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!
Wow! I so enjoyed this interview with Dr. Barbara Morgan Gardner, shown below, with Stephen Jones of the Let’s Get Real With Stephen Jones YouTube channel. She makes so many amazing points. I actually got to meet her in person and talk with her for a good 15 minutes or so last spring. She is so friendly and genuine, I wish I could talk to her every day. She has so many insights for friends and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I love how she talks about how her parents were so determined to make their home a happy, gospel-centered home, despite the challenges. Her father’s mother died by suicide when he was 14, and her father’s father was not a happy man, understandably. Her parents eloped to marry in the temple. They raised a happy family of 13 children with little money but a lot of love. She also talks about how she was a single woman until her 40s. People would tell her things such as, “Oh you don’t have ‘the priesthood’ in your home,” because she wasn’t married. They mistakenly thought that men = priesthood. She knew better. Men don’t equal the priesthood. True, righteous men can and are bearers of the priesthood power, ordained to offices with keys to authorize use of the priesthood power. See this talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks here. It’s also true, as she points out, that women also have priesthood power as they make and keep sacred covenants. As she says, “Every woman and every man who makes covenants with God and keeps those covenants has direct access to the power of God. It’s not about competition between the men and the women and it’s also not about our rights, it’s about our responsibility.”
Watch the video above and get the book below. All so good!
Want even more of Dr. Gardner?
She has a BYU devotional speech below, a YouTube channel/podcast here, and a website here. Enjoy!
This year of 2025 the theme of study for my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is church history/the Pearl of Great Price/the Doctrine and Covenants. We get to focus on the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in these latter-days through the prophet Joseph Smith. Here is the 2025 manual for our study.
I was thinking last Sunday about how grateful I am for Joseph Smith’s courage in praying to God, asking if he was forgiven of his sins, and what church to join. That act led to the appearance of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ to Joseph, in the spring of 1820. It also led to the restoration of Christ’s gospel to the earth!
On the day before Christmas Eve, what some call the day of Christmas Adam (because Adam came before Eve), we held our Joseph Smith Birthday Party. I’ve done this for a few years now such that it has become a family tradition. Joseph was born on December 23, 1805. To celebrate his New England heritage, we had clam chowder, made by my son-in-law. Joseph’s mother sold root beer and gingerbread so we had homemade root beer (also made by my son-in-law) and gingerbread ice cream. Specifically the ginger bell rock ice cream from the BYU Creamery. (Normally I would make it but somedays I just sacrifice having high fructose corn syrup in my food and buy it, to save time. I just had a tablespoon, as it was not low-carb.)
My son-in-law has cool vessels for his homemade beverages, like his root beer!
So Joseph was on my mind as well as Christ, the week of Christmas, as we celebrated both their birthdays, two days apart. As a family we talked about Joseph’s testimony during our birthday party dinner. My 20 year old son said that he was convinced of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ partly because of Joseph Smith’s example with his sealing his testimony in his blood. He would not have given his life for a lie, as my son said in our discussion.
Here is a wonderful video by my husband’s cousin, Lynne Hilton Wilson, sharing the background of Joseph Smith. She is very knowledgeable! She has a PhD in religion. Plus, she’s a mother so that means more in my book, because she is full of mother wisdom.
Anyway, she talks about members of Joseph Smith’s family tree as well as what was going in Vermont when he was born, and New York when he was a young man and living there. This is all so fascinating! I agree with Lynne that I want
So many early Americans in the New England states were hungering for religious freedom. Quakers, Jews, Calvinists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Anglicans, Dutch Reformed, Catholics, and more. With this milieu of faith, what were the religious overtones at the time? Cousin Lynne uses the acronym TULIP to explain what many of these people believed. See below.
I am so fascinated by all of this because so many of my ancestors came from this early American religious environment. Same with my husband. (His grandmother’s grandfather, Jesse Nathaniel Smith, was a first cousin to Joseph Smith but that’s another post for another day.)
At my church, I play the piano for the children’s singing. Last Sunday, when church services were over, and I was about to leave the room, one of the other adults there reached out to me. She said that she had just found out that we are cousins! She had been to BYU’s Relative Finder website and saw that we are third cousins once removed, descended from Abraham Daniel Washburn. That spurred an interest in me to come home and learn more about him. I remembered his name, but the only thing I knew about him when she mentioned his name was that I’m descended from him through my father. So, I looked him up in FamilySearch.org and discovered that he lived in the Hudson River Valley of New York! So cool!
