Christmas Blessings

Starting just after Thanksgiving, the mission office begins looking like a mail room. Family and friends of the missionaries start sending in gifts for Christmas. Every day the mail comes, then our office secretary sorts them all to get to the missionaries the next day. Some days, the mail is packed so high, it's like walking through a corn maze at Halloween. A couple days this past week, the mailman (driving one of the big trucks) came by first thing in the morning with nothing but packages so he could make room for the rest of the mail. Those days, he usually stops by 3 times...not to mention the UPS and FedEx guys. (And yes, a few of those packages were for us-THANKS! We have soooo many yummy treats...maybe I need some bigger clothes for Christmas.)

Even with all those packages, there are still some missionaries that don't receive anything for one reason or another-especially those from foreign countries. This year, we had several people bring gifts to pass out to missionaries 'just in case' and some other good people who donated some money to buy gifts so none of the missionaries would be left out. So...yesterday, Jess, Taylor & Jacob (a returned missionary back to visit) went tie shopping while Amanda and I spent a good chunk of the day shopping for other things. Which meant today we spent a lot of time wrapping and sorting and making them special. Tomorrow, the packages will get delivered. I love Christmas time. We are blessed to be surrounded by so many with the spirit of Christmas!

*Hoping you feel the joy of

Christmas giving*

2 days to go!!!

***On a side note: I found a stack of about 100 Christmas cards that didn't get mailed two weeks ago with the rest of the batch. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Fortunately, no tears were shed and my tummy got a great work out. But, if you haven't heard from us yet, that's probably the reason. I raced and got to the post office today. Hopefully some of you will hear from us before the week is out. In the meantime, remember we love you all. Merry Christmas!

Happy Anniversary

We spent a great day on Saturday celebrating the beginning of our family. 19 years ago, we were married in the Salt Lake City temple for time and all eternity. It's hard to wrap my brain around how much our lives have changed since then, and almost inconcievable that I could be even more crazy about Mark now than I was then.

Way back when, I could only dream what life would be like. I certainly couldn't picture how life would be with 5 children, and now I can't seem to imagine it without them. We spent the morning with the whole family at the park feeding the ducks (and the pigeons, the kids invented a new game called 'bowling for pigeons') and eating bagels w/ cream cheese, mandarins and hot chocolate. (It works) Even Lucky tagged along-though it was hard to keep him from eating the bread we were feeding the birds. Next time, we'll remember to bring doggy treats.

When we got back, the assistants came over. They 'built us a cake'. A pineapple upside down cake, one of Elder Endemano's family traditions on anniversaries. (I couldn't figure out why Taylor was going in and out of the house at 6 in the morning-but apparently, it had something to do with the cake.) They also bought us some hunting ball caps with the scripture from Jeremiah 16:16 on them. Just after they left, Jacob Johnson (a returning missionary) surprised us with a visit (first Mark's birthday and now our anniversary. He's going to spoil us.) Jessica did a good job stalling us until all the visitor's arrived. I think she enjoys all the collaborating. It was fun to have some of our 'adopted' sons spend that time with us, too. (Wow, in a year and a half when we go home, we'll have 500 new 'sons & daughters')

Jessica had things well in hand, so we snuck off after that, and spent the bulk of the day together (no cell phones). It was great to hold hands and just meander around totally inconspicuous. We did a little shopping and went to dinner. So uneventful and so wonderful! It was fantastic to just be.

I love my life. When Elder Hafen spoke to the missionaries this last week, he said some things about the mentoring we were giving the missionaries; specifically about our marriage and our family. At the time, I thought he was being too generous, but yesterday I though again about what he said and about our 19 years together. We are so very blessed. Blessed to each come from strong homes; to have common desires and goals; to have opportunities that stretch us and help us grow closer together as a companionship; to both have strong & abiding testimonies of Jesus Christ; add the love and respect we have for each other and I cannot help but be grateful for the wonderful man with whom I'm lucky enough to share my life.

...and this is only the beginning.

Lights, Advents, Gingerbread & other Christmas traditions

I love Christmas traditions. Our family has a new one. Well, maybe not new, just altered. Christmas for me will never be the same. We've always enjoyed looking at Christmas lights. This year we started on Thanksgiving with a bike ride through streets behind our house finding all those who were quick to get their lights up. It was wonderful. (And a little scary, Jeffrey still doesn't quite understand the important dynamics between cards and bikes.) But our (almost) nightly trips to the Mesa temple grounds to see the lights are fantastic. We usually arrive before dark, before it's crowded, to meet with some of the missionaries. (*Jeffrey has been so funny in those meetings) We stroll the grounds just as dusk turns to inky night and the lights brighten in contrast.


There's a beautiful full sized Nativity. Another replica of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah writing about Jesus Christ stands next to Joseph leading the donkey with Mary on its back. All surround by thousands and thousands of lights scattered across the grounds leading up to the Temple. I love being there before the crowds come, but I also love seeing the busy sidewalks of people crowding around the displays and listening to the narrations...and especially watching the missionaries talking to people-sharing their powerful testimonies of Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world.

