Mom's Holidays

What a December! After living such horrendously busy lives for the past few months, Dad with his Jewelry store job, and me with the yearbook, French club fundraisers, etc., we needed to get far away from it all. After flying to Philadelphia, Martha and Jeremy loaned us their car to drive up to the frozen northland. It was everything a dumb Yankee might have expected! The weather was unusually cold, so we got to bundle up to the max everywhere we went. We strolled around the Falls with Louise, and looked out over Scarborough bluffs with Tina. Brendan even treated us to watching his hockey game one night. Uncle Eddie demonstrated making bitlawa, and Nazha put out such a grand Lebanese spread for dinner that we felt like we should never eat again. We had tons of fun, in spite of the frost bite. Upon returning to Philly, the weather pleasantly surprised us by warming up to the 60s. It was perfect for touring around Philadelphia and Williamsburg. The attractions were great, the grandkids were charming, and Martha and Jeremy played the perfect hosts. Jeremy even donated his hand-held tetris to help pass the time on the trip home. I scored a record 595 lines! Now that we're home again, we're almost ready to face up to going back to work. As much as I miss our children who live so far away, it surely makes a fun vacation to go visit them all. The big question is: whom shall we visit next year?? We love and miss you all, and take great pride in all your wonderful accomplishments. Keep up the good work; you're all doing great! Love & prayers, Mom

Chris & Summer

We visited Chris and Summer to find them in tranquility enjoying the aftermath of another successful Christmas. Leslie played her new video games, Madyson showed off her fancy dishes set and Bronson tore up the front room on his new four-wheeler! Everyone took us to see the new hermit crabs and clams in the fish tank. And Chris charmed Summer with a new Thomas Kinkade painting, Hyde Street. They expect their "really big" Christmas present any day now with the joyous arrival of January or Winter or Christina... We can hardly wait!

Melanie & Andy

The Atwoods didn't make it down to Logandale for New Year's due to some minor flooding in the basement. Nonetheless, they still enjoyed a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Here's the scoop on their famous Nativity Pageant!

Martha & Jeremy

December 30, 2005

Before you read this, you better take a quick break and maybe get a soda and some cookies. It's kind of long, but there's nothing I wanted to cut out. So enjoy the reading and Happy New Year!

What a month! What a fun memorable month! All my cutsie Christmas decorations are up; even with Hyrum constantly running and exploring from one Christmas decoration to the next, we only had one minor fatality (a little figurine from our village shattered into many pieces with only one simple swipe of Rummy's fat little hand); Lyle believes in Santa Claus; The weather is so mild, it's raining instead of snowing; Grandma and Grandpa Whitney won the hearts of our children; My tub faucet no longer leaks/runs water; MK and Keresa talked Mom into and helped her make chocolates; Jeremy only had a few finals to take and a lot of time to play!

December began in an airplane returning from California. I wondered if we were going to pull our home and ourselves together in time for Christmas. We came home and began preparing for the Christmas season. The boys began helping me decorate for Christmas. However, I just can't let go of the way I like to decorate and finally sent everyone to bed and finished myself. When I finished, it was just as I had imagined: everything sparkling and shiny and in the perfect place. After writing this I realize how Scroogy it sounds to put up the decorations by myself. Maybe in a few years I'll be able to relax enough to let the other people in my family help!

While Jeremy studied for his (few) finals, the little boys and I explored the Christmas season together. Lyle learned jingle bells and Hyrum learned to dance to Jingle Bells. I let the boys play with one of our little nativities and before I knew it, Lyle was acting out the nativity to us with his own little charming additions. Instead of Joseph and Mary finally finding refuge in a stable, they went to Grandma's house to stay! The Christmas season is full of magical delights with children!

