Wishing you the best Christmas!

It's the Eve of Christmas Eve...

I have always loved Sherlock Holmes.

I love the old ones with Jeremy Brett.

They are fabulous!





















But you just can't beat Guy Richie's amazingly directed film and the fine acting of Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law.

Seriously, these are some of my favorite movies EVER. And number two did not disappoint.

I was so excited to see the movie, after waiting all week, that I could barely contain myself as we road to the theater.

Erik seemed to attribute my excitement to seeing Mr. Robert Downey Jr.

I had to protest that...

"He isn't that good looking."

I really, truly just love these kinds of movies.

Although, honestly, I did have to follow up my protestation on Mr. Downey's "good looks" with a quote from my brother Grady of the said Mr. Downey (he used the word you instead of I)...

"Although,"

I interjected...

"I wouldn't kick him out of bed!"

I'm locked out of facebook AGAIN!

I usually only check facebook every couple of weeks and it is usually with a specific purpose in mind that I check it. Finding out how someone is doing, etc. Sometimes I have more time and can play on it more often.

I found myself last Friday needing to get a hold of someone through facebook so I tried to go on but I realized I had cleared my history and cookies recently and so it no longer retained my facebook info.

Which wouldn't be a big deal if I could remember the email address and password I signed up my account with. (I set up a separate email cause I didn't want to have it linked with my everyday or "real" email.)

I tried to look myself up at facebook but it didn't find me?

And because it's so top secret I didn't provide my "fake" email for others to look at, thus not allowing them to at least let me do a forgot password search with my email. 

So if you think I'm rude cause I didn't wish you a happy birthday, or I have not responded to a "friend" request, just know it's because I am a retard and not because I'm purposely rude.

Sweets and treats

What I love about this time of year is not something you may commonly associate with the season. We always had an orange in the toe of our stocking. We often had wedges cut at breakfast or in our lunch bag. (I never ate school lunch - I always brought one from home). Oranges were a real treat back in the day and it's sad we've gone away from that. Now we have high octane sugar filled sweets in every shape and size flooding bowls and jars in the kitchen!

I love getting a case of oranges and enjoying their sweetness for days. At our house we especially enjoy tangerines. At Costco I pick up a bag or two of them. They are the perfect size for little hands and even Stella at 2 yrs is well skilled in peeling them. I put them out on the counter so they are easy to grab and we fly through them. When I see my girls with sticky juice from the wedge of orange dripping down their chin, it just makes me smile!

WAY better than a bowl of sweets on the counter!

Holiday Movies

I grew up on A Christmas Story, National Lampoons Christmas and those animated classics like Rudolf, Frosty, etc.

Since then, we've fallen in love with The Polar Express and Elf and others.

I think the favorite that we make a special evening with popcorn and treats all cozy and snug under blankets is The Nativity Story. It is so well done and such a great portrayal of the story of Jesus' birth and we make a point of watching it every year.

What are your Christmas movie classics?

Missing the man

 We sure are missing him! 

It's a year today since Erik's Dad passed away.

Also thinking today of his beautiful Sabine, in Germany.

Why 4-year-olds don't raise 2-year-olds

Wednesday morning found me sitting at my laptop doing some humanitarian/Relief Society work. As I am sitting on my bed, I can hear Claire and Estelle in their room playing with the dollhouse.

It's cute to listen in on them... mostly, and I love that they like to be under my radar.... if I'm in my room, they are right out the door in theirs; if I'm in the kitchen, they are in the family room; if I'm in my office/craft room, they are in the playroom or in the exercise room; if I'm in the bathroom they are pounding at the door.

Right.

As I sit a top my bed, I hear a thump (someone tripped I suppose, as a second earlier I saw them laying on their tummy's playing on the bottom floor of the dollhouse and I could just catch sight through my door of Claire's legs still lying on the floor in the same position with Stella now on her knees on the opposite side as I saw before). I then hear Stella's annoyed "Clayew!" Obviously Stella took it as Claire's fault that she tripped over Claire's legs.

Before I could interject with my, "It was an accident Stella!" I hear Claire's panic-ed voice of reason...

"No Stella, don't hit! You only hit when someone really hurts you!"

