharine Holabird Cute story aout the little dancing mouse. Perfect for little girls.

Carl's Christmas by Alexandra Day While leaving a rott weiler to watch a baby is a little unbelievable, the pictures are cute and you can make up your own story every time.

The Polar Express by Chris Van Alsburg I love Van Alsburg's illustrations and his stories. They are unexpected. I still enjoy the book much more than the movie.

Merry Christmas, Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish I love Amelia Bedelia. She gets into so many predicaments because she is so literal! Funny book.

We Three Kings by Gennady Spirin This book has sumptuous pictures that illustrate the words to the carol of the same name.

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski illustrated by P.J. Lynch This well know story about a grieving wook carver has pictures that looke carved. I love the story and the textures.

The Animals' Christmas Eve A Little Golden Book Another classic! It's a cute counting book that set in the stable on Christmas Day.

The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado Sweet Christmas story, nice soft illustrations.

Christmas Oranges retold by Linda Bethers illustrated by Ben Sowards Classic story

This is the Star by Joyce Dunbar and Gary Blythe I really like the illustrations in this book. It is also written in a this-is-the-house-that-jack-built kind of style. But to read aloud.

A Normal Rockwell Christmas This book has a collection of stories, poems and carols (sheetmusic included). It is one of my favorites from my childhood. I love each of the stories and what's not to love about Normal Rockwell illustrations.

The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen illustrated by Vladyslav Yerko Vibrant pictures accompany this classic fairy tale. It has 7 shorter stories within it.

White Snow Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt Fun seasonal book, especially for us snow-free Texans.

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats  I've loved this book about snow for a long time. 

Dora Saves the Snow Princess by Dave Aikins Not really a Christmas book, but currently one of Hazel's favorite seasonal stories.

The Nativity by Francesca Crespi It's a pop-up book. Lots of fun. It is also a nativity scene (which I collect).

The Christmas Alphabet, The Twelve Days of Christmas, and Winter's Tale by Robert Sabuda More pop-up books. These are intricately cut and beautifully done. These books also don't stay on the bottom shelves and are usually looked at very carefully by little children with the help of a big person.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson  Just a fun book to read.

Davey's First Christmas by BethVardon, illustrated by Charlot Byj  This is the story that my Grandma used to read to us every Christmas Eve.  And we read it every Christmas Eve too.

So that's my list.  What are some of your family's favorites?

Cousins

I think one of the most fun aspects of family holidays is playing with cousins.  My kids had a good time getting to know the Brunner cousins again. (It had been more than 5 years since we last visited Vegas!)  And since my children are the oldest by a lot, everyone had grown up a bit since the last time we saw them. 

This is Carrie.  She was always willing to play Polly Pockets with Hazel.

Hazel and Malachi got along great.

Cynthia and Aspen had fun together.

with Olivia and Isabella too.

After dinner Wiiing (projected onto the wall).

Everyone was happier than a few of them seem to be (they just don't like having their picture taken).  We missed having Kristy's kids there.  It would have been cool to get a picture with all 16 grandchildren.  But we take what we get.  Good to see all the cousins again.

Turning our hearts

Now that both Aspen and Toby are old enough, we are trying to go do baptisms for the dead at the temple more often.  Aunt Joan kindly supplied us with some family names and we have been trying for the last two months to get to the temple.  While we were in Las Vegas, we wanted to take advantage of the close proximity to the temple (2 miles away) to finally get the baptisms done. 


We remembered last minute (as in a few hours before leaving for the airport) to get recommends for Toby and Aspen while we were at church.  We even caught the name typo on the recommend before leaving the church and had the bishop correct it.   I kept them for safe keeping.

In Las Vegas, I called the temple and got the last time slot available before the holiday for family baptisms.  Everything was all working out.  We were all showered, changed and ready to go.  I had the names, Nate and  I had our recommends.

I went to get find the kids' recommends, and they were nowhere to be found.

I looked everywhere, twice.  We prayed.  I looked everywhere again.  I called a member of our bishopric.  It seemed hopeless.  So I called the temple to let them know we couldn't make it.  But they had a solution.  A member of our bishopric just needed to call the temple.  So, though we were late.  We still managed to get in.  We were able to get all our names done. 

I know that it was an answer to prayers.  I think that those family members we were doing baptisms for really wanted us to be able to get their work done for them.  I am also glad that we could go as a family.  Soon, I will be able  to be in the temple with all of my children.  I am looking forward to that day.

Hazel and the first Thanksgiving

Hazel's school class had a Thanksgiving feast.  It was complete with chicken nuggets, tater tots, mac 'n cheese and cupcakes.

Hazel's class dressed up at native americans in a little skit about the first Thanksgiving. (The other class were pilgrims.)