Have I got a treat for you! I’m so excited to share this you! Meghan Farner, of Latter-day Disciples podcast, has written a book called Consider Yourself as Eve. Here are the images of the front and back covers of the book below. Then below that I have some webinars/videos the author has done with a few screenshots from one of the videos.
Credit for Book Cover Images Above and Below: amazon.com
The first video is the webinar she recently did with my friend Oak Norton of Scripture Notes. Learn more about Scripture Notes here.
Here are some screenshots of the video, showing an outline of the chapters of the book.
Then here’s a video below that Sister Farner did on her own YouTube Channel, Latter-day Disciples.
Here’s a video, below, that Sister Farner did with the Women and the Priesthood YouTube Channel.
I love how she talks about how priesthood ordinances play a role in the spiritual development of women. I also love that she says that a “helpmeet” is not a “little helper” but someone who helps you draw closer to Christ. It comes from Hebrew word “ezer kenegedo” which means an obvious example of a sacrificer unto death for love. Eve gave this example to Adam and we can each do it too as wives and mothers. I also love that she explains how we all have feminine and masculine aspects of ourselves, and that we can learn to align them with God’s will. She also explains how feminine and masculine aspects relate to the temple. I also love that she says we each have our own journey to follow back to God, but the ordinances to partake of on this path are universal.
Thank you Sister Meghan for these beautiful truths. They confirm what I’ve believed for decades, that Eve is a role model for each woman. She is a hero, the first female stateswoman. She sacrificed her own comfort living in the paradisiacal Garden of Eden so the mortal race could be born, so we could each have the opportunity to get a body, an earthly family, an opportunity for eternal exaltation, all resulting in joy.
As it says in the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ, about Eve and Adam:
“Adam (and Eve) fell that men might be, men are that they might have joy.” 2 Nephi 2:25
“And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.” 2 Nephi 2:22
“And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.” 2 Nephi 2:23
“Now in this thing we do rejoice; and we labor diligently to engraven these words upon plates, hoping that our beloved brethren and our children will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow, neither with contempt, concerning their first parents [Adam and Eve].” Jacob 4:3
In 1918, President Joseph F. Smith saw a vision of the spirit world. He saw many ancient prophets, including Eve. After seeing Eve, he said he saw “our glorious Mother Eve, with many of her faithful daughters who had lived through the ages and worshiped the true and living God.”
“Eve, so recently from the eternal throne, seemed to understand the way of life, for she was happy—happy!—that they had eaten the forbidden fruit. … Our beloved mother Eve began the human race with gladness, wanting children, glad for the joy that they would bring to her, willing to assume the problems connected with a family, but also the joys.” – Spencer W. Kimball | The Women of the Church
“By revelation, Eve recognized the way home to God. She knew that the Atonement of Jesus Christ made eternal life possible in families. She was sure, as you can be, that as she kept her covenants with her Heavenly Father, the Redeemer and the Holy Ghost would see her and her family through whatever sorrows and disappointments would come. She knew she could trust in Them.” – Henry B. Eyring | Daughters in the Covenant
“Eve came as a partner, to build and to organize the bodies of mortal men. She was designed by Deity to cocreate and nurture life, that the great plan of the Father might achieve fruition.” – President Russell M. Nelson | Lessons from Eve
“We all owe a great debt of gratitude to Eve. In the Garden of Eden, she and Adam were instructed not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. However, they were also reminded, ‘Thou mayest choose for thyself.’ The choice was really between a continuation of their comfortable existence in Eden, where they would never progress, or a momentous exit into mortality with its opposites: pain, trials, and physical death in contrast to joy, growth, and the potential for eternal life.” – James E. Faust | What It Means to Be a Daughter of God
“Some Christians condemn Eve for her act, concluding that she and her daughters are somehow flawed by it. Not the Latter-day Saints! Informed by revelation, we celebrate Eve’s act and honor her wisdom and courage in the great episode called the Fall.” – Dallin H. Oaks | The Great Plan of Happiness
“A choice, it might be said, was imposed upon Eve. She should be praised for her decision.” Boyd K. Packer | For Time and All Eternity
“We believe that the creation of a woman was the crowning, and final, and most glorified moment of human creation. That we start with light and dark; and land and sea; and we move through fish and fowl; and beast of the field; and we get to Adam and it’s still not good enough… and only when Eve was created — this is our theology. You say it’s political, but for me it’s theological. That is our theology — that the crowning creation and the glory of the human experience came with the creation of Eve.” – Jeffrey R. Holland | Q&A at Harvard Law School
If you want more wonderful words about Eve, read this book below! It will change your life, as it changed mine. It tells the truth about Eve. It also involves the translation of a Hebrew word, this time, the word “beguile.” Read it to find out more! The biography of the author, Beverly Campbell, is here.
I’ve been meaning to do this since the last week of December 2024 but just haven’t had much time with higher priorities. So I’m finally doing it now! Here are the books I read in 2024. (At least what I can remember. I’m not even including all the picture books I read aloud to my son and grandsons.)
The above book is just so wonderful! Brad Wilcox has such a gift of explaining the wondrous gift of the grace and mercy of Jesus, all wrapped up in the atonement. You can read my full review here.
I read this book above for my Sisters’ Book Club. We live across the country, from North Carolina, Colorado, and Utah, so we meet in Zoom. I didn’t actually read it cover to cover, but I listened to most of it and skipped some of it because it was a little too intense for me that month of March 2024 for my emotional state. It’s one of those books though that I’m glad exists to me help me “walk in someone else’s shoes” in order to feel compassion for those of another race and the prejudice they experience.
This above one is sooo good! My review of it is here. I like to have one spiritual book I’m reading at all times, which I read at night in bed, to help me unwind. (Besides the scriptures, which I read in the morning individually and then in the evening with my family.)
This one, above, is for homeschooling my son. It’s Volume 2 of the Tuttle Twins American History series. These books are a great way to learn American history because the history is told in story format, within a great big frame story. We read it aloud together every day for months. It was part of our Morning Basket time. I look forward to Volume 3.
My pick for Sisters’ Book Club one month. It took me over 100 pages to decide I liked the book. It was weird and wonderful. My married daughter didn’t like it.
Another choice for Sisters’ Book Club, this time picked by one of my CO sisters-in-law. It’s about time I read Tuesdays With Morrie, I’ve heard about it for ages. A delightful read!
Both books below were also for Sisters’ Book Club, and by the same author. She definitely has a beautiful way of weaving stories! They are both books hard to put down because I just want to know what happens next. Definite page-turners!
The books above and below were for the Moms’ Class at the co-op school I used to be part of. I absolutely loved them! Both are wonderful books to mentor mothers in mothering. I thought I knew a lot about Maria Von Trapp and her family but this book below taught me a lot more. She was definitely a woman driven by mission. It was so fun to read about her family’s escapades in America after they left Europe. Especially about her inner call to build a singing camp for families in Vermont, and how they barely got it in done in time before people started coming as guests. I just love books about family life, especially large family life, and especially families led by parents following God. You can read my review of the book above here. It’s so beautiful!
