Keeping Christmas Traditions Alive

This year's Christmas season won't be like any other Christmas season that I have ever experienced before. This will be the first Christmas that I will not be traveling home to spend this holiday season with my family, but instead will be spending the season in Idaho by myself. As I have accepted the fact that I will not be going home I have contemplated the things that I would like to do to bring the spirit of Christmas into this holiday season. My mind went immediately to what Christmas is all about - Christ. I began to think about Christ's birth, who Christ is, and the life that He led. From a young age til His resurrection Christ served and ministered unto others; He embodies charity. I decided that I want to fill and celebrate this holiday season by also giving service of sorts to others.

One of the things that came into mind of something that I would like to do also happens to be a Christmas tradition that my family has: ding-dong-ditching a plateful of homemade goodies. Each year as my family gathered together we'd each pick one goodie to make in order to create these Christmas goodie plates. After a lot of knocking elbows and bumping into each other as all six of us were crammed into the kitchen an array of Christmas goodie delights were created. The next fun part came when we each had an opportunity to sneak up to our neighbors or friend's front door, ring the door bell, and then run like there was no tomorrow, often having to jump into bushes, hide behind trees, and dive behind parked vehicles! If we got daring enough, we'd egg on our Christmas goodie victims to come out and chase us by throwing things as they looked into the darkness of the night with puzzled expressions on their face. Doing this alone will definitely not be the same, but the joy of this tradition and it's purpose will still be there and felt.

Not only is giving service this holiday season something that I want to do, but also keeping the Christmas traditions alive as much as I can that I grew up with in my family is a desire I have as well. Since my roommates will both be out of town, I am still trying to figure out who will secretly drug my egg nog Christmas Eve night with alka seltzer or benedryl and who will sneak into my room in the middle of the night to tie me up? I am wondering if Mrs. Clause will get the memo that I will be in Idaho this year and still swing by to drop off her Christmas Eve gift? And I hope that Santa enjoys the cookies and soymilk I'll leave out for him, along with some carrots for his reindeer.

The yearly tradition of making and decorating a gingerbread house is also a must on my list. Although I am not as skilled in constructing a gingerbread house as my mom is (SHE'S AMAZING!) I will not let this stop me from making one of my own and having the fun that accompanies this tradition. I have decided to make my gingerbread house this year into a log cabin because I have always loved log cabins and hope to live in one in the mountains some day.

Another tradition that I am looking forward to doing is my personal gift to Christ. As Christ gave his life for me, I want to give Him something. Each year I pick one thing specifically that I want to spend that year giving to Christ. I write this gift down, place it in a small box, wrap it, and put it under the tree. When the holiday season is over and all of the decorations get boxed up and stored away for another year, this wrapped gift to Christ is left out serving as a reminder to me throughout the next year of my gift to Him. The following Christmas season I open it and take some time to reflect and ponder upon this gift and what I did over the year to fully give that gift away to Him. I pray that my gift to Him this year, as I strive to do all that I can, will be fulfilled and completely given to Him.

With different acts of service and these fun traditions and many other meaningful ones, I hope that this holiday season is as enriching as in years past.

I am looking forward to having my very first white Christmas this year and also to have the new experience of sharing Christmas morning virtually with my family through web cams. The blessing of modern technology is allowing my family to spend Christmas morning together even though we're thousands of miles away from one another.

I wish everybody a wonderful Holiday Season this year and hope that you are filled with spirit of Christ and that lasting memories are created with you and your loved ones. And may this coming new year bring you the many blessings heaven has to offer. Merry Christmas and God bless!

Taken for Granted

Whether it's a quiet, full heart or an outward expression of some sort I think we all take time to feel the gratitude for the things in our lives during this holiday season. Over this past month I have taken many opportunities in my quiet moments to ponder upon the things in my life that I am grateful for. The list never seems to end for the blessings the Lord gives are continuous and eternal. My list of things are probably very similar to the things you would or have included on your own list: a loving and supportive family, true friends, truth, health, the basic necessities of life (clothing, food, shelter), a beautiful earth, etc., the list could go on and on.

