"The best way to spread Christmas cheer"...

"is singing loud for all to hear." You may recognize that quote from the movie "Elf". Here are some other ways that people have spread cheer this year (that I am personally aware of).

I have been blessed to see the generosity of others to those who are in need, and to see and hear of the difference that generosity has made in the lives of some of my friends.

When I was feeling less than cheery at church due to the less than terrific behavior of one of my children, a concerned friend came over, and seeing a need, offered me what she had -- a "gently used kleenex". Lest you think this is really gross, she had only used it to dab her own eyes and it gave me something to chuckle about which was as sorely needed at the time as was the kleenex.

I finished putting the lights on a friends tree and her approval of my light placement and her happiness at not having had to do it were very cheering -- though her company was the most cheering of all.

Dan always gives me a bit of cheer and since it is Christmastime I'll call it Christmas cheer. He loves helping me by putting presents under the tree. Of course he might be muttering "that's mine" too but he's always happy to help. He moved the container for the trains to a spot directly on my foot this morning and said "That's better. Say thank you mom!" He always likes to remind me to say thank you for random things, and during the holdiays and any other time really it is good to remember to be thankful. It's a lot easier to spread Christmas cheer if we are feeling thankful.

Thanks to all of you who commented on my poem -- I'm trying to not let it go to my head. Thanks to those who have called me, or chatted with me when I called. Thanks to those of you who managed to get out a Christmas letter already -- you are my heroes. I love Christmas letters. It's not too late for those of us who are a little slower. Thanks to the nice man at KMart who said "Merry Christmas" instead of getting frustrated that the thing I was buying was not ringing up properly and was taking "forever". Of course it wasn't my fault but his cheerfulness was appreciated.

Now, I've got to go and follow your examples and spread some Christmas cheer. Merry Christmas!

My Assignment

When I go on cruises I give myself assignments -- or things to accomplish while I am gone. One of these is usually to write a hymn, or a poem. I am going to bravely share one with you -- though I will confess to not being sure exactly how it is supposed to be punctuated or what the title should really be.

He’s There

In the stillness of the morning
In the warmth of noonday sun
In the shadows of the evening
In the starlight when the day is done

Evidence of God surrounds you
Evidence of His love and care
Proof that He is in His heavens
Just be still, and know He’s there.

In the mist of stormy mornings
In the wind of noonday storms
In the crash of booming thunders
In bending trees and fearful forms

God is still up in the heavens
Reaching out with helping hands
Caring for His children lost
And roaming in the storm filled lands.

When the storms are all around you
Ranging widely across the land
Reach up to our Lord in Heaven
He will reach down with His hand.

In the stillness of the morning
In the warmth of noonday sun
In the shadows of the evening
In the starlight when the day is done.

Evidence of God surrounds you
Evidence of His love and care
Proof that He is in His heavens
Just be still, and know He’s there.

Thanksgiving Activities

On Thanksgiving, since you either have eaten or will be eating lots of food, it is good to get in some physical activities.Derek and my brother Brian organized some of the children into teams and had a game. Fun was had by all until the next day when Brian became fully aware of how many muscles he doesn't use while working on the computer.

Playing on the swingset and in the dirt / rocks was a favorite activity too. I went down the slide a couple of times but I had to duck so far down to get on the slide that I always went down on my back and so I decided to watch.

After all of that activity in the beautiful weather, it is good to have a little rest.

Following the rest, which came after the playing, which came after the fancy snacks, it was time for dinner. After dinner it was time for the traditional pies. Oops. No pumkin pie! No worries -- there were plenty of other kinds.

After the food it was time for some more physical activity. An improptu arm wrestling tournament started by Jenny provided lots of fun and a few sore arms. Jenny beat Tina. I beat Jenny. Tina beat Jenny in a rematch. Tina and I each tried hard to win but finally called our match a draw. Those who watched Jenny and I arm wrestle said we both moved our elbows a lot (which is technically cheating) and so I guess I out cheated her.

The men arm wrestled some too. Derek beat Jeff but my brother Ray was the winner -- beating Derek out rather quickly. Derek says he can't be expected to win against my brother whose arm was compared to a tree trunk.