Every carol, and every Christmas scripture has such a powerful missionary theme. After reading Luke 2, I felt so blessed for this opportunity to be like shepherds...after they learned of Christ, they sought after him and then went abroad to tell everyone about their experience. What a wonderful way to spend Christmas-Helping people find Jesus Christ.

All roads may lead to Rome, but only through Christ can we hope to find the path back to our Father in Heaven.

Learning more about Jesus Christ and His gospel, understanding why we need a Savior, blesses every aspect of my life especially in regards to my family. Everyday, we are work on being a stronger family and helping each other. The Monday after Thanksgiving, we build gingerbread houses and turn them into a village.

I started the first year we moved to California, and while the tradition has had its off years, it's something I hope the kids will always remember. As part of this special family night, we talk about how we can build a stronger home life for our family. Great families just don't happen. It takes people working together and consciously striving for it.

Jeff's master piece (with mom's artistic direction)

by Amanda

total group effort

I love Christmas stars!

(Somebody always wants mess things up!)

We also discuss the gift that God gave us in His Son that allows our family to be together forever. We have a little manager (this year, just a basket), that is empty. I buy straw to put in the basket, one piece at a time for each kind thing a member of the family does for someone else. On Christmas Eve, we plan to lay a baby doll in a manger filled with soft straw. The goal isn't just to have a full basket (no shoving someone out of the way to race and put a straw in the basket!), but to have softer hearts more kindly disposed to the ones we love most. Patiently, we wait for Christmas. We have all kinds of different advent calendars. This year, Grandma Brasher sent boxes with a special treat for each day. We also have a cute sticker Nativity that Jeffrey and Dad have been working on. My favorite, is a book that relates the history of the advent. It's titled, Waiting for Christmas. Some years, part of our nativity includes only putting out selected pieces of the Nativity sets we have. For example, first we set out all the Mary figurines...and how we can learn from her story; then Joseph, the creche & making room for Christ, the Shepherds in receiving and sharing the good news, the angels (I wonder where we were that day!), and then the baby Jesus on Christmas Eve. (The wise men come on New Year's when we talk about looking for him each day of the New Year. They're my favorite.)

So many things that make Christmas wonderful.....

* Jeffrey in the meetings-I'll have to explain that another day

Time to catch up before this memory is too old!

We had a fun trip to Gelato Spot in November while my parents were here. While we were all tasting the different kinds of gelato, 4 firemen walked into the store. Jeffrey was so excited. Loud enough so that they could hear, he called out for me to look at them. Then he walked up to one of them and said thanks for being a fireman and a hero and asked him for his autograph. The fireman thought that was great, grandma dug a pen and notepad out of her purse and the fireman obliged. Then he invited Jeffrey for a private tour of the new fire department that weekend.
Jeffrey wanted to make a treat for the firemen; he insisted on making congo bars.

Saturday morning, our kitchen smelled great-but this time instead of me telling the kids they couldn't have any because it was for someone else, it was Jeff telling me that I wasn't allowed-these were for his fireman.

For the past several years he's wanted to be "a fireman-doctor-astronaut". Don't ask me how those 3 all fit together-I'd hate to think of a fire in space. He's held onto that dream for a few years now, and I think this has kindled the flame. Jeffrey was almost a fireman for Halloween-but ended up with the SWAT costume (he liked the pretend walkie talkie, handcuffs, & sunglasses). Now I'm wishing he'd chosen that costume! After this, he asked me if we could go back and get it, but it was long gone. Maybe next year...

What a great day!

We have a new cousin. The kids are so excited. Hopefully we can update this post soon with a picture and a NAME!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

*And now we have the rest of the story.*

Matt, Jamie, & Hayden welcomed Jacob Eugene to their home. We all wish we could see them, but know that will have to wait. Matt did promise to visit soon! Until then, Jessica will be flying down after all the grandmas leave to give some extra love and help. She'd better check her suitcase to make sure there are no stow-a-ways!

more pictures at haydenspace.blogspot.com

Leftovers

It would have been blissful to have our entire extended family with us for Thanksgiving, but since that was practical or possible-we're trying to look on the bright side of things. At the top of that list...all the leftovers stayed at our house! And leftovers...that's half the fun of Thanksgiving!

The elders stopped by for a quick visit before their nightly planning sessions, so we emptied the refrigerator and let them fill up one last time.

It was great to see all of them, even Elder Mace-one of our newer missionaries, settle right in with the family. They didn't stay long, but they didn't go home hungry either....and we still have more than 5 pies left to eat!

Happy Thanksgiving

There's nothing better than being together with your family for Thanksgiving...and this year, we were all together.


It was such a perfect day, and it started out exactly right; cool and cloudy with light showers. Turkey football players all over the valley (especially missionaries) had so much fun playing in the mud. For us, it felt like a taste of home-true fall weather. We were favored with bursts of sunshine and warmth between that wonderful rain through the rest of the day. Taylor got up really early to exercise with the missionaries (they've been doing that around 5:00), but afterwords felt too sick to go play football. He stayed sick the rest of the day and was our only Thanksgiving causality. I think there's a picture of him laying on the couch in a blanket watching all of us eat and play games. He didn't feel well enough to participate, but he didn't want to stay in his room and miss out on the fun.