By mid December, Jeremy finished his finals and our home became electric with excitement. With each day, Lyle woke up asking if Santa came to our house yet. Hyrum caught on that something special was going to happen and his little run seemed to pick up speed by the day. Grandma and Grandpa arrived, and the kids' excitement burst. They couldn't stop running circles around them. Jeremy made us Philly cheese steaks, and we ate and ate. Then after dinner, we dived into the chocolates and ate more. Okay, okay, maybe I just dived into the chocolates and ate more!

Mom and Dad left for Canada for five days, and the rest of us just played. The weather warmed to the upper 50s, and all the snow melted. By the time Mom and Dad came back, Lyle and Hyrum were so excited they could not even hold still for a second. We all went to downtown Philly and saw the Christmas sights. We saw huge gingerbread houses that were handmade by bigwig chefs. My favorite house was the one decorated with chocolate chip cookies for shingles. I was in dreamland for a while until the security guard kicked us out for snitching some of the cookies from the roof. Just kidding, but I wanted to snitch them. We also saw a big light show ending with a rendition of God Bless America played by the world's largest organ. Can you believe that this took place inside a department store? We went to another downtown department store and walked back in time to A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. We walked through the cobblestone streets and saw Ebenezer Scrooge's visits by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. Afterwards we shopped around for the perfect house shoe for Grandpa. Mom played with Rummy and they chased each other up and down the store isles. It was a fun day downtown.

We rode the subway home, caught our breath and got ready for Christmas Eve. We reenacted the Nativity. Well, sort of. I spent a long time trying to get everything just right. Rummy was running around in a small duck bathrobe and Lyle was demanding to have Grandpa be the donkey. Then as I was trying to dress Lyle up as Joseph, he tore his costume off and said, "No, Lyle wants to be Mary!" I was ready to blow, when oops, I remembered Lyle's and Rummy's ages. I settled down and we enjoyed the Nativity. Lyle made a great Mary and rode the donkey fearlessly and gave the teddy bear Jesus lots of kisses. We put the boys to bed and got ready for the morning. Mom helped me wrap presents, and Dad helped Jeremy put together a batman bike. Then we ate some more and played hearts.

Christmas day was magical. Lyle was in awe that Santa Claus really came. Rummy dashed from toy to toy playing heartedly. We ate a breakfast feast that was a synch to prepare-ask Melanie how to do it. We pulled ourselves away from the magic to attend Sacrament meeting. Jeremy and I left Grandma and Grandpa to play with the kids and sang in the choir. It was a good program I guess but way too long. The closing prayer finally came after a full two hours of church. I can't complain too much because things are so culturally different here than in the West. Whenever I started thinking bad thoughts about how dang long church was, I would look out into the audience and see some of the new member family's eyes shine with enjoyment. I guess it wasn't so bad.

After Sunday I prepared myself for a slow and relaxed week. However, within 15 minutes, Grandpa had us talked into traveling 5 hours to Williamsburg, Virginia. We packed up and left in minutes. Because of the holiday traffic, the 5-hour trip turned into a 9-10 hour trip. It wasn't that bad though. Grandma and Grandpa kept the kids entertained by showing them movies about the Toronto Santa Claus Parade. Watching it was nostalgic for Mom because she used to watch it, live. However, we kept snickering in the background because the commentary was so funny. Jeremy kept us entertained by his potty dance. Just past D.C. we were deadlocked in traffic. There were three lanes of stopped traffic. To the left of us, past the cement median was a special car pool highway with three lanes of fast-moving traffic traveling the same direction as we were. Jeremy had to go so bad his teeth were turning yellow. He kept looking over at the carpool highway and saying, "I'd jump the median if I could." We crawled along the highway with no end in sight. Jeremy noticed a small break in the median and before anyone knew what was happening, he maneuvered the car through the small break and put the pedal to the medal. We went from 5 miles to 75 miles in seconds. So did 2 or 3 cars behind us that followed Jeremy's (crazy) example. Luckily we weren't pulled over for reckless driving, and we made it to a bathroom in time! We made it to Williamsburg and had a blast in the past. My favorite shop was the wig shop. The lady told us the special recipe to "frizz" (curl) a wealthy lady's wig. They would wrap the hair in clay curlers, boil it in water, bake it in bread and finally dry it for three days. I guess they could get the perfect curls from the recipe. Luckily, this was all performed while the wig was off the lady's head! We came home late the next day. Mom permed my hair (the modern way) and we ate just a little bit more and then I dropped them off at the airport.

