A Little Beauty and a special delivery….

Sometimes in this busy life you have to stop, step back, and make a little detour in your plans.

Getting ready for the holidays has been a challenge, to say the least.  Shopping, wrapping gifts, parties, firesides, work, school gifts, neighbor gifts, recitals, cleaning, baking, and all the  wonderful, yet often overwhelming activities we plan and choose to participate in keep us more than busy.  Throw in a house full of recovering flu victims (of which I have managed to escape so far), a funeral, and some home projects, and the season can be down-right hectic.

Last weekend, two of my sisters planned a little special delivery surprise for our youngest sister, Julie, and her husband Travis, who has been battling liver cancer for about thirteen years and has recently been having some difficulties.  At the urging of my sisters (who are much more in tune with things than I am), we left behind our long “to-do” lists, braved the cold temperatures and snow, and headed north to Idaho to deliver some Christmas packages, festive treats, and a little cheer.

We completely surprised them.

It was a lovely visit.

We shed a few tears.

Christmas magic (that REAL kind of magic) was felt by all of us.

We didn’t stay long, and I’m pretty sure they will never be able to eat all the food we brought them, but it was a detour we needed and wanted to make.  (Thank you, thank you, for encouraging me to go!)  It was a small gesture of love and support for a dear family who is going through some tough times.

And that is what Christmas should be more about!

JoAnn

P.S.

♥Thank you to Linda’s husband David for driving us, and for his wonderful mother Zelma for the home-made bread, hot stew, warm beds, and then again for a delicious Sunday dinner.  She so reminded me of my own mother’s hosting abilities.

♥Thanks also for the bottles of home grown peaches, pears, cherries, and raspberries that Zelma sent to Julie and Travis.

(There is no comparison to delicious home bottled fruit and store bought canned fruit!)

♥  Thanks to Linda for taking the pictures of the pine trees at their in-law’s family farm, for working magic on them with special filters, and for letting me steal them for this blog.  (I did try to ask for permission, but she wasn’t answering her phone.)

♥Thank you Diane for coming up with the whole idea!

♥  Thank you for your prayers for Julie, Travis, and their family!

Light the World, 2016

A cute, young mother named Mindi, from my church ward,  gave me permission to share this photo.  These hands all belong to her sweet little family, as they took to heart the council given by our church leaders to “Light the World-Follow the Example of Jesus Christ” this Christmas season- 25 ways and 25 days to serve.

They started with one simple candle.  They taught their children a powerful lesson on spreading the light as they lit one candle, followed by that candle lighting another, until all their candles were shining brightly.

This is what Mindi wrote about their experience:

We started out with all the light off in the house and made sure it was as dark as could be. My kids said the dark made them feel scared and worried. Then I lit one candle that I was holding. This gave us hope, a way to see, comfort. Jesus Christ is the Light of the World (John 8:12), but he has also asked us to be a light to others (Matthew 5:14, 16). Then I lit my daughters candle, and she lit her brother's candle, and he lit my husband's candle, and lastly our other daughter's candle (who is only three and was making me very nervous holding a candle! ). We can be a light to others by serving them. Our Christmas Advent this year will be doing something to light the world everyday December 1-25. See the full calendar on mormon.org. Let's #LIGHTtheWORLD together.

Aren’t they are making wonderful memories with their children?

I was feeling badly that we hadn’t planned out any creative or fun service activities to do with our family yet, and we haven’t been as involved in following the suggested service ideas as I would have liked, when my husband reminded me that we have been busy helping our daughter and her family move in to our basement, we’re striving to serve in our church callings (I was just put in the Young Women’s organization and have been scrambling to keep up), and we’ve been helping babysit grand children while their parents took care of a sick little girl.  

I guess service comes in all shapes and sizes.

I know I’ve sure appreciated the help of our children doing simple things like putting up our Christmas tree, raking our leaves, and doing our Christmas shopping!

This Christmas season has just begun and there are still plenty of opportunities to give Christ-like service.  We all need to help make this world a happier place to be.

We hope to get involved in many different ways.  Even small and simple things can make a huge difference.

The following pictures capture some of the Christmas happenings in our little neck of the woods.  I hope you are having some great memory-making moments wherever you are, and that you are enjoying doing a little service for someone near you.  I would love to hear about some of the ways you serve others.  Please share.

 

Beautiful Temple Square:

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“The Three Wisemen” at our church Christmas party:

We created my husband’s costume (he’s the one sitting) using an old bathrobe, a shower curtain, some foam insulation tubing, and some left over faux leopard material from a Halloween costume.  (15 minutes total time-if you don’t count giving the beard a good trim!)  He looked pretty convincing, wouldn’t you say?

 

The Christmas tree:

Thanks again, kids!  I love it.

If you would like to see a great video called, “Light the World”, click on the words below.  (I am the world’s worst at embedding a video!)

 

Light the World

 

Merry Christmas!

JoAnn