Christmas

Christmas Eve

I love that Christmas Eve was a Sunday this year. I love that we went to church on Christmas Eve and that church was an hour. It was lovely to go as a family.

I think we're going to start a new family tradition this year. Everyone gets a book on Christmas Eve and we all read the books!

The last of the advent calendar.

Santa was lucky coming to our house this year, another new tradition, macaron. Yum!

I love taking a pic in the quiet, after everything is ready for Christmas Day.

Christmas Day  

Giving children presents is fun. Watching children open the presents is fun. Christmas morning is just so much fun. I love the fun of it - after the work of it, which is a lot of work!

Children playing in such convenient locations is an ongoing theme!

No snow this year!

I do like our matching jammies, even if the kids don't!

Alice having fun with make-up.

Fiona's new favourite hoodie!

Uncle Andrew arrives with more presents!

A Christmas makeover.

Love you brother!

Then it's Grandma's turn to arrive and find out what fun presents she helped to buy the girls and receive the beautiful painting Fiona made for her.

Dinner! Thank you Ken!

Goodnight Ken! You deserve all the napping/resting/snoring you can get!

Merry Christmas! 

Santa

This year, for the first time, Santa was an entire family affair. Matching jammies for all, and we even brought the dog! Can you even see Milo?!

A Christmas Cantata Miracle

My widow's mite

Kayley going rogue

Hark no more

*Above are the notes that I made two years ago so I could post and not forget about this experience. Below are my remembrances of the evening's performance.*

This year at the Christmas Cantata I played the flute, I played a solo of Carol of the Bells and I was asked to play the piano part that goes along with the organ part of the congregational hymn, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. 

I worked so so so hard on Carol of the Bells, and I was so pleased with my performance. It was a hard piece and felt a little bit above my abilities but I worked so hard and I had my best performance ever during the concert and I felt so very blessed.

The flute part that went with the choir was lovely, not difficult and I got to sound amazing. So that was fun.

Hark the Herald... this was what I couldn't do. I hadn't practiced it very much and it sounded bad. I bashed away at the octaves but they just sounded bad, bad, bad. I wasn't sure what was going to happen in the performance, but I hoped for the best.

When it came time to perform, Kayley and I were supposed to start together before the congregation came in. I had a big part to play and Kayley's part at the beginning was a chord or two? I can't totally remember, but it wasn't much. What happened next was my Christmas miracle. Kayley played the regular introduction and my part couldn't be played, it was just cut into oblivion and the congregation sang the song, I played the piano part sort of and we got through it and no one was the wiser. 

After the performance I told Kayley, as she started to apologize, that she was my Christmas miracle. I couldn't play it, I didn't have time to figure it out, and it just didn't matter, at all. And my effort, my widow's mite was enough and the parts where I needed to shine I did, and the spirit was felt by all who were in attendance that night and I am so thankful for music, and for the spirit, and for my happy miracle!

The Primary Presentation

The primary presentation! Public speaking at church is not something that comes easily to Fiona. She wants it to. She loves the idea of speaking, but when it comes right down to it, her nervousness/anxiety takes over. 

This year she chose to speak about prayer. She wrote almost her whole talk by herself - Ken and I gave a little bit of input. I'll include the words of her talk at the bottom. 

She was so excited and she was geared up for it to be smooth and amazing, but I was nervous that her anxiety would get the best of her. She loves the idea of talking and she wants to do it so badly. I was hoping that it would go as smoothly as she wanted it to, but she froze. Or rather, she was standing there, and then she wasn't, she had dropped to the ground beside the podium. I just knew that I needed to go to her, to stand beside her and help her get through, so I did. I stood there with my hand on her back, bearing her up, standing there with her so she didn't feel alone. She gave her talk and everyone in the congregation had a deeply spiritual experience. My simple act of kindness to my sweet distressed child reminded them of their Savior, who stands beside them bearing them up during difficulty.

Below is an excerpt of the email I sent out to the Relief Society tonight, and Fiona's talk. I'm grateful to be a Mom. I'm grateful for my sweet Fiona and her willing heart, and I'm deeply grateful to my Savior and the way He has held me up during my calling as Relief Society president and as a Mom and just all the things.

Relief Society Email:
There were so many kind comments about my Fiona, thank you to all of you who took the time to talk to me. I passed on the words of encouragement. I wanted to share this from Fiona, she told me that a few people told her they were proud of her for doing something she didn't want to do, but she said "Mom, I did want to do it." Her nerves, her anxiety, whatever you want to call it, can really make her crazy. She was so frustrated on Sunday that it was so difficult for her to do something that she thought should be so easy, and is so seemingly easy for so many. I was proud of her for not running out of the chapel. I was so thankful that she leaned on me for support, that she let me help her through her tough time. And I'll tell you, at the pulpit, with her leaning bodily against me, I felt so thankful for a Savior who bears me up when I need it. I'm thankful for the opportunities we have to support each other, I feel the bond and strength of our sisterhood. It also made me think of how we have to let God help us through tough things. I was grateful Fiona let me help her.

Thank you to all of the leaders in our primary! Thank you to Linda, Gayle G., Dubraiicka, Josephine, Marilyn, Robin and Gail U. (And if I missed anyone, oof, I'm sorry!) Thanks for loving our kids and thank you for serving them, the ward, and your Savior.

Fiona's Talk:

Primary Presentation Talk - 2023

 Hello I'm here to talk about prayer. I'm going to share a story from the friend magazine .This story is called Rosi’s prayer, and it's based on a true story Rosi was experiencing racism at her school, and people were teasing her about it. When she got home from school she told her mom about it and went up stairs and she saw her little statue of Jesus on her bookshelf. And she remembered that when you pray Jesus can help. So she prayed that people in her class would stop being mean. After Rosi prayed she felt like a blanket was being wrapped around her,and decided to help other people that they were being mean to and become friends with them. I love the stories in the friend they make my faith and testimony strengthened times nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine. And sometimes when I'm sad I like to pray about it. To me if i had a million people praying to me at once it would feel like getting a million notifications on a phone or tablet.

Matthew chapter 7 verse 7 says : Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

This scripture means you can ask Heavenly Father for what you need. A prayer is a knock at the door. Heavenly Father wants us to be happy. He wants to answer our prayers and he does answer our prayers. I don't know how Heavenly Father hears and answers all of our prayers. But I know Heavenly Father helps us by us helping each other. I've been saying my own prayers for about two or three months now. And it makes me feel good inside and I can't go to sleep without saying prayers. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Temple Closing

From a letter to Marcus:

Our temple closed this weekend for nine months for some renovations. So we had a busy temple weekend. Ken took Kate and Alice Friday night and we went the next day. We did an endowment session and we attended a sealing. It was lovely.

Friday, October 20 - at the baptistry

Saturday, October 21 - a session and a sealing with ken

**What I didn't know when I sent the above email is that it would be the last time that we would be in the temple for a lot longer than nine months. I didn't know that the temple would be rededicated by President Holland on March 23, 2025. I didn't know that there would be an open house. 

I sent the above email to Marcus on October 26, 2023. I wish I'd written a little more.