The fun times we had in December were times that we will savor for many months to come. Merry Christmas, and we wish you all the best! Love, the Tanners

Becca & Nick

We are home from Brazil and are finally starting to sink back into the run of the mill. Well sort of. I did vacuum for the first time last week and I have been thinking about mopping. We have about 300 or 400 pictures to show for it, so if you ever want to sit for a filmstrip for a while, we'll be happy to make arrangements!

This was probably the funnest Christmas ever! Jonathan's excited reaction to what Santa brought him and to the contents of the presents he opened (whether for him or someone else- he was the official present opener) was timeless. He and Estelle played with their new toys all morning. Jonathan played with his new Thomas trains and Estelle with her little Fisher Price dollhouse, and then they'd trade off. After a little while we went to church and then to Nick's Mom's house for dinner. When we got home they sat and played some more, then the next day too! It was so fun! When we were young I used to feel sorry for Mom and Dad since they never really got much from Santa. I would think what a bummer it must be to be a grown-up. But now I know better! They were actually hording the most of the fun for themselves! And I never even suspected!

In the last few weeks Estelle finally learned to walk. And now she is working on running. She also likes to push around her little doll stroller and play with her new toys. She and Jonathan have really started playing well together too. Estelle has been working on her pouty face and is great at pushing out her bottom lip. I've never seen anyone push it out that far before. I know she's been practicing though because she does it at times when she is not pouting and looks down to try and see it.

Jonathan has been playing a lot with his new toys too. He and Nick play Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker with the "life savers" they got in their Christmas stockings. Jonathan has been singing a lot lately too. Jingle bells has been his song this month. He ad libs after "Oh mus fum. . .do dedeeada, Hey!" Also Jonathan graduated nursery this week! He spent his first day in primary as a Sunbeam. His new teacher even gave him a CTR ring. Too bad Jonathan still doesn't quite recognize all the letters. . . he is still excited about it though all the same.

Nick and I are bracing for the semester to start, Tomorrow, January 3rd. Only a few more months of school left! His latest plan is to stick with Safeway. We'll see what happens this month.

Not much is going on with me. Maybe next month I'll have more to report. I know I'm getting old though because Nick and I watched the Sydney Australia and Japanese New Year's celebrations on the news and then went to bed.

We'll be in touch, love, the Bryces

McKay & Keresa

Christmas came and went; so did Grandma and Grandpa. They went to the airport near the first of December, and returned around the end of December, so we have had their extra car at our house. It came in handy for about a week when mk's car was out of commission (sold). We were so excited to get a new car we went ahead and sold one before we had bought the new one. The Beast (as grandpa affectionately calls it) served us well for that short time when we would have been a one-car family. Keresa surprised mk with a beautiful truck for Christmas. Nice replacement for the ghetto Saturn ride. The new one is a 2002 Mercury Mountaineer, same as a ford explorer, just more luxurious. It has seating for 7, so we will be able to fit all the scouts for outings now!

Keresa enjoys having lots of quality time with mk during the break. We have been out a lot together and it is so nice to have regular 8-5 schedules for this short break.

We went to red rock to ride four wheelers with Chris and Summer on Christmas Eve. It was so hot we all had to take off our jackets and couldn't stop to rest unless we were in the shade.

We are enjoying many blessings and hope that everyone else is too. We anxiously await an announcement from Summer!

Love, Mk kgw srw

Feliz Fiestas!