Reading the above book got me in another Sound of Music jag, similar to the one I had back in 2001 or something like that. So, I went looking for and discovered the book below and devoured it. It was like eating a 5-gallon tub of purely wholesome ice cream made with raw milk and whole sweeteners in one week. So pleasurable and nourishing to boot!!! Each of the 7 children who appeared in the movie has a chapter full of the photos and mementos from the making of the movie, preserved by their mothers. So, so, so fun! Can you believe one of the moms in my co-op said she has never even seen the Sound of Music movie?! She is missing out on so much! I hope she has rectified that cultural literacy oversight by now. The books above and below are so perfect for winter!
Reading the book below was pure comfort at the end of a long day. It is full of encouraging, spiritual stories. It’s soo, soo, good! This same author wrote a book I read over 20 years ago, called On Wings of Faith, where he tells the story of accompanying Elder Ezra Taft Benson on his trip to Europe to help people recover from WW2. The stories in the book below will definitely increase one’s faith in Jesus Christ.
The book above is another one that I love to read at night to bring in the Holy Ghost to comfort me. It is full of stories of family history miracles. Go here to read a short summary. So yummy!
These Gordon Korman books above and below are so fun! He has a talent for writing humorous stories of tweens and teens, especially in school settings. I listened to these as audiobooks with my 15-year-old son during our car time, driving to and from seminary and other classes outside the home. You can find these books and a lot of the other books I’ve mentioned in this post in everand.com. It’s super handy that everand has an app just like audible does so we can listen to these on my phone. Next year he’ll be driving on his own, so I’ve got to maximize this car time. Maybe we’ll listen to Little Britches next.
I’ve read these ones below before, so I didn’t read them all cover to cover, but reviewed them a bit for mentoring my LEMI Sword of Freedom Project Class. I did reread Across Five Aprils cover to cover. It’s such a great book!
This one above was especially wonderful to revisit after seeing the room last August, on my trip to Maine with my daughter and sister and son and other relatives, to see the actual room where the book was written. Here’s my blog about that trip.
Then there are the “fun books I dabbled in and didn’t finish.” These are books I read a lot of, especially at night or in the summer while sunbathing, but I haven’t finished yet. See below.
Then there’s the book below I read every night, and continue to read, as part of my bookly nightcap routine. I unearthed it when moving last spring. Like I blogged here, it was a total God reminder that He’s watching over me and wants to delight me. I read that page’s day of events in history and the related trivia questions. Sometimes they are too trivial pop culture for me so I just skip those parts.
I’d love to hear what you all read in 2024! Please share in the comments below!
What a treat!!! I discovered last spring that Sister Barbara Morgan Gardiner has a podcast for the Come Follow Christ scripture study program. This past week she featured Sister Julie Beck, former president of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I absolutely love Sister Beck! I blogged about her a long time ago, here, when I reviewed a book that she authored. She is a living treasure of covenant Christian wisdom. As is the host, Sister Gardiner.
Watch the video below to see/hear the podcast in YouTube form.
Here are some of my favorite parts of the video:
-the story about Sister Beck’s mother-in-law telling her son, as prompted by revelation, to find out if the Church is true so that he would feel motivated to serve a mission. Sister Beck says that every morning this wonderful woman would arise at 5 AM to fix a hot breakfast for her son before he left for work. I believe that this might the be story that Sister Beck tells in this article over here in this article called “Powerful Nurturing.” I read this story, when it was first published in the Ensign magazine, as a busy mom with 6 children at home and underfoot. I was so impressed by it that I incorporated it into a few talks I gave to homeschooling moms in the next few years after I heard it. How wonderful to hear that this woman in the story was her very own mother-in-law! I love that she emphasizes that this woman, her mother-in-law, June Strong Beck, did not do anything remarkable according to the world’s standards, but that she did remarkable, even eternal things in her small sphere as a wife, mother, and grandmother. Now her daughter-in-law is telling her story today and we can all benefit from it. I just love this!
-the story about how she met with her grandchildren over the phone to talk for two hours about how they each receive revelation, and how they can tell if it’s just them or the Holy Ghost speaking to them. She says that these cousins taught each other. I love this too!
-the story about how she was making sandwiches at home and felt the Spirit telling her to go see a friend. She resisted for some time, then finally relented. The friend wasn’t home at first, and just as Sister Beck was pulling out of the driveway, the friend arrived. Upon seeing Sister Beck, she said, “How did you know to come see me? I’ve been praying that you would come!”
I testify that revelation is a real, true thing. I have received revelation the past few weeks to guide me through a super difficult, dark time in my life. I am grateful for the answers that came to assure me, to guide me, and to help me be patient in waiting. A breakthrough has finally happened, after following this revelation. I feel much joy!
It truly is amazing that anyone can access the mind and will of God through revelation, through the power of the Holy Ghost. This is a superpower we can each access! As we qualify for the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost we can have this superpower with us always. This is so fabulous!
If you want more stories of revelation from the Holy Ghost see the following resources:
-more stories on my blog here, and here. Then here is one, from one of my son’s missions
-stories from my family devotionals ebook are here, in the January section
If you want to read all of Sister Julie Beck’s talks, go here. Enjoy!
This is such an amazing, wonderful book! I read it last fall. Just like Lee Strobel does with his books, A Case for Christ and a Case for Heaven, plus more (see here), we have in this book sound, logical reasoning to argue for a spiritual cause. The reasoning in this book gives the case for the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Christ to be what Joseph Smith claimed it to be. He claimed that it is a book from ancient men who were inspired by God to write their thoughts, starting around 600 B.C. until about a few hundred years after Christ (421 A.D.) It includes a beautiful eyewitness account of Jesus Christ visiting ancient people in the land of Americas shortly after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. (See 3 Nephi 11-28, starting here for that account.) These writings were compiled by a man named Mormon on plates of brass. Joseph Smith translated the plates, written in reformed Egyptian, into the English language, to give us what we know today as the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ.
Here is the description of the book from Deseret Book:
“Before The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was officially organized, its keystone was in place. That keystone, the Book of Mormon, has been shared, studied, respected, and embraced by millions of people the world over. It has also been scrutinized, analyzed, dismissed, even ridiculed by critics for nearly 200 years. In this volume, best-selling author Tad Callister offers a comprehensive overview of many of the critics’ claims and provides carefully reasoned explanations that shed new light on the discussion. He presents compelling evidence, both physical and spiritual, for the authenticity of the Book of Mormon and invites readers on a spiritual journey that promises a witness stronger than any intellectual argument could create. ‘The book focuses on a case for the Book of Mormon,’ Brother Callister writes, ‘but in one sense the Book of Mormon does not need a case presented on its behalf. It is its own best witness—its own best evidence. . . .It bears witness of the Savior with precision and power; and it invites the Spirit in unrestrained proportions. Every aspect of the Book of Mormon bears witness of its divine origin because, in fact, it is divinely inspired.’ “
I love that the author, who has a law degree from UCLA, lays out all of the common theories people give/have given as to where the Book of Mormon came from, other than what Joseph Smith claimed. One by one he tears down those arguments.