An experience I have had and am still going through currently has slightly altered my way of thinking in regards to my perspective on the gratitude list I have been making in my head. Tuesday evening while having a pleasant conversation on the phone with a dear friend I began to feel sick. As the night continued on the feelings of sickness increased and the symptoms began to manifest themselves to a greater degree. Nausea set in and my stomach felt like bubbling swamp. Then with almost no warning at all the race to the bathroom commenced in an effort to beat the strike of the Double Dragon. With only seconds to spare I had successfully made it into the bathroom ready to face the fury of the Double Dragon. This wrath was fierce and the battle was long and weary.

I have had three prior experiences with the Double Dragon before, the first being manifested through the effects of giardia, the second from food poisoning, and third from a liver cleanse gone bad. Revisiting this a fourth time due to food poisoning (from one of two restaurants that will remain unnamed) gave me the opportunity to think back on my previous experiences. This most current experience beats out experience two and three hands down, but is quite comparable to experience one - giardia. The only difference between this experience and my episode with giardia is that I didn't have to dig a hole in the ground and I had the comfort of modern convienences at my fingertips.


So, a few of the things that I am grateful for that most of us take for granted include: a toilet, toilet paper, trash cans, never-before known comfortable bathroom floors, Pepsi (stomach settler), 'Rachel's Remidies (thanks M2/D2!), a true friend who stayed on the phone with me through the worst of the worst and who helped and comforted me, and two roommates and a brother who came to my aid in various ways.

And as I still suffer from the effects of food poisoning in various ways my list of gratitude for things that I have taken for granted in the past continues to grow and I find a lot more appreciation in the small, simple, and unrecognized things of life.

A Great Rejoicing

Through a series of miracles by the hand and grace of the Lord over the course of the last several months a great rejoicing of reunion was able to be orchestrated. One brother entered the MTC four months later than expected or desired. One brother was released from his three year long prison sentence a month early unexpectedly. And with a week and a half to spare, one sister, to no credit of her own, was inspired and guided to bring them together. Though the thwarting efforts of Satan were almost debilitating the Lord's power conquered through faith giving strength and ability for His will to be done and this reunion to occur.

By special request and permission the MTC President allowed Daniel and I to join Elder Gillmore at the MTC for his last Wednesday night TRC (Teaching Referal Center) meeting. Daniel and I arrived early at the MTC and with our Volunteer stickers on we made our way to the appropriate building in which we waited in great anticipation for Elder Gillmore. We were taken to the room, that was set up much like a living room, where our reunion would take place. Shortly after having a seat on the couch a number of missionaries began gathering in the doorway of the room, all of which were looking down the hallway indictating Elder Gillmore's arrival. His companion, Elder Turley stepped into view first, but turned and allowed Elder Gillmore to enter the room first.

Elder Gillmore & Daniel embracing for the first time in many years

The next hour was filled with tears of joy, powerful testimony of true doctrine and principles, and great expressions of love and forgiveness. It is an hour that none of us will ever forget.















Afterwards Elder Gillmore introduced Daniel and I to his district. Upon informing his district that he was about to introduce us to them all of the Elders in the classroom stood up as Daniel and I walked in. I felt the power these Elders have as they have joined the army of God to preach the truth throughout the world. It was very humbling.

The great and rare opportunity it was for Daniel and I to visit Elder Gillmore in the MTC was truly a miracle that the Lord mercifully blessed us with. An experience and blessing that will be forever imprinted on our hearts.

Vegetarian Style!

I was going to post about the Vegetarian Lasagna I made a couple weeks ago, but things got busy and I decided I wouldn't post about it. Then I read about a vegetarian dish my friend from middle-school, Amber, posted on her blog, which inspired me to post about my vegetarian lasagna dish I made.