Well, the holiday season is now about halfway over here in the DR, past Noche Buena (24th of December) New Years, and coming up on Dia de Reyes (Kings Day) celebrating when the Kings came from the Orient to bring presents to baby Jesus. Our success as missionaries has really suffered in the holidays as the common Dominican custom in celebrating anything includes loud music and violations in the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. Hmmm. I can see just how much things have dropped when I looked at our projections and goals from two weeks ago to how they actually turned out. We had planned to have 7 people with baptismal dates and 9 in church. We currently have 0 people with baptismal dates and no investigators came to church Christmas day or New Year's Day. Oh well.

We are still, however, contacting anyone who looks at us (who is sober) and trying our best to find those ones that Heavenly Father has prepared to receive His Gospel. However, sometimes, those that have not been prepared interrupt sometimes. In a lesson attempting to put a baptismal goal with someone we've been teaching for a few months now, a random drunk guy walked in the house, and just rambled on and on for about 10 minutes about how sorry he was for having interrupted our lesson. I could tell he was really sincerely sorry when, as we got up to leave, he gave me a big affectionate hug!

So now we have two or three promising investigators who seem like they're interested, but we'll see how their commitment goes after kings day is over.

Con Amor, Elder Whitney

A note from Uncle Dan & Aunt Elsie about the fires in Arlington, TX

We appreciate you're thinking of us, Ken and Linda. There are a few areas around here where the grass grew pretty tall during the late spring and then the weather turned off dry, causing it to be ripe for fire. Almost all of the ones that were burning were in open areas. The ones in Arlington were along the right of way for Interstate 20. The way the burned spots were spaced, it looked to us like someone who should be kept in a padded room had been turned loose with matches and threw them out as they went along. The fire departments put them out almost immediately. Over a hundred miles west of here were some large pastures where people had buildings, some of them houses. Because of property being developed, fences were taken down and cattle removed. The developers were slow to remove the tall growth and made the properties ripe for burning. It is not anywhere near as bad as the TV people try to make it. (They have to be dramatic.) We are in no danger at all. There is a burn ban for the whole state and last night when there would have been fireworks going off in every direction, we didn't see any at all. We need rain, but none is in the forecast until about the tenth of January. We got some rain last night even though it was not forecast. I would much rather have our conditions than for it to be like it is around Sacramento.

We think of you very often and wish you a much better 2006 than you had for 2005. Elsie just learned that her aunt, Wanda Nay, had died today. She lived just southwest of Salt Lake City. She has been in bad health for quite some time. If she was told where Wanda would be buried, I missed it. Probably around where she lived though. Please relay out best wishes to all the family for a healthy, safe and happy New Year. Love, Dan and Elsie

Another Dry Council Talk

Last month my bride and I went to Canada. Who in their right mind goes to the frozen North in the winter? Here it was in the 70s, there, who knows? They gave the temperature in a foreign language, but I can tell you it was cold. Well first we went to Philadelphia to visit our daughter Martha and family. On the way to Canada we drove along the Susquehanna River in New York. Amid the snow and wind, I couldn't help but think about Joseph Smith. I thought about the struggles his family and he had. They looked for something to believe. Joseph Smith Sr. went to one church and Lucy Mack went to another looking for what was right. From their writings we know one of the concerns Joseph Smith had was the hypocrisy that was prevalent in the different churches.

How about you and your actions? How do your non-LDS neighbors feel about what you profess compared to what you do? That is not always a comfortable answer. Young people, do you claim to be members of a church that declares to believe in the all encompassing love of Christ but shun others because they are a little odd? Do you curse, take the Lord's name in vain or party on the wild side? One our non-LDS friends commented the other day saying, "Frick is just the Mormon f-word. Swearing is still swearing."