Isn’t the Bible enough scripture? Tad answers that question in the book by explaining why the Book of Mormon was needed. He shows some doctrines of Christ that are much more clearly taught in the Book of Mormon compared to the Bible.
This book builds on a talk that Tad Callister gave in General Conference in October 2017 for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Read it here. Watch below.
I was delighted to see in goodreads.com that one of my homeschool mom friends Jennifer P. reviewed the book and left this comment:
“I read the majority of this book with my children as part of morning devotionals to discuss concerns that exist about the origin of the Book of Mormon, to further explore doctrinal points, and to introduce points of view about the Book of Mormon that might be new to them. I particularly appreciated the personal historical accounts of the individual witnesses. There were extensive footnotes with documentation to scriptures and other references that I enjoyed studying. I respect each individual’s spiritual journey, but I ask one thing. Please don’t have an opinion about its validity without reading it in its entirety with an open, prayerful mind. Please don’t be a critic if you have never read it with sincerity and openness. Each time I read it, it continues to be a second witness to me, in hand with the Bible, of the divinity of Jesus Christ and his role as the Son of God. I don’t want to live my life without it as a guiding source in my life. For those who leave it behind after having read it sincerely, God knows our hearts, and I know if we have been true to our desire to seek him, he will be merciful and understanding of our journey for he knows all. 💗”
I agree with her statement. It encourages me to read this book aloud with my son for our homeschooling Morning Basket time, since he’s 15 and old enough to understand the arguments. As she says, it is a second witness of Jesus Christ. I recommend the Book of Mormon as a companion to the Bible in guiding your life. Both books are full of beautiful stories of the teachings of prophets, including the ultimate prophet, Jesus Christ. Here are some of these beautiful truths:
“Adam fell that men might be, men are that they might have joy.” 2 Nephi 2:25
“When you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are only in the service of your God.” Mosiah 2:17
“For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.” Mosiah 3:19
If we follow the teachings of Christ, we will not fall when the storms of life come. 3 Ne. 14:24–27
If we believe the Book of Mormon, God will manifest even greater things to us. 3 Ne. 26:6–10
Here is a summary of more of these wonderful truths in the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jeus Christ.
Part 1 is here. Scroll 3/4 of the way down to the heading, “Book of Mormon Times at a Glance: Some Statements of Gospel Principles.”
Part 2 is here. Again, scroll 3/4 of the way down to the heading “Book of Mormon Times at a Glance: Some Statements of Gospel Principles.”
I testify that the Book of Mormon goes “hand in hand” together with the Bible. See the song below about that by Janice Kapp Perry. I recommend you read the Book of Mormon and see for yourself all of these lovely truths that fit hand in hand with the Bible to light the path you walk in life. I also recommend Tad Callister’s book to help you defend any attacks you hear or see about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.
When I last blogged about sweaters, I promised I’d share more photos. So here they are. It’s overcast days like today that I’m grateful for cozy cardigans and pullovers. I prefer cardigans, but as you can see from the top and bottom photo today, I’ve found some cute pullover sweaters I like.
A few tips for thrifting sweaters are below.
Before you go, have in mind what you want. Write it down, like, “I want to get a bright multi-colored sweater,” or “I want to a yellow cardigan with cable stitching and popcorn.” etc. Frequent certain stores regularly that fit in with your grocery shopping or other rounds of errands such as taking children to classes, etc.
2. BOLO, which means “be on the lookout” for high quality brands like Ann Taylor, Boden, or Lanz.
3. Examine sweaters carefully for holes, rips, stains, or pilling and avoid those.
4. If there’s a Savers thrift store in your area, go there, after you donate something first at the dropoff point. Make sure you get a 20% off coupon for your donation then go use it on the sweaters you buy.
5. Only buy sweaters that you know already go with at least one pair of paints and/or top you already have, if it’s a cardigan.
6. Look online as well at ebay and poshmark, but your best deals are most likely at your local brick and mortar stores because you won’t have to pay shipping.
Happy sweater thrifting and arting! I love creating sweater art with my thrifted finds. I hope you do too!
I’m on track for reading on average a book week, so far, for 2025! This is so exciting! I belong to an online book club with my sisters-in-law, so one of the books I read was for that. It’s the book below. Then I read the book above as our November pick. The top one was fiction, the one below was non-fiction, and both were amazing! The top one was for pure pleasure. The bottom counted for pleasure as well as instruction/character transformation. In other words, it was enjoyable, and also inspiring. The author, Katie Davis Majors, is a great example of following what she feels was God calling her to serve children in Uganda as a kindergarten teacher. She ultimately ended up adopting more than a dozen girls!
I’ve always been a big believer in reading books for education and self-improvement. As a young mom, I quickly discovered that God invented breastfeeding so that moms could slow down and read. I’ve devoured books in my mom life while nursing for 18+ years, and many more since weaning the youngest, while not nursing. I always have at least 6 books that I am reading. Over the years, I realize that the non-homeschooling book clubs I belong to picked books that were more for fun. The homeschooling mom book clubs read mostly books for self-improvement and instruction. It’s important to have a mix of both. In that spirit, I’m sharing books here that I have read that are totally enjoyable where you don’t have to think hard to follow the storyline. I highly recommend all these books!
Kisses from Katie does have some sadness and tragedy, but the author speaks of it with a Christ-centered perspective. But if you are pregnant and prone to tear up at the drop of a hat, wait until you are not pregnant to read it.
The book above, Papa’s Wife is based on the author’s parents’ courtship, marriage, and family life together. So it’s a true story! It is so fun! It’s part 1 of a trilogy. The sequels are Papa’s Daughter, and Mama’s Way. Then the author wrote even more after that. They are so delightful! They are hard to find but totally worth the hunt. This is the way family life should be!
The one above is a fun one about a midwife, who started as a hospital nurse then became a midwife to accompany home births. Each chapter is a different birth story. It’s fun to read although sometimes the language is a little profane.
Then this one below is Julie Andrews’ autobiography of her Hollywood years. So fun! Where else can you get the inside scoop of what it was like to star in both of the blockbuster movies, Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music?
I encourage you mamas out there to carve out time to read to yourself a FUN book, every day, either a print book or listen to an audiobook. Even if it’s just for a few minutes. Doing so puts joy into your life so that you are a more enjoyable person to be around in whatever roles you fulfill.
