Bishop's message

I normally do not post about church stuff, but our bishop's message today was good. The points I really enjoyed (aka: hit home and made me cry):

1. From the Church News: "Acknowledge God": "Gratitude is recognizing that we are nothing without God and others. Joseph Smith taught that "the greatest temporal and spiritual blessings which always come from faithfulness and concerted effort, never attended individual exertion or enterprise" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 183). The sum of who we are and what we have become is not a result of our individual effort alone but rather must include the countless efforts given by God and others in our behalf."

2. A story from President Eyring: "When President Henry B. Eyring's children were very small, he started to write down a few things about what happened each day.
"Let me tell you how that got started," he said during the October 2007 general conference. "I came home late from a Church assignment. It was after dark. My father-in-law, who lived near us, surprised me as I walked toward the front door of my house.... I knew that he had been building a system to pump water from a stream below us up to our property.
"He smiled, spoke softly, and then rushed past me into the darkness to go on with his work. I took a few steps toward the house ... and just as I got to the door, I heard in my mind — not in my own voice — these words: 'I'm not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down.'
"I went inside. I didn't go to bed. Although I was tired, I took out some paper and began to write. And as I did, I understood the message I had heard in my mind. I was supposed to record for my children to read, someday in the future, how I had seen the hand of God blessing our family. Grandpa didn't have to do what he was doing for us. He could have had someone else do it or not have done it at all. But he was serving us, his family, in the way covenant disciples of Jesus Christ always do. I knew that was true. And so I wrote it down."
President Eyring, second counselor in the First Presidency, said he wrote down a few lines every day for years. "Before I would write, I would ponder this question: 'Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?' As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done.
"More than gratitude began to grow in my heart. Testimony grew. I became ever more certain that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. I felt more gratitude for the softening and refining that come because of the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ.""

I am especially greatful for the gospel in my life. I love this time of year that we get to reflect about the birth of our Savior, and especially his Atonement. I love that we can share our thoughts with each other to strengthen each other. I am especially greatful for family and our ability to be together forever, if we strive to do what's right.

Bonsai

Last night for dinner, we went to Bonsai - a Japanese Steakhouse. We had a great time, except for the fire. Austin wanted to run away everytime the chef at any table lit a fire, and Rachel was just plain scared. (Case in point:

We had a great dinner, and we think we have started a new family Christmas dinner tradition.


Austin says, "Don't worry mom, he's a professional!"

Mitchell

Mitchell was just telling me he never gets any e-mails. I told him it is probably because no one knows his e-mail address. If you want to chat with Mitchell, or send him an e-mail you can send it to mittsend@gmail.com.

Austin's handiwork

Austin came home today from kindergarten with this little production. He was very proud of his handiwork and we wanted to show our friends and family his accomplishment.

Have a Merry Little (America) Christmas

The adults in the Black family have two traditions around Christmas. One, we usually go out to a nice dinner somewhere, and two, we go downtown to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. This year, thanks to the generosity of Randy and Jan, we combined the two. We stayed overnight at the Little America and went to dinner (twice) at the coffee shop before and after the performance, and then went to the spectacular brunch the next morning. If people generally gain 7-10 pounds over the holidays, I think we all got at least half of it during that meal--YUMMY!!!.

Just because

Mitchell makes this face all the time, but he begged and pleaded for us not to post the picture. So..... That is why you all get a chance to view it.

More fun Christmas time things

We took some time to make our family gingerbread house— thank you Costco for making a kit that even we can use. Also, thank you Aunt Megan for the pillowcases. Our kids insist on sleeping with them all the time. Here they are showing them off with some cool puppets they got from Grandpa and Grandma's sleepover time.

The best time of year

Shawn and Chelsea

I need to make a correction to a previous post. Shawn and Chelsea were married in 2000, but to me it just seems like a couple years ago.
Shawn called me today on his way home from work. He said he commutes 110 miles each way to work, so he gets a lot of "reading" done in the form of books on tape. (a great invention, for sure) He and Chelsea are expecting their second girl on December 19th! Congratulations!! We talked for an hour, and it was great to catch up with him. I may have even convinced him to start a blog! I love to see pictures, so hopefully he will soon!!!
We hope to be able to visit them sometime next year!

"So You Think You Can Dance"

Mike and I started our little weekend getaway to Reno yesterday. We LOVED watching "So You Think You Can Dance", so we decided that we would love to go to the tour. The closest place they were coming was Reno, so we purchased tickets (Mike's comment was: I'm SO gay!) and got a hotel room. We left our house at about 8:30 am on Friday, and arrived here in Reno at about 3:30 pm. We drove downtown to find the Reno Events Center, so we would know where to go, and then went to eat at Ruby River. Then when we came back, the parking was AWFUL, so we waited in traffic for 45 minutes while about a thousand cars cut in front of us to make the worst traffic jam in history. We saw all of the coolest dances, and had a great time!!