Looking for a good neighbor!

Let me clarify that Post Title, I make that as a statement that WE are looking for a good neighbor, not that someone will consider US a good neighbor. Just saying... you could take it either way I guess.

Next to our lot the home is for sale and we'd love to have some awesome couple move in with cute little girls - okay maybe one or two boys would be fine.

We walked through it when it was first built and for sale but they wanted $680,000 at the time. Too steep for us.

It's now for sale at the steal of $495,000. Seriously, this is a great home. It's was nicer in person too.

Don't take my word for it, just go to this site or here and schedule an appointment today.

Christmas Books and Stories

Do you have favorite stories you like to read before or at Christmas time?

I keep Christmas books off the shelves and only pull them out at the start of December so they seem extra special.

I put the books out where my little readers can get to them. In a basket on the coffee table or floor, on a bookshelf low and easy to see and get to - wherever they will be most accessible.

 Hummm...

I guess someone in our house must be teething!

One of my favorites, which I do keep on my bookshelf all year round but bring it out with the Christmas books in December is...

This one is perfect for reading a chapter to your kids or spouse at bedtime. It is so wonderful and should be in every household.

Christmas Recital

The girls sure made us proud with their great performance at their violin recital.

McCall did well in her three-song medley of Christmas song despite Dad's best efforts to make her nervous and Elizabeth got up and with poise and confidence, smiling widely the entire time like she was the belle of the ball. McCall followed up with "O Come All Ye Faithful" with the entire group.

They make me so proud that they are working and practicing. We are not looking for child prodigies, just good skills that will boost confidence and add opportunities to serve and bring happiness to others.

I have really wanted Claire to play piano or maybe cello but at FHE the other night Claire told us, by acting out the playing cause she didn't remember what it was called, that she wants to play the HARP! Wow, Dad better get that second job!

Straw in a manger...

There are so many great resources for ideas on helping to create meaning in the holiday's. We like the idea of placing straw into the manger. It is something physical the children can see. Little works with little effort won't create much comfort. Larger acts or more often acts of service create comfort, in this case a nice soft place to lay the beautiful baby Jesus.

As we consider things we can do to add straw it gets the girls excited about serving. It makes them think each morning at prayer of things they could do today to add a straw. Beds get made for others; beds turned down, lamp on and music playing at bedtime; notes of love; toothbrushes laid out with paste to help dad; an orange and a wish for a good day by dad's phone.

Sometimes it is also the receiver who should place a straw in the manger.

Like when a few years ago I can downstairs as the 3 younger girls were eating lunch. A juice had spilled and rather than telling me they decided to clean it up... with the BROOM...

You are probably thinking, "Well, that doesn't make sense".

Well yes, you would be right.

Sticky apple juice was now brushed all over the kitchen floor!

My instinct was to exclaim... "What are you DOING?!"

But upon seeing the excited and proud looks of Elizabeth and Claire and the exclamation of "See we cleaned it up for you!" and realizing they were doing it out of love and a desire to serve made me pull back, as hard as it was, and thank them for being such BIG helpers.

Yes, that might have deserved TWO pieces of straw - for both of us.

What sort of things do you do to bring the spirit of service into your holidays?

Keeping FOCUS during the holiday's

I have always loved Christmas. It's one of my favorite times of year. I love twinkling lights. I love cold air that hardens your nose as you breathe in. I love warm mugs of cocoa being stirred with a candy cane. I love the smell of pine. A warm blanket and a holiday book. I love Christmas break for the kids. I love decorating the house, with pine garland strung up the stair banisters.

After thanksgiving I would spend the following day decorating the house. It usually took me a good day or two days as bedrooms, bathrooms in addition to kitchens and living areas had to have their mark of red and green. 

About 6 years back as I pulled out bin after bin, box after box to decorate, I started thinking. As I pulled out decoration after decoration I started looking at prices left on boxes, I started thinking about the cost of all these items. The time spent gathering these items. I then started to consider the humble birth of the Savior. The simplicity of it all.

At that point I considered homes where efforts are made to put one gift under the tree. I considered children in other countries who struggle to have clean water, a good meal once a day. I thought about the waste of all this and it made me sick. Spiritual and physically.

