December 23rd

Christmas is not my favorite holiday.  Let me rephrase that, the Consumer Christmas is not my favorite holiday.  Granted, there are things I like about Christmas like gift giving and making treats.  But it really stops there.  Christmas to me is just a major pain in the butt!  Decorating the tree and hanging lights seem like chores.  It's not that I am not in the Christmas spirit, because I really am...just a different type of spirit.  Yes, the tree is decorated and I have a nativity displayed, but nothing can top December 23rd 1995 for showing me what Christmas is really all about.  Everything else is a pale shadow...only a let down and a glitter covered mockery.  


I was a witness to a Christmas miracle of my own on that day.  November 1995, I was living in an old pioneer home in Santa Clara Utah as a missionary.  My companion was a french nazi...not really, but almost.  We were having amazing success in the area due to the fact that Sisters hadn't been in that area for years.  Sometimes, girls can touch different people in different ways.  Let me tell you, they loved us.  We had 10 baptisms one month.  One lady we tried to contact, said she wasn't interested, but then called me back a few days later.  We hit it off from the start.  Her name was Jennifer Roberts.  She was 22 and had just had twin girls 20 months previous.  I began teaching her, after we realized that my companion and her were just not clicking at all.  She had the empathy of a paint can that girl, but was a really hard worker...so she watched the little girls.  And eventually, she accepted an invitation to be baptized.  Thing was, her husband was a returned missionary but had become inactive...not less active...inactive.  She was golden.  A california girl that had a zeal for life that was contagious.  And so she asked her husband to baptize her.  He began working with his bishop to get reactivated and ready to baptize his wife.  His whole family was excited.  We were thinking maybe in the spring, but his bishop had other plans....a baptism before Christmas.  


As she walked to into the font, he wept.  Not a dry eye in the whole room.  After he immersed her in the water, they stood there in each others arms and cried for what seemed like minutes.  The spirit was so strong it was like the room was on fire.  I was privy to redemption in all its phases that day.  Standing there, dripping wet, was the real Christmas spirit.  Nothing can top it ever.  For a man repented and forsook his sin and a woman covenanted with her God.  And in that very minute, they began a journey that would lead them back to their Father.  All because a babe was born in Bethlehem and grew to be the Saviour of Mankind and took upon himself the sins of all of us so that we can return to live with Him again.  Nothing is more important than that act.  Nothing.  It doesn't matter how big our sins, it only matters that we are trying to make it back.  And Christmas is the time that we celebrate the fact that He did indeed come to this earth.  It is a time that we can remember the sacrifice that Mary and Joseph made to become the parents of Jesus.  


So decorating the Christmas tree and hanging lights and standing in line to see Santa...I do that for my kids.  But Christmas to me, is in a font in Ivins Utah....

Neighbor Gifts

If you were in Sherwood this Christmas season, this is what you would get.  Granted, I should have just given out a bottle of Martinelli's and called it good, but I have no ability to do something in a small way.  It just goes against my very nature.  So with lovely plates that Patrick picked up at Tai Pan 3 years ago, I plated yummy gifts for a few of our closest friends.  Please don't feel bad if you didn't get one.  I only had 8 plates so it was a very limited selection this year.

Pumpkin cookies drizzled with chocolate glaze ( these are addictive!), Paula Deen's Cinnamon Toast Pecans, Dark Chocolate Walnut Fudge, Dark Chocolate Marshmallow Fudge, Coconut Macaroons, and Glazed Sugar Cookies...(Who am I kidding?  They are all addictive!)  Hope they were enjoyed and to all of you that didn't get a plate of love, know that if I wasn't moving, you would have been on my list!

Deep Thoughts

My next book will be this...http://thoreau.eserver.org/walden00.html  I feel like this past two years can be likened to this experience.  It has caused deep introspection and a letting go, a cleansing.  God has his hand in this no matter how much it has pained me, I have learned.  So now that I am about to enter the land of suburbia again, I will look at things a little differently.  Playdates, friends over, neighbors, sidewalks, and somehow trying to keep the vauable lesson that the Jones spray paint their lawn and I don't have to keep up with them will be my reality.  As my son explored his new room last night, I was reminded of all the many things my children have learned from living out in the country.  The most vital thing is an imagination.  Anderson and Evan don't have just a regular room...it is the imagination room as my little monkey so aptly named it.  The sky and sunset, the chalk board and the road way the mountain and fort...it will be his inside playground.  Would he have been this imaginative if it weren't for exploring in the woods or picking apples?  In my humble opinion, NO.