This one above is so fascinating! A man died, had an experience in heaven visiting deceased relatives and seeing his family on earth and being by them as a spirit, then came back to life. He was allowed by God to live for about 4-5 years, sharing his message of love, then died for good. The second part of the book has his wife and children each telling their story of what has happened since. I especially love the wife sharing her story of how she remarried.
Here are some fun nonfiction, non-story books (some of the books above aren’t fiction, but they still tell a story) that are for pure pleasure:
I actually haven’t read the Audrey book shown above. I got it thrifting over a year go and somehow when I moved last spring it went missing. It looks yummy!
Watch the video below from Sarah Mackenzie of readaloudrevival.com to get all the encouragement and reasons you need and want to have a reading mom life! Happy reading! May you find much refreshment and joy in your reading to help you be a happier wife and mom.
This month of January I got to attend a mock Caldecott Award voting event at my public library. I did this last year as well. It’s something I look forward to, in order to brighten up my January. It’s also something else to make January my month to focus on reading and books, when it’s natural to stay indoors, cozy up, and read! I’m already on track to have read on average one book a week, in 2025. That’s chapter books for adults. I don’t count the picture books I read aloud in Morning Basket time.
I just love picture books, so that’s why I love going to this mock Caldecott Award night year. At the event, this year, one of the children’s librarians explained to us the process of how the Caldecott Award committee decides the winner. The Caldecott Award is given every year to a children’s picture book published in the U.S. in the previous year, in English, that shows the most distinguished illustrations using excellence in art. What she emphasized over and over was that when committee members talk about the books, in order to decide who will win, they have to explain why the book they are voting for has illustrations that are “distinguished.”
Here are the exact terms over here. The books I have pictured here on this blog post are some of the ones I saw that night.
So, for this mock Caldecott award night, we pretended to be the committee. We were shown about 24 books that were among the likely nominations. We got a minute or two to flip through each book. Then we discussed the books. Then we voted on our top three choices. Then the librarians tallied our votes. The number of votes for each book was then announced.
Then those books that get fewer votes got knocked off the list. We then discussed our choices and voted again on the narrowed down list. It was interesting to hear people’s opinions. Then we voted two more times, narrowing down the list each time.
My top three picks were:
1. Home in a Lunchbox
2. The Yellow Bus
3. Life After Whale
This year, my top pick was also the top pick of the group.
Here’s the book that really won, announced last weekend at the ALA ceremony in Phoenix.
Chooch Helped by Andrea L. Rogers, illustrated by Rebecca Lee Kunz
Then the runner-ups, the Caldecott Honor books for 2025 are:
Home in a Lunchbox illustrated and written by Cherry Mo
My Daddy Is a Cowboy illustrated by C.G. Esperanza, written by Stephanie Seales
Noodles on a Bicycle illustrated by Gracey Zhang, written by Kyo Maclear
Up, Up, Ever Up! Junko Tabei: A Life in the Mountains illustrated by Yuko Shimizu, written by Anita Yasuda
I’m sad that my top pick didn’t win, but happy that at least it got the Caldecott Honor level. It’s wonderful that we have so many fun picture books that come out every year on such a variety of topics! Now to start putting these books on hold at my public library so I can enjoy every single one! If you want to see a huge list of the 2025 nominees, and past year’s winners and contenders, go here. I look forward to all this picture book reading and sharing of these new books and hope you do too! Remember, picture books aren’t just for children!
If you want to read books according to the seasons and holidays, all year round, go here.
This isn’t my tree but that of one of my Veggie Gal girlfriends. I love how gorgeous it is!
Our Christmas 2024 was so fabulous! I am still basking in the loveliness of it. Even though it’s the end of January. I believe in Keeping Christmas in January. I love this podcast here by a Catholic couple, Phil and Leila Lawler, about that. In light of their thoughts, I’ve asked myself, “How does one come off the Christmas high in dreary January?” To quote La Leche League International, an organization that promotes breastfeeding, when the Leaders talk about weaning, one does it “gradually and with love.” (That’s the LLLI title of the weaning book.) So, although my tree is down, thanks to one of my adult sons putting it away with all the decorations, I still have my Christmas picture books out as well as my Nativity set on the piano. I’ll keep those out until after Candlemas, February 2. I’m weaning off of Christmas 2024.
So, part of the weaning off of Christmas 2024 is taking most of January 2025 to blog about it! Here’s my debrief of it. First off, I give what I’m glad that I did, then some delightful surprises, then what I wish had been different/what I want to do next year. Forgive the lateness of it, as I’ve had other pressing commitments that have precluded me from getting this done sooner.
Without further ado, here we go…
What I’m Glad I Didfor Christmas 2024:
–read aloud often the stories from the above book, Our Family Christmas, by Christie Gardiner. I found this book when thrifting over a year ago and absolutely love it! This is one of my greatest thrifting treasures ever! Only $3 at the Springville D.I.! What a goldmine of resources! I don’t do most of the stuff in it as I just don’t have the energy and my children aren’t little. In other words, I don’t do the crafts or recipes. Maybe I will do them more as the grandchildren get older. I mostly just use it to read aloud the stories at dinnertime and ask the discussion questions. It is an Advent book specifically for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It also has some sheet music, which I’m thrilled about, for tunes like the lesser known “Silver Bells,” and “Mary Did you Know?” My hope is to coordinate the stories with the names of Christ from my Immanuel Wreath, meaning label each story with the name of Christ from the wreath that best matches up with the story. That way I will read the stories according to the name next in line on the wreath, not in the order given in the book. We’ll see how long this takes…maybe a decade?
–watched the new movie, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. See my review here. It’s so good! The perfect Christmas movie for the whole family! I love that I got to attend it with four generations of my family.
–used myImmanuel Advent Wreath of Candles. Each night starting Dec. 1, we lit one candle and talked about the name of Christ under that candle’s hole in the wooden wreath. Then on Christmas Eve we talked about what name is our favorite. I couldn’t find my huge pretty glass platter to put under the wreath, having moved last spring. I don’t remember where I put the platter. I made the dumb decision to just let the wax melt on the tablecloth, even after asking myself if I was willing to deal with the mess. So now I’ve got to research how to get wax stains out of my table runner and poinsettia tablecloth. So yeah, that fits into what I wish I had done, under the category at the end of this post.
–started listening to The Air We Breathe by Glen Scrivener, in everand.com. It’s so, so, soo good and so fascinating! It is the perfect book to understand how Christ, the center of Christmas, is also the center of Western civilization. I then finished it this month of January 2025. More on it later!
–attended Christmas Around the World. This is an annual concert put on by the BYU Folkdancers. My third son, a BYU student, is on one of the “feeder” teams that is under the top performing team. He did such a great job! He performed a Czech dance, and then an American dance, the Charleston. So energetic and fun!
