Christmas with the Camerons

We had a wonderful Christmas week with the Camerons. We picked them up at the airport in Vegas on Thursday, the 16th. We headed right to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner. Caleb loved the lights.

It was fun to have the Camerons there for my Keynote concert on Sunday night. Shonna even played the flute for us on one number. (And she played the flute in our ward Christmas program on three numbers)

Monday night was the annual Hinton Family Party. Sophee danced on the tables,

And many participated in Don and Ada's fun song/skit:

Sophee, Mindy, Logan, Spencer, Tiffani, Melanie, Samuel, and Rick

During the week, we made cookies,

Saw the pretty lights,

Played duets on the piano,

Did Marbleworks (everyone's favorite childhood activity),

And played LOTS of games.

It was so fun to play with Caleb and get to know him.

He loved the tree

And could often be found underneath it.

Who me?

Caleb LOVES to kick against surfaces. You always know where Caleb is as he finds something to kick against and just goes to town. The closet door,

The oven,

The fridge. He loves the different sounds each surface makes. You'd think it would hurt his little feet, but it doesn't seem to bother him.

On Thursday evening, we had the Cardons here for the evening from Las Vegas. It was so fun to see them and their cute kids, enjoy a meal together and reunite Shonna and Sara who I always said were joined at the hip.

Christmas eve, we enjoyed Chicken ala King (Chicken for a King)

Over crowns.

Even the glorious sunset celebrated the birthday of a King.

After dinner, we enjoyed our Christmas eve program about the birth of the Savior.

Christmas morning, we had our traditional Crown of Bread

And had fun opening presents. Especially this one!

We skyped with Michelle and Brian in the morning and Kristen and Jared in the evening. It was fun to watch Gabbi open the presents we sent her.

The lamb says, "BAAA!"

That's hilarious!

Peek a Boo!

A grandkid picture for his office

Santa (and my husband and kids) spoiled me. This was such a sweet gift. Ken had the cameo I bought in Rome when I was sixteen years old and was broken repaired for me. I am thrilled to have my treasured ring back.

Caleb mostly liked the tags

Strings, and wrapping paper.

We enjoyed our traditional lamb Christmas dinner on my new fiesta ware!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a box of wrapping paper!!!!

The Flood

You may have heard about our recent flooding. Our desert isn't used to a week straight of rain and it filled the river and washes, and one of the dams even threatened to give way. Some people down river lost their homes to the flood waters. It was raging. Here are some pictures and a video:

This is usually just a small little stream.

The Shepherd's Song

The Shepherd's Song by Larry Barkdull My rating: 3 of 5 stars I was given this sweet book as a Christmas gift from a friend and read it on Christmas eve and Christmas day. It helped me to focus on the true meaning of Christmas and increased my understanding of the culture at the time of Jesus' birth. View all my reviews

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens My rating: 4 of 5 stars I have seen movies and the play several times, but had never read this classic. I decided I wanted to make it part of my Christmas preparations this year. Though I knew the story, I loved reading it. It is so well written. One of the most poignant moments in the story is when Scrooge sees his former fiancee and she breaks up with him because he's come to love money more than her. It's really heart wrenching. It's a great Christmas read and really doesn't take too long. I think it's a powerful testimony of the importance of analyzing what path we're on and making changes in our lives to get us where we really want to go. View all my reviews

Whew, Whew, and Whew!

Voice Student Christmas Program- Check Ward Christmas Sacrament Meeting Program- Check Keynote Concert - Check Whew! Whew! and Whew! It's nice to relax now and enjoy the Christmas season with Shonna's family. We all have colds and coughs, though. This is a picture-less post because my camera is still broken and I have NO space left on my hard drive to download any more pictures. So though Shonna took pictures on their camera of the Keynote concert, I can't show them. Blake is working on that problem. It's nice to have an in house computer expert. We've had rain in these parts for a solid week. Our desert isn't used to that and we're on flood alert. Again, we took pictures, but I'll have to post those after Blake installs a new hard drive. We hope everyone has a wonderful and very Merry Christmas!

Words of a Prophet

In the last conference, President Monson asked us to “do” several things. These are not just nice suggestions, but as Elder Costa put it in his talk “Obedience to the Prophets”- these are “prophetic priorities.” “give heed unto all his words and commandments” we are told in D&C 21:4. President Monson gave five talks. Here is my semi-annual post on what the prophet asked us to do in conference:

October, 2010

Saturday Morning

Every worthy, able young man should serve a mission

I admonish you to prepare for service as a missionary

1. Keep yourselves clean and pure and worthy to represent the Lord

2. Maintain your health and strength

3. Study the scriptures

4. Participate in Seminary and Institute

5. Familiarize yourself with Preach My Gospel

Mature couples serve missions; All couples prepare to serve as couple missionaries.

Priesthood Session

I plead with you to make a determination right here, right now, not to deviate from the path which will lead to our goal: eternal life.

I plead with you to correct your mistakes

Sunday Morning Session

Give thanks for the blessings we receive

Refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude.