Not only am I determined to learn from this experience, but take from it the things that I enjoyed the most.  My backyard will be transformed into a garden (with a chicken coop  shhh...I am not giving up my chickens so bring it HOA!  It's legal for the city!)  and I will slow my life down more...walking instead of driving, cooking instead of consuming, being still instead of cramming too much into my life.  The peace that descends upon me as I drive through the quiet country to my home, can be achieved in my own home. I don't have to have a 15 minute commute to calm me down.  And this one thing, is the thing I hope I will always remember as I begin another journey.

15 days and counting...

My Dad

(Yes this is me as a newborn...mom is 21, dad is 22).

I'm a daddy's girl.  Plain and simple.  My father, with all of his flaws, still can make me melt into a puddle.  My dad sat next to me at my husbands concert last night.  He put his big strong arm around me and gave me a squeeze.  I cuddled right into him...he's my Daddy.  I never feel safer than I do in that moment.  Never.   Their is something special about the relationship between a father and a daughter.  He holds the moon no matter what.  He still calls me his "Little Girl", never Emily.   Our relationship is far from ideal, and we never spend much time together, but in just one moment, my gruff father can show me he loves me without words...and it's enough to last for years....

Brrrrrr......

Oregon, did you turn into Idaho this year?  What is with your single digit degrees this week?  Ok, so to make it all even more unbearable, the propane tank was empty Friday night.  No worries.  I laughed.  It's only money right?  268 bucks for 2 weeks of warmth...a price to pay for living out in the country?!  But when Monday rolled around and the propane gods said they couldn't come until Friday, Momma got a little pissed.  Dealing with the cold wasn't so bad because we did have a wood stove that heat the kitchen up somewhat and those little ceramic heaters do a good job heating up the bedrooms upstairs.  Hot water, was a little to hard to come by.  Just when I thought I was finished with my canner, I had to drag it out to boil some water.  My kids can go for days without showers, but Mom and Dad, it's every other day at the very least.  On Tuesday they informed us that they could come give us 125 gallons to get us through the next 3 weeks.  That's right folks, 3 weeks and we will be living down in the valley!!!!  Meanwhile, the chickens are in a makeshift coop in the garage so they wont freeze and that dang rooster got me up at 4:30 this morning (the garage is right underneath our room).  But despite all this frigidness, I am in high spirits.
1. Sold the piano so we can pay for the move, bankruptcy, Christmas, and winter gear for everyone.
2. The Eurovan is back and only cost 500 to fix.  The transmission wasn't going out, it was just a gasket.  Evidently there has to be fluid in it to run properly...YOU THINK?!  That other mechanic was a nut case.
3. Patrick got his promotion last week.  Which means a pay raise and a company car and gas card! Yippee!
4. I am turning in my application for admittance to BYU-I online degree program (not independent study...)
5. I have bought paint for 4 rooms and have already started using the rollers ( haven't touched a paint roller in almost 3 years)!
6. It is so clear and sunny here that you can see Mt. Bachelor!  Really!  
7. We might have this place rented, so we can leave with a light and grateful heart.
Other stuff is happening that is good too, but some of it, I can't really talk about, because it's not mine to share, but needless to say, December is turning out to be a very good month.

Keep warm everyone!

Oh Christmas Tree...

How lovely are your branches...

Even in the dark of night...

The Next Challenge

I will not be blogging again until Sunday...I need a break.  The next thing I am going to try (which happened to be a goal of mine from last year) is to do an act of kindness everyday.  I have been a little wrapped up in me lately, and it will be nice for a change to think about others and what they need.  So I challenge all of you, for the next month, give of yourself once a day.  Blessings will abound and you will truly feel the Spirit of Christmas.