The day after Thanksgiving we went rock climbing (indoors). Jenny and Jeff do this a lot and Jeff was like Spiderman without the suit. If Jenny and I were having a rock climbing match she wins.

The weather was beautiful, the company couldn't be beat, the food was good, and the activities were fun. Hooray for Thanksgiving and for Thanksgiving Activities.

My talented big sister Tina

Nov. 25th is my sister Tina's birthday. She is on the right in the first picture and the left on the next one. This is not too long after she became a "big sister" and she has always been a good one. She reportedly taught me how to play dolls, and I know she liked to play school with me and be the teacher during a lot of summer days. She has been a friend throughout the years and has helped me in more ways than she probably realizes.

This is Tina and one of my Grandmas. This is the grandma that we were fortunate enough to get to see a little more often and she was a talented woman. At the last family gathering we were talking about how much Tina is like her. They both are good at cooking / baking, they both sew very well, and maybe it's because Tina is so much like this Grandma that I think she would have managed to be a good pioneer, unlike me, I think I would have cried myself all the way across the country. Hmm, maybe some good pioneers cried themselves across the country though -- who knows?

During our growing up years we moved a number of times. The picture above isn't terrific but it was taken right before we moved away from Missouri and to Colorado and showed us leaning on one another. Here we went again and I think the only thing that made moving tolerable was to have such a good family. My brothers and sisters -- including Tina -- were my friends so we didn't have to start from scratch every time.

I tried to find a picture of Tina with a camera to her face but I didn't have enough time. I think I have several. We both had cameras and used to have camera wars -- trying to catch the other person on film. I look back now and think it was an interesting use of expensive film -- but we did have a good time and I guess that counts.

Christmas was always a season to look forward to and a day to be planned for with excitement at our house. I think Tina was a good part of this as she organized us younger children to plan programs and she snuck around on Christmas Eve with us. She was a bit of a tyrant about the presents under the tree. Only she could arrange them artistically enough to suit her!

Tina got married while I was in college and I didn't get to go out for the wedding though I did go to her second reception in CO. I remember waking up and thinking -- "wow, my sister is getting married today". She married Christopher who she had dated since she was 16 -- with a break while he served a mission to Japan. They are now the parents of 8 wonderful children. In the picture above she only had 3 children and her husband is the hairy one. This is Tia's blessing picture and I remember that when Tia was in the hospital my kind hearted sisters came up to see her and cried to find her hooked up to an i.v.. Tina has always been helpful to me. She helped me learn to can peaches, she talks to me when I need a friend, and she and Chris have always been very welcoming. We used to go to their house every weekend to watch Star Trek when they lived closer. I think she has cooked for me more than anyone else -- well except her own family! I know she rescued me in college from eating noodles and salt when the food supply and the money supply were both low.

Our last babies were born the same day. Dan was first and Caleb later. Tina has the oldest and the youngest grandchild on my side of the family and does an excellent job homeschooling her children, teaching them, and loving them. There are so many things I could say and so many pictures, including some pretty funny morning ones that I could post but I guess I'll save some for another year. I love Tina. I could not have asked for a better big sister.

The World Care Cruise Line

Have you ever heard of it? It has three ships -- Faith, Hope, and Charity. Like a regular cruise your food is included in the cost of the trip. Your ship has a swimming pool or two and an exercise room and a theater for your use. There are shows too, but they are cultural shows with dances and singing from the places that you are going to visit. While you are sailing there are classes available to help inform you about the customs, beliefs and culture of the places you will visit. You will be taught how to say hello, goodbye, thank you and your welcome in the language of the country you are visiting.

Like a regular cruise, there are tours that you can pay to go on, but these are different kinds of tours. These are service / humanitarian tours. You might have a chance to go work in orphanages or soup kitchens. You might paint, repair, or clean buildings, or areas. You might simply have a chance to take needed items in and distribute them to the people who need them.

Never fear, if you are a shopper there will be shopping tours. But instead of buying for yourself, you will be looking for items on a list you have been given of things needed by some of the local people. Buying from the local people will help the economy of the place you visit.