Reflect our gratitude for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

Sunday Afternoon

Take time to read the conference talks

Endure to the end

Call upon the Lord in prayer

Study His Words

Obey His Commandments

Increase in kindness toward one another

Ever be found doing the work of the Lord

Women’s Meeting

Judge not

Rather than being judgmental and critical of each other, may we have the pure love of Christ for our fellow travelers in this journey through life.

tuesdays with Morrie

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom My rating: 5 of 5 stars "The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in." This is one of the many profound quotes found in this book. Morrie was a college professor who develops Lou Gehrig's disease. Mitch (the author) was his student years ago. They reconnect after Mitch sees Morrie on Nightline with Ted Koppel. Mitch flies every week- on Tuesdays- to visit Morrie, to learn from him again as his student. Each Tuesday, Mitch brings deli foods and Morrie brings wisdom. They discuss everything from money to marriage, death and forgiveness, and mostly love. Mitch records their sessions and they become this book. Sometimes we finish a book and say, "That was a good book." And then we move on with life and to reading the next book. But this book is different. Morrie makes you want to BE better and DO better; to focus more on people, on teaching, on simple pleasures, on relationships and love, and less on things, duties, money, obligations and stuff. He makes you want to change your life. Now that's a REALLY good book. View all my reviews

A Tale of Two Cameras

When we were in Ohio last May, I ruined our very nice camera. I left it on Shonna's table, face down, next to my glass of ice water. I learned the very hard way that water condenses on the outside of a glass A LOT in Ohio. It formed a nice pool of water that the camera was sitting in. After that, the pictures were blurry and watery looking. Here's a picture of my birthday flowers on the Water Camera:

So when we got home, I bought a new camera. We took that with us to Virginia in June, but we didn't like it, so we traded up for a much nicer one when we got home. We were just starting to learn how to get some really nice pictures on it. Until Friday. We had our first Keynote performances at two rest homes on Friday morning. I had all the stuff in my arms and had the camera to take a publicity picture after. As I was loading the car, I dropped the camera. It was in it's padded case, so I didn't even give it a second thought. After the performance, I got everyone set up for the picture and grabbed a poor unsuspecting fellow to take them for us. He took two, then said,"the screen turned all white." His face was as white as that darned screen. We fiddled with it, but we couldn't get it to change. So that's how many shots we got of us. The camera is broken. It will work sometimes, but most of the time it just is white. Ahhh. I had to go to Costco after the performance. the whole way out there I was fiddling with the camera and willing it to work(I'm sure that's worse than texting while driving!) I was so upset. After Costco, I continued to fiddle. Only about half the time would it turn on. AAAAAHHH!!! I was so sad and depressed all day. I was so scared to tell Ken that I'd broken yet ANOTHER camera. I even prayed mightily for Heavenly Father to fix it. He didn't. I knew He could, but He didn't. I asked why not? What would it hurt to have a fixed camera? What good could possibly come of a broken one? Still, no luck. When Ken got home, I was so sad and scared that I burst into tears. I told him the story. As I was wailing, "I've broken TWO expensive cameras in one year." His reaction is a treasure in my heart for the rest of my life. He just laughed, hugged and kissed me, and said, "Well, you'ved developed a new talent this year." That made me cry even harder. So, we have only half a camera (I can get it to work about half the time), but I love my husband double. And THAT"S a very good reason for Heavenly Father not to fix the camera.

Ken didn't even remember it, but it reminded me of a similar camera story from a few years ago. We were in Hawaii with my siblings. We went to a wonderful beach. My brother, John had a new camera. First, he was shooting pictures of the water and beach, then he put it in his pocket, and bounded out to play in the surf. He was leaping over waves and having a great time when the camera flew from his pocket, into the water. We searched (though now I know from my Ohio experience, it would have been ruined even if we had found it,) but couldn't find it. Poor John was so sad. His wife, Cindy's reaction also will stay in my heart forever. She told him that one of things she has always loved about him is his boyish exuberance (leaping over waves) and that was a lot more important to her than a $300 camera. So, there you have it. Two camera stories that are sad, but also very happy. Merry Christmas!

First Fiesta Fiasco

I love, love, love my fiestaware dishes. I got them for Christmas four or five years ago and I have just loved them. Don't tell anyone, but sometimes, I open my cupboard just to look at them. The bright colors make me happy. An added bonus is that they are extremely sturdy (but there is no lead in them.) We have not even had a chip in any piece . . . until last night. Ken was loading the dishwasher, and dropped one. It's our first casualty. I'd say that's pretty darn good. . . and with Christmas coming, this MAY be an excuse . . .

At this rate, it's going to take a really long time to collect enough broken pieces to create this fiesta tabletop . ..

Or even this fiesta mirror frame.

Hold Down the Fort

As Kristen, Shonna, Ken and I were leaving to go shopping, Brielle was feeling sad because she wanted to go. I told her if she would stay and hold down the fort, we'd do a special girl project when we got home. She asked, "Okay, but what's a fort?" She was very willing to hold it down if I would just tell her what it is. It got me thinking about that expression and how very much our homes are like forts and how much they need to be held down. We build them and secure them, then in physical and spiritual ways keep everything bad out. My children used to build magnificent blanket forts and were very picky about who could come in. I remember one night even sleeping under their ping pong table fort. We felt happy and secure as we cuddled in there. President Spencer W. Kimball, in April conference, 1979 gave us the key to keeping our homes safe and secure:

"If we would escape those deadly thrusts of the evil one and keep our homes and families free and solidly fortified against all destructive influences so rampant about us, we must have the help of the very founder and organizer of this family plan—the Creator himself. There is only one sure way and that is through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and being obedient to its profound and inspired teachings. Surely we must be made to realize that the purchase price of a family hearth free of such evil influences is the keeping of the commandments of God."

That sounds easy enough. So, hold down the fort, people, hold down the fort!