Right away I grabbed some cardboard boxes and I started stuffing decorations inside. If it didn't have to do with the Savior I got rid of it. Snowmen were gone. I streamlined the amount of decorations. Limiting the living room to nativities. In the kitchen I kept just a few things to go on my window ledge with a bit more flexibility to kid appeal.

No more decorations in the bathrooms. Out with many of the Santa's. Only ones with sentimental appeal.

I started thinking about a family that might enjoy going to goodwill and picking up decorations and their excitement at finding these nice items and it became easier to load up the cardboard boxes. The heaviness in my heart started to lift. Children in countries without water, food, immunizations would benefit from the sale of  these items at Deseret Industries (goodwill). I started to feel light.

(The storage room was lighter - I believe I took over 7 boxes to goodwill.)

One of these years when my girls are a bit older our family is going to do something amazing for Christmas.

Each year since this enlightenment, as I pull out my items and look at the wise men, at a small lamb, at Mary and Joseph and the humble babe Jesus, I am excited. It is not a task. It has been easier to let go, this year I didn't do garlands on the banisters, it still looks pretty, I just didn't want to spend any more time doing it and wanted to be with my family (and a little two year old would have probably messed with them so why not keep them down this year).

It is not with drudgery that I complete the task of decorating, it is with excitement. That joy in the season has returned. That simplistic joy in the birth of the Savior and this time of year in which we celebrate that. It is now with joy that I look at my home and feel happy that I chose the better part.

Patience is not passive;

on the contrary, it is active;

it is concentrated strength.

Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

I saw this quote and it hit home, maybe because it is something I am really striving to implement in my life. I pray for it daily but I never did anything to actively change the way I would respond in certain situations. Until I recently had a quiet conversation with the Lord and he changed my heart. This quote was perfect.

This week from the Peterson Home...

Just thought I'd share a couple things from this week which made me smile...

After getting all the girls bathed and dressed I called all of them upstairs to get their hair done. Claire zipped right upstairs. I complimented her on coming when I called the first time and being the first one up.

Claire then responded...

"Yeah! And I didn't even use my magic powers!"

At Target the other evening I just had Claire with me. We wandered past the DVD section. Claire spotted a Barbie Rainbow something or the other and said, "Can we get this movie?" To which I replied, "No."

Most emphatically Claire cried, "Ohhw...but it's the best movie EVER!"

"But you've never seen that movie Claire." I replied.

"Well... I just know it really IS!" she declared.

I was making dinner this evening. (Baked Tilapia, rice and broccoli - if you want to know.) The girls had been at each other for the past hour straight as they picked up and got pajamas on before dinner. Frustrated I tried to occupy them and told the girls to grab a board game or two to play at the kitchen table while I got dinner ready.

What was in the water today?! 

With board games opened they continued to fight over random issues; who gets to set up the game, who gets that piece, who gets to go first, whatever they could argue about this evening they did!

Exhausted, particularly by Elizabeth's whining, I said,

"Elizabeth, if you whine one more time you will go to your room for the rest of the night without any dinner."

Elizabeth paused for a moment considering and said...

"What are we having for dinner?"

Callings in the Church

I recall my grandpa from NY having a list of all his church callings and dates. Sometime going through his personal writings and notes I read it. It got me thinking that I should keep a log. Not to say that callings have value. What we do in them has value. 

As it might be interesting to my children or grandchildren someday to see what I did, I thought I'd throw it on here as this is my journal.

Here is what has occupied me the last 11 years or so...

1st - Primary teacher to 5yr olds
2nd - Enrichment leader for Relief Society
3rd - 2nd Counselor in the Primary
4th - Scout Committee Chairperson
5th - 11 year old boys primary & scout leader
6th - Relief Society President

It's been about 2 yrs in relief society, SO FAR... 

OR until I mess things up so grandly it can't be undone. 

OR annoy the pants off the Bishop to the point he releases me. 

OR start teaching false doctrine.

OR we move.

Someone in the ward brought up that the last time we put a for sale sign up Erik was the Elders Quorum President.

Humm... is their a pattern here?