'Twas the Sabbath Before Christmas

Today we walked into church during the opening hymn. Spotting an available space second from the front, we marched up to take our seat. Instead, we were greeted with a pile of books and someone's briefcase saving the spot for someone else. So. . .we marched back and found a seat in the very back of the overflow seating in the cultural hall.

The Christmas music program extended beyond the normal duration of sacrament meeting by 35 minutes. Luke, of course, makes many attempts to escape the chapel. Hoping it is the final song, I arrest him on my lap and offer him a sippy cup of water. After taking a huge swig from his cup, Luke joins in the chorus of Hallelujahs with an impressive gurgle.

I must have been trying to focus on the words of the choir because I had somehow been oblivious to this first offense. But his second offense was louder and much more obnoxious. People began to turn and look and it was then that I realized my son was gurgling at the top of his lungs. His gurgling abruptly ended with an equally loud burp, and people around us (including ourselves) began to quietly shake their shoulders in an attempt to contain their laughter.

Because Luke was actually "sick" recovering from a cold, April couldn't take him to nursery and began to roam the halls while I headed to class. The boys I teach (10-11 year olds) were the worst yet. We closed class by singing Away in a Manger...off key and in a higher pitch voice than their voices naturally ascend. On my way to sharing time, a member of the bishopric pulls me aside.

I begin to realize that I am being issued a calling (in addition to the one I already have)--that of Scoutmaster. I was asked to work with the 12-14 year old Scouts. I am informed that this is the hardest group of boys they have had. They all seem to have a personality conflict with their former leaders. For this reason, many of the boys have stopped attending weekday Scout activities. I was being called to rescue this generation of video game addicts and turn them into Boy Scouts. Of course, I graciously accept.

After church is over April heads down to pick up Collin while I look for the car keys (which are lost). His class wasn't quite over yet and Collin's teacher invited her to join them during the closing prayer issued by Collin. So. . .they all folded their arms and Collin began. . ."Dear Heavenly Father, please help our teachers to be better teachers". . .and I'm sure that the rest of the prayer wasn't heard by April who was probably trying to figure out a way to sneak out of the room with no one noticing.

Anyhow. . .just another typical Sunday here in Florence. Now we're off to prepare dinner for the missionaries who are coming over tonight. And it's raining cats and dogs. But we'll be dreaming of a white Christmas, and tall, tall snowmen. We were remembering the Sunday snow we had last time we were in Utah. This picture of the boys was taken then. We send our love to all, and wish you a merry Christmas!

Lessons in Gratitude

We recently kicked off what has become our Thanksgiving family tradition. Each night in November, we write down one thing that we're thankful for and put it in a blessings jar. Come turkey day, we read our "blessings" aloud and try to guess who wrote what.

When I pulled the jar out this year, it still had the papers inside from last year. I read them all. It was wonderful. My husband had actually said he was thankful for his "beautiful wife" and all she does for our boys and me. Silly as it sounds, I was very surprised that he had called me beautiful. He doesn't usually say that. It made my night.

I also loved reading Collin's responses. I've learned my biggest lessons in gratitude from him. He always remembers to thank Heavenly Father for the simple things, the things I usually take for granted. For example, before dinner tonight he thanked Heavenly Father for his hands that could feel things and his mouth that can taste. And this was a prayer over a bowl of macaroni and cheese with hot dogs...and assorted frozen vegetables.

Don't worry. This is not a typical family meal. I had a Relief Society meeting at the church tonight and they were feeding me dinner. So I figured I had the night off. But anyway, I sat there reading Collin's responses and I couldn't resist the urge to record them all before I throw them out. They're just too sweet, and I want to remember them.

So here is Collin's list. It can be a reminder to me (and to all who read this) to cherish the simple things in life. Collin said he was thankful for...peanut butter sandwiches, the moon and stars, that we got Luke from Heavenly Father, that Daddy plays football with me every night, that Mom does experiments with me, pillows and my ya-ya (his blanket), markers, rainbows, lights in our house, my toys, preschool and my teacher Ms. Kristi, plants that grow, not sending any more rain (we had played at the park that day), my friends (and all the people in the world that God made), turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and my strong body!

I tell Collin, "All good things come from God, because He loves us." And Collin knows that...because I know it. What a blessing it is being a mother. I get to feel God's love every day. Something that I wrote down and want to remember is this...I am thankful for Collin, who is my joy, and Luke, who is my light.

These pictures were taken during family night last week. We read the New Testament story about the ten lepers healed by Jesus. Only one returned to give thanks to the Savior. We then played a game that I call "The Grateful Leper Wrap". Each player wraps themselves in toilet tissue "bandages" until he discovers a hidden candy. He then must say something he is grateful for and passes the tissue to the next player. You end up with a family of grateful lepers, and you get rid of those last few pieces of Halloween candy.