I received a Vegetarian recipe book for Christmas from my parents last year. My best friend and I tried a few recipes out of it and loved the dishes! But in the events of life over the last several months this recipe book got shoved to the back of the bookshelf. Having the determination to again live a healthier lifestyle, starting with my diet, I pulled out my Vegetarian recipe book, dusted it off and made a list of all the things I wanted to try. Vegetarian Lasagna, or Lasagna Primavera as it is titled, was the first on my list.


This dish is very simple to make and it is absolutely delicious! Fresh out of the oven, my roommates and I dished ourselves a piece of Primavera Lasagna and none of us could get over how amazing the lasagna was! It was enjoyed for days to come as there was lots of it!

I've included the recipe under comments for your convenience. There are a few alterations and/or suggestions I gave, but are just personal preferences. I stuck pretty close to the recipe. I hope you take the opportunity to try this dish because it is one of those dishes that makes you feel like you've just tasted a bit of heaven. I also posted another vegetarian dish that I made this evening - California Black Bean Burgers, which was also surprisingly tasty! Bon appetite!

Dehydrated

You are probably rolling your eyes and thinking (as you move your mouse cursor over the x in the top right corner of the screen), "Another posting about being dehydrated...C'mon, we all know we need to DRINK MORE WATER!" Well, to your surprise this is a different kind of dehydration; a good kind of dehydration. Is that possible? Can you put "good" and "dehydration" in the same sentence? Almost sounds like an oxy-moron, but yes indeed, it can be good!

A few weeks ago my roommate, Krissy, told me about an industrial size food dehydrator that a friend of hers had. Soon thereafter she came home with a large bowl of dehydrated bananas. She was gracious enough to allow me to try a few of them. They were so delicious! I had a hard time resisting the urg to eat all of them. I was grateful when she put them in the freezer - out of sight, out of mind.

Being on a food storage and preparedness kick recently I decided that dehydrated food would be something that I would like to have in my food storage. So I put a dehydrator on my Christmas list and left it at that. But Krissy kept bringing home more dehydrated fruits and then bought 90 lbs. of peaches to dehydrate. Our conversations often revolved around the different things one could do with a food dehydrator. I couldn't resist my desire to start dehydrating my own fruits, nor the jealousy I had each time Krissy brought home more dehydrated fruits any longer. So after doing a little bit of research on the different types and qualities of dehydrators, I made my selection and purchased my own Excalibur 2400 4-tray Food Dehydrator.

After demonstrating much patience for the few days it took my dehydrator to arrive, I didn't waste any time to break it in when it came. I cut up all the fresh fruit that I had - bananas, strawberries, and pineapple and began the dehydration process. I again had to demonstrate a lot of patience as I waited for my fruit to dehydrate. It felt like it took forever for those little pieces to fully dehydrate, but the wait was well worth it! The results were amazing!

One concern that I had about dehydrating fruit was the loss of flavor that might occur through this process. I was surprised and very happy to discover that the fruit still burst with flavor!

Flipping through the little pamphlet that came with the dehydrator I came across a recipe to make fruit leather. It was so simple that I had to read it several times to make sure I was understanding it correctly. All you have to do is puree the desired fruit you want to make into fruit leather and then spread it out on a sheet, slip it into the dehydrator and in 5 or so hours - waalaa - you have fruit leather! No added sugar or anything. Pure fruit!

Dehydrated bananas (with cinnamon sprinkled on top),
strawberries, pineapple, and the fruit leather.

Gathering up what fruit I had left over - peaches, bananas, strawberries, and raspberries - I pureed it all together and put it in the dehydrator shortly before leaving for my Fire Fighting class last night. Only having to wait an hour or so after arriving home from class my fruit leather was done! I ripped off a good chunk and let my taste buds have a party! Nothing less than delicious!

My first batch of dehydrated fruit and the fruit leather was a success! It has been a fun learning experience and I've only touched the tip of the iceberg. I am excited to keep trying and making new and more things! The possibilities are endless!

Photo of the Day

Halloween Sunrise

Photo of: Grand Tetons
Date: October 31, 2008