12 Days of Christmas Days 5-9

On the Fifth Day of Christmas, I bring to you with love...

Fun and Culture to the Table!

Friday night we invited our friends over for pizza, dreidel and dreidel racing. Each attendee was given a dreidel to decorate so they could identify their entry into the games. First we ate and dined and laughed about our Christmas times together. Then we began the dreidel racing games. Everyone had decorated their dreidels so nicely, until Shayne brought out his dreidel of death. He painted it black and drilled holes into it so he could have nails sticking out the sides.

Our dreidel racing winner was Brian!!

Next we played the real dreidel game. Dreidel is a Jewish children's game that is played during Hanukkah. The driedel has four sides and a symbol on each side. You spin the dreidel and whatever side lands up, you either do nothing, take half the pot of chocolate coins, take the full pot of chocolate coins, or throw a coin into the pot.

The dominate player of this game was none other than...

Miss Shae!

We had so much fun playing dreidel and having friends over for dinner. After the games we sat down and watch the edited version of Christmas Vacation. By far one of my favorite nights of the 12 Days.




On the Sixth Day of Christmas, I bring to you with love...



Friendship to the Table!



Each family member was given 2 Hershey chocolate candy canes. We talked about the importance of friendship for our family. We talked about how with our friends we love them all the time and accept their weaknesses. We talked about how we should treat others is how we wanted to be treated. The goal was to give a candy cane to a friend and keep one for ourselves. Shae gave her candy cane to her friend next door and kept her second one for herself. Brian and I decided to give both our candy canes to dear friends that we love.

On the Seventh Day of Christmas, I bring to you with love....

Support to the Table!

I gave each of the guys a matching tie and each of the girls a matching necklace. I instructed the family that we are to wear our matching ties and necklaces the first Sunday of every month to show our support for each other. It will be a reminder to bear our testimonies, it will be a reminder to pray for each family member individually and it will be a reminder to express our love to one another.

I picked out a gold tie for the guys for a deeper meaning. To not only honor their virtue by living worthy of their priesthood, but to honor the woman around them. I chose gold to remind them of the temple and also of the refining process of making gold.



The girls received a necklace of a family embracing making a heart shape. When I look at this necklace it has multiple, sacred meanings to me, and I love it. I wear mine everyday with my YW medallion.

On the Eighth Day of Christmas, I bring to you with love...

The Savior to the Table!

I bought for our family the Reflections of Christ book. If our family centers our lives on the Savior, nothing can bring us closer together than that. Because Shae is still young, I bought this book because of the incredible images that portray the Savior's life. They say a picture can say a thousand words, well these images say hundreds of thousands words. My greatest wish is that our family has each our own personal testimony of the Savior. Learning about his life and his teachings is the way and this book is a great starting point for Shae.


On the Ninth Day of Christmas, I bring to you with love...

Service to the Table!

On this night of the 12 Days of Christmas, we joined the Dority family and went out and shopped for a Sub 4 Santa. Becky works for Macy's grocery store. They have a mail box there where children can leave their letter for Santa and if they leave their address, then Santa will write them back. Their store received a sad letter from a 7 year old little girl that wanted to know why he wasn't going to come for Christmas again? When he wrote back to her last year and said he would come, he never showed up. Her mother explained to her that Santa was not going to come again this year, and so she wrote a letter to Santa wondering why he would not come again? Oh, it was sad to read.

So, Becky contacted the mother and we went out shopping for 8 kids and a mother. We bought Christmas stockings, toys, gifts, candy, a Christmas meal and gift cards. We delivered the presents to the mother that night and I was humbled by this experience. I can tell when those who deserve charitable acts from others because they do not think that they should receive such kindness. However, I thank this woman for allowing us to do this for her family. I felt the Spirit in this experience. I felt the overwhelming feeling of the Savior's love for this woman and her family. I felt that the Savior wanted her and her family to know that they were not alone and they were loved. I felt the Christmas spirit and understood the true meaning of giving.

Merry Christmas my dear friends!