I remember attending this for a field trip when I was in grade school. I am so thrilled I have a child performing in it now. The energy when you walk into the Marriott Center to attend this superb world class event is just so electric! I love it so much! People are performing in the hall that circles the entrances to the inside arena, like the mariachi band below. If you are ever in Provo the first weekend of December, make it a point to attend this! You will not regret it!
It is just so fun, festive, glorious, and thought-provoking as I watch the different nations and cultures portrayed! I felt so blessed that all seven of my children were able to attend this, because my two sons who live in TX were in town that same week for Brandon Sanderson’s convention, Dragonsteel, along with one daughter-in-law. So providential! We had a great time! As long as I live in Utah, this will be part of my Christmas family traditions. It is so amazing! As you can see below, despite its eye-popping, ear-splitting, amazingness, the two grandsons fell asleep before it was over.
My only problem with the whole thing is that it starts so late, at 7:30, and ends after 9:30, which was after their bedtime. There wasn’t really time afterwards to gather everyone at my home for hot cocoa and cookies before the adults’ bedtime. We didn’t do the matinee performance earlier that day because of some of the family members (5 of them) being at Dragonsteel.
Regardless of the late performance time, this whole event was so fabulous! The dancing, the athletics, the beauty, the spirit of Christmas is all so grand! I wish you all could see it in YouTube. My favorite dance was probably the Indian number with Bollywood type music and costumes. So energetic! Below is the Charleston by the Folkdance team performed in Charleston, South Carolina. The choreography was similar at Christmas Around the World.
–watched a one-man performance of A Christmas Carol. We attended this at the Provo City Library. The performer was so amazing, he got an almost standing ovation. A few people were sticks in the mud who wouldn’t stand up. He gave so much emotion into the performance. I also loved the carolers dressed up in Victorian/Dickensian garb who did the pre-show in the hallway as we entered the venue. I want to join them in one of those fun hats and dresses! So delightful! I love that the performer, Bryan Johnson, asked that we donate money to the Utah Food Bank via Venmo in lieu of paying for the performance.
–found and used my Pioneer Woman Christmas mugs. These are just sooooo adorable! One of my sons gave these to me for my birthday last year. It was no small feat to find them, after moving last spring. I could have sworn I had them with all my Christmas stuff, all together, in two stacks in the basement kitchen. I looked and looked, and couldn’t find them, and then my 15-year-old found them by accident when he was looking for something else.
They just make so happy! I have them still out as they aren’t just for Christmas, I’ve realized. The aesthetic is so hygge (go here to learn about hygge if you don’t know what it means) that they are perfect for all of winter. The red in them makes them also fit with my Valentine decorations that are out now, so I have them lined up in my hutch in my dining room/library.
–read aloud Christmas picture books, to my son for Morning Basket time (last one in my homeschooling nest) and to my grandsons
–read or listened to Christmas stories to myself. I started the one above in Everand and was thrilled to hear Sarah Mackenzie promote it in her podcast below. I haven’t finished it, so I’ll save it to finish December 2025.
–three gifts plus stocking stuffers. I did my traditional plan I’ve done for years of 3 gifts per child, at least for the four ones who aren’t married. The married children and grandchildren each got one gift. See more over here about the 3 gifts tradition.
This book above is what I gave for the incense/”gift of meaning” to 3 out of 4 of the unmarried children. I’ve been listening to the Audible format this month of January. It’s such a great book to kick off the new year.
The fourth child is about to go on a mission to teach people about Jesus in April so his book was Preach My Gospel, pocket-sized, shown above. I’ve already seen him studying in it so that makes this mama’s heart so happy!
–have children 12 and up help play Santa by stuffing stockings. I love doing this! My married daughter and son-in-law and their two little boys joined us for Christmas Eve and morning, spending the night, so they helped with this. I asked each person 12 and up, so not the grandboys, nor the married children who weren’t here, to get one edible and one non-edible item for each other person’s stocking. I emphasized that these didn’t have to be expensive, but I’d like them to be useful things and not just junky trinkets. This just makes Christmas a lot more fun for me as I get to have more surprises! Here’s what I got in my stocking in the photo above. We are not all at the same level of nutrition standards, as you can see, with the Charleston Chew. Because of its high fructose corn syrup content, I gave it back to the person who gave it, with appreciation of the intention with which it was given :-). In my younger days I loved eating these, but I just can’t handle the high sugar spike and then crash, in my middle age days, without wanting to consume more and more sugar.
The photo above is missing the hacky sack from one of my sons. Plus the homeopathy sleep aid that I added to my own stocking. The little swords shown in the photo are actually pens in disguise that I found on amazon. Everyone got 2-4. I was so thrilled to get the snowflake necklace and matching earrings. I’m pretty sure those are from my married daughter. We share the same aesthetic for clothes and jewelry, which is so fun.
See how wonderful it looks with one of my sweaters above! I love it!
I was so happy that I found perfect non edible gifts stocking stuffers for each person: a little cookbook of lunch recipes for my son-in-law, since he fixes my grandsons’ meals, the Christ-centered Christmas book above for my married daughter, detailed here (both books I found thrifting, looked brand new, and are pocket-sized so can fit in a stocking), a fidget spinner ring for one son, a Needoh fidget toy for my other daughter, a card game for one son, and a puzzle cube for the other son.
This is what a NeeDoh looks like, at least the NeeDoh teardrop. My teen daughter has enjoyed hers.
Image Credit: amazon.com
I also got homemade lip balm for everybody and hair clips for one daughter. (The other daughter has short hair and doesn’t want clips.) For my husband’s stocking, I got him some electrolyte powder, stevia chocolate, and some fun colorful socks. Everybody got nuts, tangerines, a big candy cane, and some chocolate, from Mrs. Claus (me) plus goodies from the others.
-only committed to one dinner on Christmas Day. We had the fun problem of getting invited to two family dinners on Christmas Day. One for my side, one for my husband’s. In pre-covid days, pre-moving to AZ days, we used to alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with each side. Then we’d go to the other side for a brief evening visit of dessert before heading home for bedtime. Moving to AZ and back, covid, and my husband’s parents’ deaths have changed all that up. Since moving back to UT from AZ we’ve spent all holiday dinners with my side. Then my sister-in-law (my husband’s sister), who is more like a sister to me than an in-law, moved close by, and she was the first to invite us for dinner. Then a week later my brother’s wife invited us for dinner. These two sisters-in-law happen to live five minutes apart, completely by sheer coincidence. The first dinner was open as to the time. I almost suggested 2 PM with plans to hit the second dinner at 5 but after further reflection I decided that was unwise, as we’d feel rushed and too full of food. So, I just agreed to the one dinner at the first sister-in-law’s and regretfully and graciously declined the other invitation, just saying we’d come for dessert around 7. It all worked out perfectly. I was thrilled to arrive at my brother’s home after our dinner at my sister-in-law’s to find a bunch of my adult nieces and nephews playing Camel Up, a board game I introduced to one of the nephews and his wife last Thanksgiving, when we played it together. They loved it so much they went out and bought it the next day and brought it to play on Christmas.