So what did Joseph Smith do? Turn to Alma 37:17. He refers to our Heavenly Father. "For he will fulfil all his promises which he shall make unto you, for he has fulfilled his promises which he has made unto our fathers." Is the Book of Mormon a second witness of Christ? What is the promise there? Now there was not yet a Book of Mormon for Joseph to turn to but what he did find was the promise in James. Joseph read that and what effect did it have on him? I hope you all took the opportunity to watch the commemoration broadcast the Friday before Christmas. President Hinckley talked about this. Let's go over part of it again. In the Bible, James said, "if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." This is what the young Joseph did. Turn to Joseph Smith History 1:12.

12. Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.

13. At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to "ask of God," concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.

14. So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.

15. After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

Is this the promise James spoke of? We can ask but we won't get an answer?

16. But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction-not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being-just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

17. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other-This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!

So where am I going with this besides recounting why we are here today? Let's go to D&C 82:10. "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." Add to that Mosiah 2:22. "And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you."

Our Heavenly Father promises us much in the scriptures. We are here because of those promises. Yet sometimes we tend to forget that and instead come through habit or other inane reasons. A major reason to attend sacrament meeting is to renew our covenant made at baptism. For Latter-day Saints, sacrament refers to the ordinance of partaking of bread and water in remembrance of Christ's atoning sacrifice. The broken bread represents his broken flesh; the water represents the blood that he shed to atone for our sins. When we worthily take the sacrament, we promise to take upon us the name of Christ, to always remember him, and to keep his commandments. Through this ordinance, the Lord gives us his Holy Spirit in this life as a foretaste of the joy of eternal life. Did you feel anything as we read the account of the first vision?

This time of year is a demark between the old and new. We are accustomed to reflect on our past and set goals for our future. While we were in Philadelphia my bride and I went with our grandchildren to an animated presentation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Jacob Marley's message to Ebenezer Scrooge is a message that bears repeating. Scrooge is talking here to the ghost of his old friend and partner Marley -- "why do spirits walk the earth, and why do they come to me?"

"It is required of every man," the Ghost returned, "that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world -- oh, woe is me! -- and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!"

Again the spectre raised a cry, and shook its chain and wrung its shadowy hands.

"You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling. "Tell me why?"

"I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. "I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?"

Scrooge trembled more and more.

"Or would you know," pursued the Ghost, "the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!"

Scrooge glanced about him on the floor, in the expectation of finding himself surrounded by some fifty or sixty fathoms of iron cable: but he could see nothing.

"Jacob," he said, imploringly. "Old Jacob Marley, tell me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob!"

"I have none to give," the Ghost replied. "It comes from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men. Nor can I tell you what I would. A very little more, is all permitted to me. I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked beyond our counting-house -- mark me! -- in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole; and weary journeys lie before me!"

The Ghost set up another cry, and clanked its chain so hideously in the dead silence of the night, that the Ward would have been justified in indicting it for a nuisance.

"Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed," cried the phantom, ... Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!"

"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.

"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"

It held up its chain at arm's length, as if that were the cause of all its unavailing grief, and flung it heavily upon the ground again.

"At this time of the rolling year," the spectre said "I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!"

Scrooge was much dismayed to hear the spectre going on at this rate, and began to quake exceedingly.

What links of chain have you forged this past year? In that tale Dickens gave Scrooge the same opportunity Heavenly Father gives us but its not a tale. Turn to D&C 1:31-32. "For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance;

32. Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven;" And that's a promise! But we need to be cautious. Repentance is not a casual exercise to be repeated time and time again for the same transgression. Let's look in 2 Peter 2:20. "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning." Repent, and don't continue.

Let me leave you with two more scriptural promises. 3 Nephi 27:6. "And whoso taketh upon him my name, and endureth to the end, the same shall be saved at the last day."

The last another one we are all familiar with yet often forget to use. (Because we are sometimes afraid of the truth and having to give up the comfort of worldly pleasures?) Moroni 10:3-5. "And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

5. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

Bert N Whitney Family Newsletter, Glimpses of Heaven