When you come home from your cruise you will feel that you have learned something, and been helpful to the people whose country you visited. Perhaps you will have helped clean up polluted areas or you will have alleviated hunger or sorrow. You will have made a difference!

Who owns this cruise line? Unfortunately, this is just a product of my imagination. I came up with the idea after I had been cruising for a few days and was getting a little tired of the semi-idle life style. If anyone can figure out how to get such a cruiseline up and running, I will buy a ticket for sure.

The Thankful Turkey

One Thanksgiving tradition that we have managed to carry on for quite a few years is that of making a "Thankful Turkey". We make a turkey body for the family, or during some years we make as many turkeys as there are people. Then we add feathers with something we are thankful for written on each one. Sometimes, like this year, we make the whole turkey at once. Other years we have left feathers out to add whenever there was something in a day we were particularly thankful for. Still other years, we have tried to fill out a feather each at dinner time. This tradition is one that we all enjoy.

The turkey above was made last night. Probably 40 percent of those feathers were filled out by Connor. He did a good job of being specific. He wasn't just thankful for school but for math and science, etc. He was thankful for sports teams and various books -- including specific scriptures. He was even thankful for brooms. Some of the things on our lists are more serious than others. Derek was thankful that "Utah isn't a nudist state" and he was also thankful for his "good kids" and for "microwaves".

I was predictably thankful for "a good story" and "good friends" though the kids were disappointed that I hadn't listed the telephone as usual. It seems I don't get many phone calls anymore -- but on the days I get to talk to family and friends I am very thankful for it so perhaps I'd better go add a feather!

It is fun to stop and read what everyone is feeling thankful for. That is our fun tradition (the idea came from my sister Tina). Do any of you have a good Thanksgiving tradition to share?

The Quest Begins -- Day 1 and 2

Megz, the tour guide is the one with his hand on his glasses. I don't have any better picture of his eyes and they were what I thought was kind of scary about him.I couldn't resist taking a picture of this sign....and now....

In a backward fashion, we have now reached the beginning of my trip. The first two days were really just one super long day. We got on the plane on Friday before noon and got off on Saturday after noon. I didn't ever sleep on the way there. My book was good.

Once in Athens we were directed to our luggage, and a bus. We went directly to the ship and got on fairly quickly. Our luggage was quick as well and we were mostly unpacked when it was time to put on our lovely orange life jackets for a drill. It was announced that we should tie our life jackets before leaving the room so that nobody would step on the ties and trip us up. Derek was headed out the door before ours were tied and I was right behind him getting ready to say "We were supposed to tie these before leaving our rooms" when the door closed on my strap and I was stuck. Of course, we were in a hallway that also housed the rest of the staff, so they were there to witness me almost falling down and having to open the door to get unstuck. Fortunately I wasn't so tired that I had lost my sense of humor and I thought it was quite funny. It was a good thing it was just a drill.

We ate and slept after that. We deserved it after having survived having a seat by "Garlic Man" on one flight and the "teeth sucking man" on another. My seat was by Garlic Man but the one across the aisle by Derek was free so I moved. Unfortunately, we could smell him just fine from across the aisle. Derek was a bit nauseous from the smells floating around the cabin on that flight. The next flight Derek was by "teeth sucking man". I was unaware of his delimma. Fortunately my ipod came in handy for drowning out the noise that was quickly getting on Derek's nerves. The flights were a success. We got where we were going safely and at no time did we get up and run down the aisle screaming "I can't take it anymore!" Hooray for us. Our adventure had begun.

Quest Day 3, Ephesus

Three weeks ago today Derek and I were in Ephesus. The picture above is a wall below "The Virgin Mary's Home". The home is a Catholic shrine -- built on a foundation that is believed (by some) to be the home Mary lived in from some time after the crucifixtion of Jesus until her death. It was good to go through this home with a couple of Catholics from Derek's work who were obviously filled with awe at the chance to be there. The wall above is one where people leave notes -- I think prayer notes. I'm thinking it is something they want St. Mary to help them with.

This is us standing by the spring of healing water. Our guide told us that we should not drink the water because we would get sick -- but some people we saw did it anyway since they believed in its healing properties. Other people just rubbed the water on themselves. We just took a picture by it.