–we had a simple Christmas Day dinner, of ham, broccoli, mac and cheese, and pie at my husband’s sister’s home. It was so yummy and easy. I brought the broccoli and pies and she provided the ham and mac and cheese. I made sugar-free, keto pumpkin cheesecake for the low-carbers and bought pie for the rest. So easy!
–not have to leave for extended family stuff until after 3 on Christmas Day. In previous years, like when all the 7 children lived at home, we’ve left for extended family stuff around noon. I always felt so rushed with that, but resigned to it so the children could have maximum cousin time. This past year, my brother-in-law had invited us to go shooting around 2. Shooting practice with guns for him is like thrifting is for me, something he wants to do anytime he has free time or a holiday. Such a dopamine hit in the respective ways for each of us. Except I don’t go thrifting on holidays. (OK, maybe the day after, which I did recently, on Jan. 2.) Anyway, I kept feeling nervous about this as we approached the day because of the aforementioned rush. I was glad that I got the text saying they felt slightly under the weather and didn’t want to brave the drizzly rain to go shooting but they’d still host us for dinner. It was nice this past Christmas that after opening the gifts in the AM and a brunch, I got a luxurious hot soak in the bathtub and my husband got a nap before round 2 of festivities in the evening.
–Jolabokkaflod. See here. It’s a Christmas book flood, originating in Iceland. I started this two years ago. For this year, I gathered up some used books that I’ve found thrifting, put them in gift bags, and after Sunday dinner with my married daughter and her family, we took turns picking a gift, pulling the book out, and then “stole”/traded the books up to 3 times. I was hoping to spend more time reading the books afterwards and sharing what we learned while eating chocolate. I’ll make it better next year by doing that, by setting the expectation/announcing it, plus asking everyone to bring a book that they look for throughout the year that they think will be exciting to at least two people in the family who will want to fight over it. All the books this year were what I or my married daughter picked out. We need more preferences represented :-).
–Joseph Smith Birthday Party. We had clam chowder, made by foodie son-in-law, his DIY root beer in his cool green bottles, and gingerbread ice cream. The root beer and ginger flavor are because Joseph’s mother, Lucy Mack Smith, sold root beer and gingerbread to augment the family income. The gingerbread ice cream I did because I ran out of time to bake gingerbread, so I went with BYU Creamery’s newest ice cream flavor, Ginger Bell Rock. It was a big hit!
–Bethlehem Supper with my parents on Christmas Eve. We have middle eastern food that Jesus might have eaten when he lived in the Holy Land: fish, flat bread, olives, cheese, and figs. We’ve had this tradition ever since our two oldest children tots. I heard about it from parenting experts, Linda and Richard Eyre, who have done it with their family for decades.
–used Christmas conversation starters on Christmas Eve. I use these from Jennifer Flanders over here. I put them in a little basket and passed them around during our Bethlehem Supper. It keeps the conversation focused on Christmas and reveals insights into each of us we wouldn’t otherwise see. It was fun to hear my dad talk about Christmases when he was a boy and being able to ride in a sleigh.
–asked my daughter and son-in-law to help with Christmas Day brunch. I’m so blessed that I have a son-in-law who loves to bake and cook! I’m taking advantage of this whenever I can! He brought ingredients to make waffles and a waffle iron. I resisted eating those and just had my crustless quiche with sausages but others enjoyed the carbs.
–stayed within Christmas budget and out of debt. I used Qube, with a Christmas Qube, to make this easy.
–didn’t buy any new Christmas decorations. I have plenty.
–attended Christmas church party for women. This was so much fun! I wasn’t going to go at first, as I have such a long “to-do” list, but then decided that I always feel better when I make time for social things. So off I went. I ended up having fun conversations and connections with some sisters I never talk to, since I play the piano for the children’s singing at church and don’t get to socialize much. We played a fun game where one of the women read some facts about a woman in the ward and the rest of us had to guess who it was. Because my husband’s cousin’s daughter moved into our ward, coincidentally, over a year after we did, and I knew that she was born in Wisconsin, I was able to guess her correctly when that particular clue about being born in Wisconsin was read. For a prize, I got to pick out a gift from under the tree, pictured above, and unwrap it. I was so pleased to find a brand new plushy blanket, with a Costco label. So I knew it was high-quality. I had just been wishing that past week that I had a blanket for each couch in the home to get through the winter and here my wish was granted for the upstairs couch!
Some of the yummy food served at the Relief Society Christmas dinner
–attended church party for the whole family, and wrote to missionaries who are serving from our ward/congregation. One of the activities at the party, which was a breakfast, was to write letters to the missionaries. I love that the organizers had pretty stationery to use and colorful pens. I enjoyed writing to four missionaries, telling them the same story about a man who was blessed by a visitor when he was lonely on Christmas Eve.
–organized a birthday dinner/party for my mom. Her birthday is exactly two weeks before Christmas.
–got big candy canes for the stockings early on. I got high quality, thick, organic sugar canes at the health food store early in the month before they were picked through leaving only the broken ones. I noticed that’s all that was left right before Christmas. A totally trivial thing but it’s still satisfying and a total victory. Mom life is made up of so many little victories that don’t get any praise :-).
–remembered that my younger daughter hates pistachios and gave her mixed nuts in the stockings.
–started the Nativity Tradition countdown one week before Christmas Day, from the companion books above and below, that I detail here. I love that these traditions can be so universally done because they are simple and adaptable for almost any living situation. By giving a copy of the little red book to my daughter I hope she starts the tradition in her little family.
–listened to the audiobook Kisses From Katie. This is such a life changing, inspiring, book. Best of all, it’s a true story! The book actually connects with Christmas as the whole story starts when the author, Katie Davis Majors, goes to Uganda for three weeks over her Christmas break her senior year of high school. It’s such a beautiful book to help anyone keep perspective over what really matters, centered in Christ, which is especially important to do at Christmas time. I started it in early December and finished it this past week. It’s sooooo grand! I love that she quotes the Bible so much and has such a beautifully, generous, Christian outlook. I started it in December and finished in January. I just found a copy of this book while thrifting this morning so now I have my own copy and can mark it up! (I listened to it in everand and read the public library’s copy.)
Photo Credit: Great American Family YouTube Channel
–watched a few Christmas romance movies. I watched Penny Serenade, an old Cary Grant classic, and this one over here with Candace Cameron Bure, then another one with her daughter, called Christmas Through the Ages. Not complete brain candy, maybe brain ice cream as it does have some nourishing elements, like ice cream does. It lacks a real plot though. Totally enjoyable if you want to just wrap presents or do something crafty and need something unthinky to watch/listen to.
–watched a few family Christmas movies. We watched Home Alone and Miracle on 34th Street. Some of my children watched A Muppet Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life (while I was taking my hot bath on Christmas Day). I wanted to watch a lot more, from my list over here, but just didn’t have the time.