We had Elder Marquardt and Elder Endemano join us for Thanksgiving dinner at 1:00 (Have to leave plenty of time in the day for left overs!). It was our first Thanksgiving without any extended family, and the first Thanksgiving dinner we made completely by ourselves. (In 19 years, our first! Can you believe that? It helped us realize how truly blessed we are to have always been surrounded with family and loved ones.) Despite our small crowd (9), we pulled out all the stops and making all our traditional family favorites; dressing (not stuffing), sweet potatoes, stuffed mushrooms, true southern greens, rolls (Amanda is getting to be a pro), and then we tried a few twists with the turkey and mashed potatoes. I made the turkey in the pressure cooker (90 minutes, and it was great-even the white meat was tender and juicy) and garlic mashed potatoes. The gravy was great-but the potatoes were so good on their own, I hardly touched it. We made all kinds of pies and cakes, and then bought some others just for good measure. We had so much food! After we ate, we'd hardly made a dent in anything. (The elders were pretty happy about that...they're our kind of people. They love left overs.)

We took some time the rest of the day to relax with the family. It was so different than last year with all the kids visiting in California, we really appreciated having everyone home. We had such a great time, it made up for missing our friends and family all over the country. Elder Marquardt introduced us a new card game called Cowboys and Indians. Of course we played Nertz and spoons...and a few others, but we also had fun with some groups games we haven't played in a long time. We played the brown paper bag game and found out just how flexible Elder Marquardt is (go yoga!), and...so that we have a gospel principle involved, we saw the opposition in all things in his companion-Elder Endemano. Ha! Unfortunately, Elder Endemano wasn't the only person straining to reach their face to their toes without falling down flat (Ouch-it hurt). Jessica and Elder Marquardt ended up with a draw-both able to pick up the bag even when it had been whittled down to a wisp of paper. We also intrigued the kids with body mechanic phenomenons and had some strength contests. It was a lot of fun.

After the elders left (and came back for left overs and left again), we ended the evening with a twilight bike ride. The sky darkened, the moon was hidden, but the sky remained rain free-perfect for us to appreciate the first taste of Christmas lights around the neighborhood. (Thanks dad, for getting our lights up!)

It really was a perfect day: being with the people we love most and enjoying it, talking together about our blessings and why we are grateful, and in all this understanding and acknowledge God's hand in our lives for which we are forever grateful.

"Now my Brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in, yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen." Alma 36:27

Happy Birthday Amanda! We love you.

Amanda is a teenager!!! That hardly seems possible. I still remember the Thanksgiving not so long ago when G'ma Dot & G'pa Gene came to the Lemon Street house and the picture I took of Grandpa's big hand holding her tiny little fingers. And now, she's grown-up! We had a great week-end celebrating her birthday. The Brasher Grandparents came into town. We still have to get some pictures from Grandma's camera...but here are a few that we do have. Not yet pictured was our Saturday trip to BJ's for pizzookies, being welcomed and spoiled at church on Sunday, and all the attempts at birthday spankings. OK, she managed to duck the gun on the spankings-don't ask me how.

Jeff gave her his special treasure box, and put some candy corns in it. It was a very sweet moment. Later he decided they should share the treasure box and he would keep it until she needed it. And then... much later I think the candy corns some how ended up eaten. Somehow.

Yes, there's a candle in her rootbeer float. She opted for no cake this year (bless her heart!), so we put the candle in the float. One problem, as we started to pour in the rootbeer, the candle started to teeter. We had to sing "Happy Birthday" a little quicker than usually so she could blow out the candle before it toppled over. I don't even know if she had time for a wish.

And to finish the evening..some friendly...not too competitive games including chess, scrabble, & nertz (pictured below). Happy Birthday Amanda!

Camping, yeah!

I love gathering pine cones, watching the stars, and the smell of pine trees mingled with camp fires, especially when it's cold outside. So, since the kids were out of school today, we took advantage and went on a little camping trip last night.......right in our own backyard. (At least, the kids did-mark and I had to be up too early to get ready for meetings. No sleeping on rock floors for us, darn.) I was surprised by how excited they were. They had so much fun. They helped Mark set up the tent, gathered all their supplies, scoured the backyard for kindling and fire starting supplies then had a campfire; everything they needed right there at their fingertips. The flashlights and stories were going all night long. I think they'd set up permanent bedrooms out there if we let them...and since they were so diligent about cleaning everything up in the morning, I'm sure it will happen again, soon.

Goodbye...Hello

It always seems a little backwards on Tuesday mornings when we hug missionaries good-bye and turn around to greet the new ones, but we've decided this is a good thing. First, catch a glimpse of the future; this gives us hope. Second, we don't have time to become too sad for the those that are leaving, because we're so happy to finally put smiles and voices with names and faces of the new missionaries. Third, before we know it, our RM's are calling, texting, emailing....and visiting! And here they are...

the old...

...and the new...