These are some of the ruins in the ancient city of Ephesus. There were a lot of things to see and my main complaint was that we had to follow our tour guide around and didn't get to see everything we could have if we were on our own. Our tour guide did tell interesting stories -- but I wanted to know his sources for them. He seemed like a nice enough man but his eyes were kind of creepy looking and I thought he looked scary. Still, this was a great place to visit and Derek's favorite of the week and a half we were gone.

The building behind Derek is the Library. They put it back together from the pieces they found. The original library had three stories but they haven't found enough pieces to put all three stories together. Our guide said "next time you are in Ephesus you might find that there is a third story on the library."

In the background of this picture is the theater. When we went in to see it one of the tour groups were seated in it and someone was singing to show how good the acoustics were. They actually held concerts here fairly recently to raise money to help in the restoration of ancient Ephesus. The problem was that the loud music and the stomping people did damage to this ancient theater. The damage will take much more money to fix than the money the concerts raised. Oops.

Before visiting Ephesus we read quite a bit from Paul's letter to the Ephesians and once we got back to the ship we read more about Paul in Ephesus from the Book of Acts. This is a part of the reason that we enjoyed going here. It is fun to go places that are linked with Christian history.

After visiting Ephesus we were taken to a store and shown how Persian rugs are made. Our tour guide has a school where they teach people how to make rugs so that they can make money and preserve the art. They are made by hand and it takes a lot of time. It takes about a year for the big rugs I think. The rugs are beautiful and very expensive. They really wanted us to buy one. The Turkish government will ship it right to your door for free -- once you've bought it! The larger rugs were running around 20,000 Euros I think. This was yet another thing we didn't buy but they were very impressive.

It was a little chilly that day, but with jackets on it wasn't too uncomfortable. The sun was shining and, generally speaking, it was a good day.

Day 4 -- At Sea

This is a picture of us heading out to see on day 3. For today you get a direct quote from my journal. "Monday we were at sea and I know I slept through the afternoon again and morning was a long meeting."

A couple of random facts from the trip:
*We had a few nights of stormy weather that made for lots of rocking, moaning, creaking, and banging to keep us awake. Fortunately we never got sea sick.
*We were always impressed with the buildings that somehow were built without the machinery that is used today. One of our friends commented "Yes, it is amazing what you can do with a bunch of slaves". He did not sound approving.
*Sometimes, maybe to help with homesickness, we would think of various family members and what they might be doing if they got to go on the trip. For example: We figured Erin would love going in all of those little shops and not just walking by them, and we figured that, as far as we walked, Tanya would have managed to walk further. Of course, she might have just taken the subway.

Quest Day 5 -- Messina, Sicily, Italy

Oops, I did the pictures out of order again. The church above is the last thing we went to before heading to lunch on the ship. At noon there is an interesting kind of show here. If you will look closely you will see several golden statue things. They all move. There is a little skeleton that you can't see whose staff moves up and down. At the top, the lion raises his head and then roars really loudly. The speakers are great. When he's done roaring, the rooster raises it's head, opens it's beak, and crows really loudly. Then "Ave Maria" is played really loudly while some monks (also golden) go around moving their arms (I think blessing the crowd). It was the oddest thing ever and I'm afraid we all thought it was a bit amusing. We wonder what the locals think of it. It is a big tourist attraction though and there were lots of us there to listen and watch.

I might be remembering wrong but I thought this was one of the churches we went into first. It was really big and had statues of the saints on either side -- bigger than life. I can't think why I didn't take any pictures of any of them -- probably because I thought it was weird to take pictures in a church. The statues were mostly the original 12 apostles.

This is a confessional. We actually walked in a church where one was being used in Spain -- right there where we were walking by. It didn't seem like the kind of place I'd want to confess any sins!

The picture above shows where we sailed to get in the harbor. I was trying to figure out what the words under the statue were.

One building we went to seemed to be a school, a church, and a -- what do you call an indoor burial chamber? We believe this one was full of World War II soldiers. It seemed to be so from the dates.

This was the day that Derek got his cold. We walked into Messina with a large group from work -- which kept Derek from overdoing it because large groups don't usually move fast and deciding where to go by committee isn't quick either. It is a nice group though and it was a fine day.