–donated money from our Christmas Jar, a tradition we started years ago after reading the book with that phrase as the title
–played board games on Boxing Day and served leftovers. We played the games above and below. This is a tradition we’ve done for years that I love. I purposely make too much food for Bethlehem Supper so that we have leftovers for this day so I can have a break from cooking and baking for a day.
–give a copy of the #LighttheWorld list to everyone in family, encourage them to see how many they can do, and share during dinner conversation and Sparkle Box time. I will text a copy to the out-of-towners.
–line up stories from Our Christmas Family book with the names of Christ of Immanuel Wreath. which I’ve already mentioned.
–label the stockings. I got a little mixed up when I stuffed the stockings and had to sort things out in the morning after people emptied them out, LOL. I had to be super quiet, stuff them in the dark, and not turn on lights as my grandsons were asleep in the room where the stockings were hanging. They were hung so close together and are so huge, it was hard to where the openings to the stockings were. They were hung in order from oldest to youngest family member but that wasn’t good enough for me apparently.
–start shopping earlier. I say this every year! I am determined that this year 2025 I’ll start in September!
–have shopping done and wrapping done before Dec. 18 so I can go sledding or skating on 12/24. We usually go sledding or skating as a family. Sometimes I skip out on this if I’m feeling too stressed with other Christmas prep. Such was the case this year.
–send Christmas cards with a newsletter. I really want to do this too even though it’s not a minimalist thing.
–have a singing party of little-known Christmas songs that I have collected into a binder, from my family devotionals ebook, the December section
–encourage more giving to the Christmas Jar through the year so we can donate more at the end
–give each family member a bag of thrifted treasures that I gather all year, like in the fun video below. This looks so fun! The funniest line in the video is when the YouTuber, Lori, says, in response to her mother, “I haven’t weighed 126 lbs since I was 12!” I can so relate!
–improve my Jolabokkaflod party, maybe have Dickens theme and dress up
–get better bigger gift for my parents that involves recording their life story
–encourage my children, nieces, and nephews to get little useful things to stuff big stockings for my parents and leave them anonymously on their doorstep
–find my evergreen and poinsettia garlands to decorate more. This new-to-me home that we moved into last spring has pillars on the porch. I was so excited to festoon them with my garlands but didn’t find the time to go looking for said garlands in the shed, after my teen said he could not find them. So the pillars went bare! Boo-hoo! Next year!
–get holders for my electric candles and put them in windows
–finally sew my two pieces of poinsettia fabric so it’s not annoying to set up as a tablecloth
–put out old Christmas cards on door and talk about family friends who sent them, a few each night at dinner. I love this idea too, over here, to pray over the people as a family, even after Christmas.
-encourage more and talk earlier about preparing for family Christmas Eve talent show. My husband grew up with this tradition. They did this after the Nativity pageant. I mentioned to my younger set of children about doing it the day before Christmas Eve and they acted like they never heard of it before. I think it’s because they were younger when we did it with my husband’s family, so they don’t remember it. I did have a few good sports who were willing to share, including my daughter, reading aloud our family’s traditional poem, from my husband’s childhood, of Grandfather Monkey, from Richard Scarry’s The Animals’ Christmas. My other daughter shared some art and my grandson and son–in-law did some singing and dancing.
–light candles on Christmas Eve, lighting one for each missing family member and then sing I’ll Be Home for Christmas
–decide once and for all where I will put my envelope of everyone’s “gifts to Jesus” that are written on slips of paper. I have lost these over the years, and just recently found one from Christmas 2000! I’ve decided to keep them with our porcelain nativity set.
–read aloud at least one book about gifts before I ask people to write their gifts to Jesus. The Giver of Holy Gifts or The Gifts of Christmas, maybe just one depending on grandchildren’s attention span.
Excuse the bedhead, which is part and parcel on Christmas morning!
Little Christmas Joys, Surprises and Miracles (Other Things that Made Me Smile!)
–my married daughter’s smile when she opened the parasol her brother gave her
–son’s thrill when he opened his weightlifting belt
–husband’s smile when he opened his karaoke machine. We haven’t played with it yet, hopefully on his birthday and at our next family reunion.
–my two daughters connecting over Japanese Lola styles. I had no idea that my tomboy daughter admires the art of this style. She likes the intricacies of it but doesn’t want to wear it, whereas her sister who is ten years older would be OK wearing it all.
–the new fuzzy blanket that I mentioned above, after I had started wishing for one, plus the fuzzy one my daughter and son-in-law.
-I found a new Nativity puzzle and a winter puzzle for our New Year’s Eve gathering while thrifting just two days before Christmas, after starting wishing for them
–finding the Celebrating a Christ-Centered Christmas book for my daughter’s stocking, as I mentioned above. I gave it away then found my own copy when I went thrifting after New Year’s.
–one of my sons made a stocking board of his own initiative so we could hang our stockings above the fireplace in our new-to-us home. He remembered we had one of these when we lived in Layton for our fireplace there, which my husband made. Neither my husband nor I even thought of this, he just went and did it. Such a beautiful surprise! This time around it’s sturdy enough that we can actually leave the stockings hanging from it all night into Christmas Day morning. In the photo above, it’s the thin board above the mantel with nails sticking out.
–another son brought two pieshe made to Christmas dinner of his own initiative. He’s a BYU student (the folkdancer) and is full of surprises!
I found this coat when thrifting with my sis-in-law for my birthday thrifting trip. The gorgeous blanket underneath is one of my Christmas gifts from my daughter and son-in-law.
–I found this pair of bright cranberry red gloves on sale at the BYU Store after Christmas. The pair perfectly matches the pretty scarf my son and daughter-in-law gave me for Christmas. They make my new thrifted fuzzy coat really pop!
–my son, my friend, and her son got to attend a Civil War ball to celebrate that they finished their requirements for the Sword of Freedom class that I mentored. My friend and I dressed up in these fun ball gowns that we rented. They are actually used for the play Little Women for the SCERA theater. The first time that I’ve worn a hoop skirt! It was so fun!
-speaking of Little Women, my son and his wife gave me tickets to see Little Women performed at the Hale Center Theater in March for my Christmas present from them! I’m so jazzed!
–got jewelry in my stocking as I mentioned above
–had the best stocking ever see mention above
–found a new Christmas-y top when thrifting, it’s perfect for wearing in fall too, with a decorative pumpkin silk-screened onto it.
–one of our relatives announced a pregnancy. Yay! Here’s hoping it’s a girlas boys dominate the Shumway family for two generations so far. We could use a lot more estrogen around here.
–my son got his mission call in December, a few weeks before Christmas. An early Christmas present!
