O Christmas Tree - Part 1

Last Sunday in our joint priesthood & Relief Society meeting, there was a lesson on being prepared & as part of the lesson a fire chief in our ward showed a clip of what happens when a live Christmas tree catches on fire.  Within 45 seconds the room was consumed, giving visual meaning to the phrase, "lit up like a Christmas tree."  I was teaching primary, but Wayne gave me the report.  We figured someday we'd go artificial, but made no such plans.  A couple days later Wayne stopped at Costco on his way home, and sent me an email with a photo of their white lit Christmas tree - 7 1/2' tall, 1500 lights, $150.  I never thought I'd cave so easily.  We debated the cost...we were looking at a new stand and probably new lights this year, as well as our tree....not a huge deal, but a factor.  Our friend, the fire chief really was the defining point though.  So, Wayne brought home our Christmas tree...in a box. Honestly, we were all a little sad, but no regrets if that makes sense.  Having a live tree has been 100% fun for us all of these years, pine on the floor and all (instant air freshener when vacuumed).  Thomas thought we'd lost our minds with this fakey.  Maybe.  I think one reason I was in heaven, gloveless, working with pine at the wreathmaking party on Thursday was because I knew we'd have a little less pine scent in our home this year.

 Today we set up our tree; our fake Christmas tree.  It's beautiful.  We've been retro all of these years with colored lights.  I still think they're fun, but Costco's white lit tree had oodles more lights, so we went with white.  The kids helped spread the branches,  and at that point they said they thought the fake tree was more fun than our real trees ever were.  They crack me up sometimes.

Caroline wanted to pose for a photo op next to the tree top....such the helper.

Near the end of this family event, Wesley woke up from his nap.  His reaction?  A classic Wesley, "Wow!"  His eyes were like saucers and we all appreciated our fake tree a little more through his eyes.  As we finished up with the branches, Wesley decided to help himself to a snack.  He rejoined us caring a near entire loaf of artisan bread that Wayne baked today. 

Great recipe btw...found at the NYTimes HERE.

 Come back for "O Christmas Tree, part 2"....tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

Sharing Time lesson: Service

For sharing time last Sunday we introduced a Primary "Giving Tree."  This Giving Tree is a follow-up to our lesson where we had the children write an act of service they did or draw a picture of a service they did as a birthday gift for President Monson (we saw that idea on Sugardoodle- thanks!).  To encourage our primary children to be service-minded all through the holiday season, and hopefully beyond, we came up with The Giving Tree.  The tree was simply painted on 2 large pieces of butcher paper taped together so that it's nice and wide as well as tall (from floor to ceiling).  The star is cut from cardstock.  I taped a garland to the tree and taped ornaments along the garland that read "Our Giving Tree."  This project is incredibly fast and easy if you use a 2" circle punch found in the scrapbook section at Michael's to make the ornaments!  I used scrapbook paper to punch LOTS of circles for the primary children to use for ornaments.  Before introducing the tree to the children, I began a lesson on service by sharing the following stories from President Monson's life....

• "The compassion and sensitivity developed in President Monson's boyhood continued to be a major part of his life when he was called to be a bishop at age 22. Bishop Monson's 67th Ward had more than 1,000 members, including 85 widows.Every Christmas the young bishop took a week of his personal vacation time to visit and bring a gift to each of the widows in his ward. He continued to visit these sisters at Christmas for the next 47 years until the last widow passed away in 1998." -"Called to Serve," New Era, May 2008, pp.2-5.
• Twenty-three-year-old Tom Monson, relatively new bishop of the Sixth-Seventh Ward in the Temple View Stake, was uncharacteristically restless as the stake priesthood leadership meeting progressed. He had the distinct impression that he should leave the meeting immediately and drive to the Veterans' Hospital high up on the Avenues of Salt Lake City. Before leaving home that night he had received a telephone call informing him that an older member of his ward was ill and had been admitted to the hospital for care. Could the bishop, the caller wondered, find a moment to go by the hospital sometime and give a blessing? The busy young leader explained that he was just on his way to a stake meeting but that he certainly would be pleased to go by the hospital as soon as the meeting was concluded.  Now the prompting was stronger than ever: "Leave the meeting and proceed to the hospital at once." But the stake president himself was speaking at the pulpit! It would be most discourteous to stand in the middle of the presiding officer's message, make one's way over an entire row of brethren, and then exit the building altogether. Painfully he waited out the final moments of the stake president's message, then bolted for the door even before the benediction had been pronounced.  Running the full length of the corridor on the fourth floor of the hospital, the young bishop saw a flurry of activity outside the designated room. A nurse stopped him and said, "Are you Bishop Monson?" "Yes," was the anxious reply. "I'm sorry," she said. "The patient was calling your name just before he passed away."  Fighting back the tears, Thomas S. Monson turned and walked back into the night. He vowed then and there that he would never again fail to act upon a prompting from the Lord. He would acknowledge the impressions of the Spirit when they came, and he would follow wherever they led him, ever to be "on the Lord's errand."  You cannot understand President Thomas S. Monson, First Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church, without understanding the repetition of such promptings in his life and the absolute loyalty with which he has kept that early promise to obey them. Indeed, his life seems something of a sacred manuscript upon which the Holy Ghost has written—and is still writing—one remarkable spiritual message after another." -Jeffrey R. Holland, "Pres. Thomas S. Monson: Man of Action, Man of Faith, Always 'on the Lord's Errand," Ensign, Feb. 1986, pg. 10.

