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:

t

“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

Waiting for the dust to settle….November was busy!

November has been one crazy month.  We’ve taken on a few “house projects”,  along with all the other things that come with a seasonal change, and Thanksgiving is right around the corner, which means still more busy times are ahead.  I guess you could say we continue to live in a whirlwind. 

Little Aubrey spent most of last week at Primary Children’s Hospital, with breathing problems.  She has asthma and that always makes things more challenging.  She had a hard time leaving her oxygen mask on, and some creative nurses gave her this new doll to encourage her.  There are so many kind, creative people out there. She is now home and getting better.

We have been making room for these cuties and their parents to move in our basement.  Their parents are relocating to Utah for schooling and a job change.  We are so excited to have them closer and part of our every day living adventures.  We have done a lot of de-junking and down sizing to get ready.  It has been a slow process, but we are so excited to have our house streamlined and we really look forward to having them here and getting to know their children better!  They are excited to have cousins to play with.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving this year.  (Yes, this post took a long time to finish.)  Since some of our children were with their in-laws (at least they are on the same off-year schedule), we combined with my sister Linda and her husband, Dave, and their daughter Melissa and her husband Mitch.  It was different because there were no little children, but we enjoyed the quiet day-at just one table!  My husband and I still managed to spill on the new table cloth. 

We participated in the Shane Mitchell memorial walk.  We may or may not have walked much, but we always think of Shane and miss him so much.  Wishing our parents, grandparents, and Aunt Mardene, were here today, too.  It is funny how strong the memories are of the way they contributed to the day.  Nobody makes hot rolls like my mother did, and Ken’s mom was such a good sport to play with the kids.  I’d give anything for some of Grandma Palmer’s bread pudding with caramel sauce.  I never really liked the pudding, but the sauce was heavenly.  (Think 1 part pudding to 10 parts caramel sauce!)  The napping men remind us of our busy dads catching a few quiet minutes on a rare day off. 

Our family always loves being together.

So, even though this month flew by at record breaking speed, it was a good month.  We have many blessings to be grateful for!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, with delicious traditional foods, happy memories, and time spent with your loved ones!

Happy Thanksgiving!

JoAnn

“All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth,”….times 2

Our two first grade grands have similar wishes for Christmas this year.

Their two front teeth!

Do you think they will get their wish?

JoAnn

 

October-Hello and goodbye!

Dear October,

     I really look forward to your coming every year!  Your arrival is always so anticipated, much like my ten year old self peering out the window, eagerly watching for favorite cousins to arrive for a holiday.  Can I say I really LOVE you?

This year you kept the temperatures warm enough for my geraniums to survive and mingle with the pumpkins and falling leaves.

Pumpkin hunting only required a sweater for comfort.

Thank you for some beautiful skies.

And a few friendly rodents.

It is the time we gather together with family and friends to be a bit goofy and soak in the haunting atmosphere of Halloween.

Thank you, October for some fun memories!

Happy Halloween!

JoAnn

Oktoberfest-in September

A few weeks ago my family and I headed up Little

Cottonwood Canyon to the ski resort of Snowbird, for the annual Oktoberfest Celebration.

The leaves were just starting to turn red and yellow, and it was indeed a pretty sight.  Some years we wait too late to appreciate fall’s beauty, but this year we were on the early end.  We’ve since had some rain and I’m not sure what that did to the leaf display, but at any rate, fall is a stunning season and Utah’s mountains are one of my favorite places to be.

  The weather was perfect.  Not too hot- not too cold. 

Since we aren’t beer drinkers and Oktoberfest is a beer drinkers holiday, we focused on the scenery, German music, and food. 

We always enjoy the brats and apfelstrudle.

Yum!

We enjoy sitting in the dining tent, listening to the live German band, watching the “natives” in their traditional folk dress, and letting the kids dance with all the other kids (and brave adults).

We had a fun day!

 

Bet you didn’t think I could still fit in my dirndle!

Happy October first!

JoAnn

P.S.  I wanted to share some Utah fall-mountain beauty.  The following three pictures were taken in 2013 while driving the Alpine Loop in American Fork Canyon.

Hopefully, I’ll get there again this year.

Live Writer Ate My Post

 

I had prepared a little before and after post showing some changes we’ve made in our living room.  We had done some painting, remodeled a table, and purchased a new couch.

As I was about to hit “publish” I somehow deleted the post.

ARRRGGGHHHH!

Gone- without a trace.

Vanished- into thin air…

Evaporated.

And…

I can’t make myself recreate it.

Those thoughts and words are gone forever.

I guess this will be the condensed version of that post.  As Sgt. Joe Friday would say, “Just the facts, ma’am”.

Here goes (in one long breath):

We tired of our green walls and painted them tan.  The bright red/orange flowered couch no longer matched anything in our house and it was replaced by a new neutral one that we really love.  Ken added a shelf and some small legs to make a KSL.com (thrift ads) table taller.  I am grateful for a husband who takes all my wishes and bright ideas and turns them in to reality.  He really is talented and I know I am blessed!

Whew! 

At least the pictures are still available.  I’m going to let them speak for themselves.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Here are a few more after pictures.

Is your head spinning yet?

I know that neutral is often a synonym for boring, but when I go from room to room now it doesn’t feel like I’m crossing over the border to a new country.  It feels peaceful. 

Besides, who can’t use a little more tranquility?

JoAnn

P.S.  THANKS, KEN!

♥