It’s interesting to note from what we see in Cousin Lynne’s video, that all of the early universities of America came from divinity schools to teach people to teach religion.
A few years ago, I read aloud a picture book to my son about the Hudson River Valley for Morning Basket time. I became fascinated by this place. It just sounds so lovely and picturesque. I had no idea my fourth great grandfather lived there! He was a Quaker, born in 1805 in the Hudson River Valley. He heard the gospel preached by Parley P. Pratt, a missionary who knew Joseph Smith, in 1836 and joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with his wife Tamar. He said that this restored gospel was like a light in the darkness for him.
Yes! The restored gospel of Jesus Christ continues to be a light in the darkness for his descendants, including me. I’m so grateful to know that the atonement of Christ is available to all. It is not limited, like these early religious Americans believed. See the “L” in the TULIP a few pictures above. Joseph Smith’s ancestors were among the people who started to see that the beliefs summarized by the TULIP acronym were incorrect, including Solomon Mack, Joseph’s maternal grandfather. Watch the video to learn all about this.
Here is another great video for your Come, Follow Christ study this week by one of another of my favorite presenters, Jared Halverson. Happy studying! Learning of this early religious environment and Joseph’s background really helps me see just how marvelous the revelations of Joseph Smith were.
We had a lovely Christmas. I want to share a debrief about it sometime soon. It will probably be a combination with my Things that Made Me Smile for December.
In the meantime, I’m going to share two things that make me smile about January. First is the fact that January, with its cold weather, gives us the reason to wear sweaters. That’s nothing new, I know, LOL. Many/most people start wearing sweaters in September of October or so if they live in the northern hemisphere. Of course, they’ve been doing this for ages.
I never really homed in on this idea, however, for all my years as a mom when all my seven children were at home. Like, it totally escaped me to amplify this idea and have fun with it. I wish I had, when all the kiddos lived at home. It would have been fun as I lived within 5 minutes driving distance from three thrift stores. It would have been fun to go thrifting looking for cardigans, especially with my older daughter, when she was a teen, as she loves fashion and beauty. We have fun today thrifting together but it’s just harder to get together as she is married and has two active little boys.
Oh well, I can’t change the past. I guess it was when I learned about hygge (go here to learn about that), about 6 years ago, that I started my “thrifted cardigan sweater artistry” for brightening up winter. It has made my fall, but more especially, my January/winters more exciting. I have a LOT of fun finding sweaters, especially cardigan sweaters, at thrift stores, then coming up with colorful combinations with tops. See all these examples. More will be coming!
The other thing about January is that I call it Reading Aloud Books/Book Lovers’ Month. I first got this idea years ago from fellow homeschooling mom Shauna Bird Dunn, who said that every January she reads Jim Trelease’s book, The Read Aloud Revival. It renews her determination to read aloud to her children. When I heard that, I realized, yeah, that’s such a great idea. What better month to focus on reading aloud than in January when there’s more darkness and cold? More on the books I’m reading this month in a future post. If you want more information about reading aloud, go here.
I’m sharing all these pictures of my sweater combinations to inspire you to have fun and find your own sweater combinations for warmth and comfort this January! Have fun finding sweaters, with digging through your closet, asking friends or family for cast-offs, buying used at thrift stores or online, or, buying brand new! Happy Hygge January with sweaters, books, and cocoa!
Did all the Nephites die off? Or did some of the Nephites escape to Europe or elsewhere? Are the Goths named after Hagoth of the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Christ? Could Christopher Columbus be a descendant of the Nephites? This is all so interesting!!! How does Tolkien fit into this with his Elvin race?
Watch these videos to learn more.
The one above is new, just published today. The guys in the video talk about Hagoth, the Elbus River, Tolkien’s elves, the Magna Carta, and the Puritans. Could the Nephites be the ancestors of the Germanic people, which are ancestors of the English? Hmmm…
Then these are older videos, from Hannah Stoddard of The Joseph Smith Foundation. The first is a trailer of the documentary she did with her father. Then the videos below that show her explaining some of her ideas.
Tree of Life Mothering 