Author: Angela

I write so my family will always have letters from home.

Not according to the plan

In January, I planned my year, assigning important tasks for specific months. My plans are often thwarted, but I continue to make them because vision is important.

There will always be obstacles, but I want to have a purpose and direction throughout the year. It doesn’t matter if some things don’t happen on schedule or lesser things don’t happen at all.

I finished a “June” project this week. Good job, me, because it is a Christmas gift!

I am sick in bed today with a humidifier to soothe my cough and ease congestion. The gifts I planned to wrap in November sit beneath my desk beside the bed, not yet wrapped, but at least they are collected. I choose to think of it as a testament that I tried, and planning ahead helped me to be prepared for this illness in December.

Times change

This cousin was Tim’s little buddy a few years ago, somebody he would carry around, but a lot has changed recently. Now he looks like somebody Tim could call to help move a sofa. How great is that?!

Mark’s new area

The white is Denmark, and the red is Bornholm, also part of Denmark.

There are two missionaries on the island of Bornholm, and one of them is Mark. To get there, he travels through the southern tip of Sweden. He is part of a district centered in Copenhagen, but he and his companion are very removed from their district. There is a church building on Bornholm and there are 7 people who attend sacrament meetings regularly. Mark says all the good pictures come from Bornholm.

I am glad we bought a really good coat for him. The Baltic in December and January is dark and very cold. I know he is fine, but for some reason while I write this, I have begun to cry.

Here is a recent picture that I love of Mark, taken in Copenhagen. ♥️

The best part of our day

Timothy, Christmas 2004

The best part of each day lately is when Richard and I sit down to watch an annual family Christmas video. We have made these videos since 2003, so if we want to see them all before Christmas, we begin early. They feature our kids’ performances, piano pieces, and sometimes lip syncs to Christmas songs. They end with a slideshow of the year’s photos put to music. They were originally intended for the grandparents, but as the years pass, they probably bring the most delight to us.

We are working on the 2025 installment. There is always a story to tell about family.

Here is a part of our 2014 video:

2014 Christmas

20-83 extra hours

This is a figure I saw this weekend of the number of extra hours of labor that women take on during Christmas time. This seems accurate to me.

I have never wanted to cultivate resentment about the effort it takes to create some extra Christmas magic. When the kids were younger, this meant I tried not to hurry them as we created simple traditions. When they were teens, the magic came from devoting our lives to support their dance and musical performances. When our adult children can’t be with us, I adjust my expectations and send packages.

Whatever is required of us this Christmas, I know that we can take inspiration from the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. He showed us how to love and serve.

Not the usual kind of post.

This blog is no longer about the day to day things, but sometimes it helps me to do a review of the week to see where we have been and where we are headed. Here is how we spent our evenings last week.

Monday: We attended the high school musical, Cinderella to support three young men that we know. One was in the orchestra pit and two were on stage.

Tuesday: Richard worked from home and I attended a Relief Society dinner. I prepared rolls, and for the first time in 13 years of dinners in this ward, I went home with an empty container. You can’t imagine how this feels for me after so many rejections. 😂

Wednesday: I prepared 4 batches of pizza dough for a young men activity at another home where Richard was in charge of pizza night. He shopped for all the ingredients and had quite an array for the boys to make personal pizzas. They had fun.

Thursday: Richard worked, and I probably worked on gifts. I had plans fall through to visit a friend.

Friday: Date to Zao for dinner and then a big Costco trip.

Saturday: We watched the BYU football game and I worked on Christmas card assembly.

Sunday: I finished our Christmas card assembly and Richard called his mom.

I am holding back panic about the demands for this coming week. I will just follow the well-worn plan for Thanksgiving and try to stay steady as I handle some extra things on the to do list.

Our charge

The article by President Russell M. Nelson from 2020, The Future of the Church: Preparing the World for the Savior’s Second Coming is amazing. It was listed in the Come Follow Me study guide for Doctrine and Covenants 133. Here are a few passages that I marked.

I have been thinking about building physical, emotional, and spiritual reserves that can buffer me against stress.

The thing about building a reserve, whether it is financial, spiritual, or physical, is that it is done with consistent, small acts over a sustained period of time.

We can do that. We must do it. There are things during these challenging times that, with God’s help, “only members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can accomplish.”

baby boy quilt

This is another recent project, a quilt for a baby boy. I had to hurry to make this gift, so I took the week to sew in my free time. It’s ready!

I am working on Christmas gifts here and there and up and down throughout the house. Shhhh. I have so many secrets.