-my brother just older than I am is into woodworking. This past year he helped my other brother resurrect and finish an abandoned table from his high school wood shop years. It was so fun to see 2024’s last project, which is that he carved a bowl for each one of his children and a Harry Potter wand for each of his grandchildrenas Christmas gifts. I love this!
Maybe Do Next Year:
–like my mom, decorate tree with just family and friend photos. What a fun idea! She’s done this for a few years now. It certainly makes decorating (and undecorating) a tree super easy.
–or maybe have just a family history Christmas tree with ancestors’ photos.
–participate in shoebox giving with Christmas Jar money where my children and grandchildren pick out the stuff and stuff the box
OR
–participate in angel tree giving with Christmas Jar money. I don’t think I could handle both of those ideas, I’ll just start with one.
–get lights up outside with sons’ doing it. I love driving in the dark and seeing lights oh homes to represent the Light of the World, Jesus Christ. Maybe next year I’ll show that I love this idea enough to actually make it happen.
–maybe stuff stockings for old people at a retirement home with Christmas Jar money
–make one keepsake ornament with my grandchildren in November. My mom did this for a few years with her grandchildren over a decade ago. Now they each have a set or ornaments that match their siblings and cousins. Each child’s ornaments go in a decorated box, with each child’s name, all assembled and decorated by my mom. So now my children have their own ornaments from childhood to use with their own family. That’s something for me to do for next year, is finally give these boxes to my married children so I’m no longer storing theirs.
That’s it! Another Christmas for the books! Looking back, I realize how much I experienced, no wonder I want to sleep in every morning. I’m ready for a long winter’s nap! Even though some really hard, depressing things happened during this Christmas season that are too personal to blog about, I felt so cheered by all the things above. Please share anything that made you smile in the comments below. I’d love to hear them!
I took the above picture of this mom and baby in a sling 5 years ago in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. As a former babywearing mom of 7 children (not wearing them all at once, mind you, but each one successively in turn as I am not a mother of septuplets), this young mom totally pulled on my heart strings. I wanted to strike up a conversation with her on types of babywearing, find out how old her baby was, whether or not she breastfeeds, and where she is from. I wanted to see if she attended LLL meetings. Not wanting to overwhelm her/frighten her with a stranger’s interest, I abstained and just admired her similar mothering style from afar.
I got to gaze at the wonders in this room, which just oozes stories from American history, almost 6 years ago, in May of 2019. That’s when I toured it with a group of homeschooling friends, on my National Treasure tour (a few posts about that here). It was fun to watch the inauguration proceedings yesterday and think, wow, I was in that very room 5 years ago.
That’s George Washington in the bottom of the picture. This painting covers the interior domed ceiling of the rotunda. It is titled “The Apotheosis of George Washington” which literally means George receiving exaltation/status of a god.
I just love that Pres. Trump’s inauguration ceremony took place in this room full of beautiful memories for me. It’s cool he took his oath of office to follow the Constitution as President of the U.S in a room with George Washington looking down on him from above, maybe from heaven too. At least it was symbolically with George’s painting on the inside of the domed ceiling above Trump’s head.
It’s like George was saying as he watched the ceremony, “OK Donald, be a good boy! You have endured multiple stressful, grueling legal proceedings, your life has been spared, the people have spoken, you got a second chance, now don’t blow this!” Hopefully Trump will learn from Washington’s triumphs and mistakes. I hope he does good stuff by getting us out of so many entangling alliances like George warned against and be modest like George was. Is that even possible? Or is that like asking a pig to sing? I hear he’s already taken us out of the WHO. So yay for that! He sure made a ton of promises in his inauguration speech, and I’m not sure all of them are Constitutional. I don’t care about the U.S. going to Mars, I just want the federal government getting OUT of things, including my personal health business.
OK, back to the Capitol interior. Everywhere you look in the rotunda, from the paintings on the walls, to the painting of the dome’s ceiling, to the friezes, you can see stories or at least figures from U.S. history, showing reverence for the past, mixed with hope for the future. These aren’t just ordinary stories.
The Baptism of Pocahontas
They are stories that sometimes involve God, including prayer meetings and a baptism. These stories sometimes involve victories. They sometimes involve exploration. Having the inauguration in this room calls attention to the points of America’s Christian Godly heritage and/or pivotal moments that we can all learn from and be enriched from. They help us to enlarge our memory to be a collective memory of faith-in-God people of our past.
The Signing of the Mayflower
Come along me with me to learn all about this! Just watch the video below with my favorite U.S. Christian historian, David Barton. These are little known insights into U.S. history. Did you know one of the paintings shows a Geneva Bible? Watch below. If you thought this room was just cool because it was in the movie National Treasure, you are in for a treat.
The room also has come statues of American historical figures, including George. The whole building has statues, 2 famous historical people from each state. Some of them are in the rotunda and the rest are in the rest of the building. especially Statuary Hall.
You can read more about the rotunda here too. Enjoy and I hope you get hooked on history, for it truly is “His Story,” meaning God’s story. Go watch National Treasure too! Truly, history is a treasure for all of us to learn from.
This is a such a fun story! I listen to Jared Halverson’s YouTube channel, called Unshaken, every week. It is helpful in helping me strengthening my commitment to following Jesus and his restored gospel as taught by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is for my Come Follow Christ scripture study. In the video down below Brother Halverson tells a story about Olive Osmond, mother of Donny and Marie Osmond. She’s shown in the photo above with her husband George.
The story is about how Mrs. Osmond gave a copy of the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ to Queen Elizabeth II, after her sons performed at a charity concert in London. Watch at the 1:02:46 mark to get the story.
Brother Halverson got the story from the book below, Saints Volume 4.
You can read it in Chapter 14, over here, on pages 233-235.
On the flight home to the U.S., Mrs. Osmond started wondering about the propriety of giving such a gift to the queen who is a member of the Church of England. She then decided to read her scriptures. As it says in the book shown above, “The pages fell open, and her eyes rested on Doctrine and Covenants 1:23: ‘That the fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers.’ The words comforted Olive. Her doubts fled, and she knew she had done the right thing.”
I have read Saints Volume 1 and started Volume 2 and never finished. I don’t think I ever touched Volume 3 although I did blog about it, and then forgot to follow through on that in the busyness of life. Now I have a rekindled desire to read the whole four volume series so I can read more wonderful stories like this. You can see and read the whole series here or in the Gospel Library app on your phone. I love that I can read it in bed with a dark background when I’m having trouble sleeping. I invite you to join me in reading all of it! It will fill your life with light and love. Perfect reading for the dark winter months!
If you want more about the Osmonds, watch below! My husband, for reals, was an extra in this made-for-TV movie. He was in the dance scene with young George and young Olive when they were courting.
My condolences to the Osmond family, in the recent passing of one of the Osmond brothers, Wayne. The funeral is below the movie. What a wonderful life of service and commitment to Jesus he lived as he shared the talents God gave him and his siblings!
Tree of Life Mothering 