On Thursday, my second son turned 22!  He was gone on his mission to Latvia for the last two birthdays but this year we got to have him over for his birthday dinner.  He wanted beef stroganoff and "Too Much Chocolate" cake for dessert.  He blew all his candles out in one blow.  The picture is a bit hazy thanks to all that smoke. He just finished a semester at BYU and is majoring in computer engineering.  We actually didn't have his birthday dinner on Thursday because he went "trumpet caroling" on that night.  They rang our doorbell about 8pm and 10 trumpet players stood on our lawn and played a couple of Christmas carols.  It was pretty cool.  I wish I could share a picture of that but it was too dark outside and the picture doesn't show anything. We gave him his birthday presents back in August--it's just so much easier on me when we do birthday presents at a different time than Christmas--and he likes his presents being a little more spread out

My third son (and third child) had his 20th birthday yesterday but we didn't get to talk to him or see him.  That's okay because he is doing what he's supposed to be doing.  He's far away in Eastern Europe serving a mission for our church.  He's in a war-torn country trying to bring some hope and love to people that must be feeling at least a little bit discouraged. He's the one with the pink, red and purple striped tie. He has been so cheerful and optimistic in his letters despite the challenges that he has.  It's been fun to read them.  We look forward to talking to him on Christmas! Here he is doing a service project.

This is a great video to watch or listen and get in the Christmas spirit.  I need to do that more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrLoWt2tfqg How is my Christmas season going?  It's going pretty well but next year, I'm going to do more shopping in November so I can enjoy more fun activities in December.  My new resolution:  All packages that need to be mailed to my children need to be ready to go on December 1st.  And I need to use my book  more.

I have been wanting to change how we celebrate Christmas for a long time.  I frankly dread the holiday because of the pressure I feel in meeting lots of expectations on a deadline.  As a committed Christian, it should be one of my favorite days of the year but so far, it's not.  I've tried to think of ways to make it a happier time of year for me but I'm definitely not there yet. However, yesterday I made a little progress in making it a more religious holiday--more about celebrating Christ's birth and less about buying the perfect gifts. The first thing I did was buy this book: I have to admit that I have not yet read the book.  (Remember this is December and time is at a premium--and I just got it yesterday.)  However, at the back of the book, in the Appendix, he has a list of devotionals to do each day in December leading up to Christmas.  So we tried it last night after dinner.  The suggestion for December 4th was to read Psalm 24:9-10, sing "While She