Bear testimony of the principle of service after perhaps sharing an service-related experience of your own.  You can also intermix appropriate primary songs with the examples of "being on the Lord's errand" mentioned in the lesson.

I then introduced the Giving Tree.  The Giving Tree will be in our Primary room throughout December.  I provided ornaments for the children and they wrote recent acts of service they did (one per ornament), and then taped the ornament somewhere on the Giving Tree.  Some kids signed their ornaments and others are anonymous.  I told the children that every Sunday when they come to Primary they can write on more ornaments and add them to our tree.  By the end of the month we'll see how full and beautiful our Giving Tree looks!  If they hadn't written their note/drawn their picture of service to give to President Monson, they did that during this sharing time too.  

PS...If your primary hasn't done the letters to President Monson for his birthday yet, you can find what that is all about HERE and do this as a family.  Merry Christmas!

Wreathmaking Party 2008

The past week I've been tying bows (72 to be exact) and making ornaments for the wreath making party.  Yesterday I met a few friends at the church to help roll out butcher paper on the floor, set up tables, cover the tables, pin bows to the wall, move chairs, and get things set up.  It took just over 2 hours (a record I'm sure), and that was about all Wesley could handle.  The paper floor barely survived him, but when we left things looked great.

Our party started at 6:30 with wassail and visiting while women arrived.  The program started at 7pm.  The theme was "Women Surrounding the Birth of Christ."  The readings and musical numbers were uplifting and heartfelt.  What a beautiful start to the Christmas season!

It was fun visiting as we did our best to put together festive pine wreaths.  It smelled heavenly in the cultural hall!  After making a couple wreaths for sisters who weren't able to be there, I took home pine and my wreath frame so I could work on my own at home.  We were all cleaned up and out the door just after 10pm (another record for a WM party).

I love the smell of pine.  I love the wreathmaking party- such an uplifting & fun RS activity!  I love Christmas carols & enjoyed hearing a couple new ones last night.  I love that all of the work (even though at the time I felt clueless!) from previous wreath making parties enabled me to be helpful in introducing this tradition to my new RS.  It's definitely a group effort, but so worthwhile.

Merry, Merry Christmas!

Turkey Bowl '08

Truly a banner day for Thomas and Wayne.  Thomas had a great time playing in his first Turkey Bowl along side his dad.  He reported that he "ran the wrong way trying to score, but everyone told me to run the other way."  He loved the donuts at the end of the game too!  Wayne had 5 interceptions, scored 3 TD's, and earned a bruised rib.  He has great memories of playing Turkey Bowls with his brothers and friends, and now Thomas will be woven into the Turkey Bowl lore as well.  Banner Day, indeed.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving Day with several families from our former ward, also their former ward since the Arlington ward's recent split.  We all {Menzies, Balmforths, Romanos, Sweeney's, Whites, & a few other friends of the LaP's new ward} converged on the LaPierre home for a late afternoon Thanksgiving feast.  I didn't take a head count, but it was a nice, large, fun crowd.  It was so nice to spend several hours together visiting, relaxing, dining, playing games, searching Black Friday ads, watching "Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving," and enjoying our time together.  I forgot my camera, but snapped a few pics with Allison's camera.  Somehow Caroline evaded the camera, so she's quoted on our "Thanksgiving" page, along with a family favorite recipe that is adapted from a Cooking Light recipe.  I'm sure our version wouldn't qualify for the magazine...they skimped on the marshmallows!

A couple photos that didn't fit on the page....

Left to Right: Rebecca, Dottie LaPierre & Michelle Romano

{Allison Balmforth is behind the camera}

Wayne & Mike Balmforth

Thank you, LaPierres for hosting

our crew!  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Stitched with Love for our Wesonator

More powerful than anything sitting on a table, faster than a basset hound,

able to climb on furniture in a single bound,

able to melt his family into submission like a handful of Play-doh. He's a long napper (YEAH!). He's a heartthrob (just ask his mom)....

He's our Wesonator!

This little man with purpose will be outfitted with an appropriate cape for Christmas. If you can sew a straight line, then this child's cape tutorial is right for you. I made Wesonator's big so it can be loved for years.

One side has something similar to a Superman logo. (Thanks T for modeling)

On the other side there is an impressive W for The Wesonator.

We are ever thankful for our Wesonator, whose most impressive quality is the ease at which he makes our world go 'round. How's that for a superhero?