Next, we introduced the gratitude glasses and challenged our family to not complain or whine for one week. Whoever does, has to put on the glasses and say something they're thankful for. I'll let you know if it works!

The Return of the Jedi

When Collin turned four I decided he was at last old enough to watch Star Wars. They were my favorite movies as a child by far. I played Star Wars with my neighborhood friends almost every day. I couldn't wait until Collin was old enough to watch them with me.

I couldn't have been more happy with his reaction. He loved Episode IV instantly. He wanted to sleep with his light "saver" that night. And when he woke up the next morning, he announced that he was going to marry Princess Leia (because she was "really neat"). It's been great to hear the sound of light sabers and space ships around here again. My son has now been opened up to a whole new world of pretend play. When daddy gets home, it's time for sword fights with Vader. I love it!

So when I asked Collin what he wanted to be for Halloween I wasn't surprised when he shouted decisively, "Luke Skywalker!" I thought it was a great idea. I would be Princess Leia, of course, and Daddy could be Darth Vader. But who should Luke be? Collin again must be credited for this brilliant idea. He suggested Yoda. How perfect. And thanks to my generous mother who provided the costumes, our family enjoyed a fabulous Halloween as an entire Star Wars family.

Trick-or-Treat

With candy available everywhere (our church activity, the shops on Bay Street and neighborhood trick-or-treating), we came away with quite a hall. It's a good thing there is no shortage on sweet tooths in this family. I'm sure the candy will be gone in no time.

As a child, my favorite part about trick-or-treating was coming home and searching through my stash. I wanted to know how many of each type of candy I had come home with. I would sort it out and savor my favorites for months. This year Collin wanted to separate out all of his bubble gum (to make sure Luke didn't get it). And because bubble gum was his favorite.

We had fun dumping all of the candy out on our kitchen table at the end of the night to search for gum, while Luke tried to open every sucker and take a lick. Personally, I searched for the Baby Ruth candy bars. They're my current favorite. I think Merritt and I ate as much candy as the kids, which was a lot. Hopefully we'll survive these next few weeks of sugar overdose. May the force be with me!

Pumpkin Carving

I had hoped our pumpkins would come from our own garden this year. Sadly, they did not grow much larger than an inch or two. So these beauties came from Safeway. Better luck next year.

Collin wanted to draw a scary face on his pumpkin. I helped him carve it out when he was finished. As he posed for a picture, I asked him to make a face that looks like his pumpkin. Luke followed suit to make for a cute photo.

This was just a precursor to our annual pumpkin party with extended family. We usually get together for a family night to carve pumpkins and enjoy pumpkin pie. This year I planned a special family home evening lesson that made use of some fun family history photos I had recently scanned from Granny's old scrapbooks.

I made an ancestor graveyard using cereal-box tombstones that included the names of fourteen ancestors that had passed on, as well as their birth and death dates. I then handed out a blank pedigree to each family. Families worked together to see who could complete the pedigree the fastest. Of course, to win the race, the pedigree also had to be accurate.

Afterword, we enjoyed looking at old family photos. I had printed out photos of each of the ancestors and we matched them to the tombstone. It helped us put a face to the name. We sang "Family History-I Am Doing It". The song explains to little ones that someday we will have the chance to meet all of these people (our great-grandparents). Our family will be together forever.

We ended with prayer, the anticipated pumpkin-lighting ceremony, and the upside-down pumpkin pie. I look forward to that treat all year. Yum!

Doughnuts & Elephant Poop

We spent several fun days with Merritt's four siblings in Provo. It was great to see the little cousins having such fun together. The most memorable day began with Riley in the kitchen making the most delicious homemade doughnuts. And he didn't just make doughnuts; he made five different glazes to choose from! We had maple, almond, blueberry, raspberry and chocolate. I have been craving them every day since.

Interestingly, while the adults were enjoying doughnuts indoors the mischievous cousins were outdoors discovering (of all things) the compost pile. They ingeniously determined that the mysterious stench must surely be elephant poop. Then someone apparently had the idea of throwing the elephant poop. Brilliant. A poop-tossing fight ensued. By the time they were caught, every child was covered in slime and reeked of the most revolting smell you can imagine.

We instantly began spraying them down with the garden hose. That removed the "poop" but not the smell. The entire clan of cousins then had to be thrown in the tub and scrubbed from head to toe with soap. It was definitely one of those moments when if it hadn't of been so darn hilarious you would have wanted to slap them all silly for the trouble they had caused.

Of course, being the kind parents that we are, we decided to reward their behavior by taking them all to the Kangaroo Zoo. The Kangaroo Zoo is like kid heaven. It's a huge warehouse full of jumpolines and inflatable slides. I don't think Collin and Luke have ever had so much fun! What a memorable day!

The Mitchell Multiplication Plan is already producing more fun than we could have imagined. With eight cousins under age four and three more on the way, there are sure to be many more fun memories to come! Thanks for showing us a wonderful time. We love you all!

Kangaroo Zoo