Holiday Highlights

Christmas Magic

The easel Ben built for Daila.

The Santa Daila kept hugging at the elementary school's Christmas Shoppe.

Daila enjoys the easel.


Daila all dressed up.

I haven't felt too talkative lately and even now I'm finding it hard to get myself to talk (hehe type). Here are some holiday highlights:

Ben had the whole week off! Yay! I worked at the girls' school on Monday for the music teacher, who was busy getting ready for the Christmas program that afternoon and evening. Then Ben and I spent Tuesday out together. It was a perfect day. I went to the class Christmas parties Tuesday afternoon as a room mom. Wednesday was an exhausting and rewarding day. I enlisted Ben's help to clean and organize the playroom. We boxed up one box of toys that the girls have out grown, but I wasn't willing to part with; had 3 bags of toys for a yard sale/Goodwill; and 2 bags of trash. I'm very proud of myself. The girls were a little concerned to see some of their favorite things go, but they are just as pleased with the end result. The playroom is much easier to play in and keep clean now too.

We also finished reading the Book of Mormon as a family after dinner on Wednesday! The girls were so proud. I challenged them to put Moroni's promise to the test (Moroni 10:4) by praying individually to know whether or not the Book of Mormon was true. We talked about how to do that and what to listen/feel for as an answer. After describing what the Spirit feels like, Anna piped up and said, "I've already done that. I know its true." Janae had a few more questions though. She wondered, "what if I don't feel that?" So we talked about that too. But a couple of days later, Janae came to me and said, "Mom I was thinking about what you said while I was singing I'm Trying to be Like Jesus and tears came to my eyes." I asked her if she thought it was the Spirit and she nodded then ran to me with a big hug.

Thursday was spent baking cookies and sidedishes with my 2 super baking helpers. We had Josh and Lindsey Voelkel family over and Katie and Gabriel Novak family too. So it was a fairly traditional Voelkel family Christmas Eve. But we did combine some traditions. The missionaries came to share a message and I loved that. After our guests left, we had our usual family night by the light of the Christmas tree. We took turns choosing songs to sing and stories to tell. Ben told a great story . . . the girls always look forward to his storytelling, he's so animated . . . and we started and ended with a prayer.

Christmas morning was also started with a prayer and I like that new tradition. We thanked Heavenly Father and aknowledged Him as the source of all our gifts/blessings before we opened the presents. This was the first year the girls went shopping for the family with their own money. It made a huge difference on their perspective. And it was a lot of fun to see the treasures they chose for each of us.

We spent the rest of the weekend with our Hamblin family in Sullivan. I enjoyed spending time with my mom and dad. It's hard on me to see my dad getting so weak. He gave a great talk on Sunday, although he had to lean heavily on the podium, he made it all the way through. And after going home to rest during the remainder of church, he was able to return for Trevor Hamblin's baptism. But all of that wore him out too much and he had to ask John to read the Nativity story in the scriptures for our traditional Nativity play with the grandkids. But Mom still had him bear his testimony to the family before we closed the gathering. He is learning a lot of spiritual things and he is determined to share as much with his posterity as he can. It makes me emotional so I think I'm going to close this post for now. So much for not having much to say. ;-)

We had a very enjoyable week and a perfectly content Christmas. I plan to get a newsletter together this week before we return to work and school. Sort of a new year newsletter instead of a Christmas card. Stay tuned . . .