Even though Derek didn't feel well I'm the one who slept the afternoon away and we had dinner and a movie and time to read in our room.

Day 6 -- Our Morning in Rome

To understand why I loved the day in Rome so much, you might need to understand how bad the night before was. I think this was one of the stormy nights. The ship rocking back and forth was okay -- even when a bit extreme -- but the noises that went with it were frustrating. The room sounded like it was pulling apart. The mattress creaked (creak, creak, creak -- pause -- creak, creak, creak), the walls clicked and groaned, the hangers and anything loose banged or rolled. It made sleep hard. Derek had gotten hit hard with a cold and while I was not sleeping I was worried that I would have to find a friend to go to Rome with since Derek might not be well enough. Then, morning came, and Derek had miraculously slept better than the night before and felt he could handle the day. Hooray! To top it off, when we got to Rome, we found friends who welcomed us into their group and who were fun, and kind. Derek was happy, and our friends helped us have an adventure and helped us to laugh.

The picture above is the Spanish Steps. I'm afraid I don't know the significance of the Spanish Steps but they were our first stop since they were close to the Piazza Barberini where the bus dropped us off. (The ship docked in Civitavecchia, Italy and Rome is an hour and a half to two hours away).

Our next stop (and by stop I mean we would pause in our walking long enough to admire and take pictures)was the Trevi Fountain (above). It is the biggest fountain in the world and was still filling up when we got there. It was crowded like the rest of Rome -- and this was the off season!

These are some ruins at the edge of The Forum. We were informed by someone with a tour guide that this particular spot was Caesar's Palace.

The Coliseum and the Forum are next to each other. The Forum is huge and used to be free to walk around in -- but now it costs money and is, I believe, the same line that you get in to see the inside of the Coliseum. We just did our best at peeking from outside. We didn't have a spare two hours. It was lunch time and we were hungry and we still wanted to see the Vatican. We decided to take the subway to the Vatican (which is on the other side of Rome).

These are some of the friends we were with. There were two couples from home and one couple from the Dominican Republic. They all speak Spanish and the couple from the DR speak almost no English. Derek and I ended up sitting with the couple from the DR at lunch. Not much conversation could take place -- but occasionally one of our other friends would turn around and translate for us. The subway ride to get to where we were going to eat was a real adventure. The car (train?)we were getting in was very full. The other three couples got on and there was really no more room -- but seeing that we were about to be left behind the man in the yellow shirt shoved everyone and we barely squished in. I've never seen such a packed car but I was impressed at everyones patience with being squished like sardines. Fortunately that leg of our journey wasn't long and the next subway car thing was not as full. (You can tell I'm not a subway expert!)

Our morning included a bus ride, walking, site seeing, picture taking, talking, laughing, and a squishy subway ride with the promise of lunch and more things to see still ahead.

Lunch, the Vatican, and the trip to the ship.

Lunch was pizza -- but there are too many pictures of Rome to add that to the blog. The pizza looked good -- and wasn't bad -- but Derek prefers Dominoes. I prefer regular pepperoni and a crust that is a little less like a flour tortilla with too much flour on it. I was really thankful that the pizza tasted pretty normal and it was much better than the ships pizza. The above picture is Derek by the columns that are around part of St. Peter's Square. I took a picture of him by the columns so you could get an idea of how big those columns are.

Our friend was rather proud of his creative picture. This is St. Peter's Square. The Pope spoke in this square in the morning. He speaks on Wednesdays. We hadn't gone earlier because our bus driver said the Vatican would be closed until 1 because of the Pope's speach. We didn't realize how open the square is and those that went earlier actually got to see the Pope. The lines were very long to get in to the Sistine Chapel and whatever else was inside and one couple in our group found some friends to cut in line with and managed to get in. It was interesting to see the place that we have seen on television occasionally. We could even see where the smoke comes out when they are choosing a new Pope and the window he sometimes waves from. The actual Vatican is behind the square and we didn't have time to wait in line and pay to get in. If you ever get to go to Rome try to arrange to stay there for at least two days!

Derek and I left our exhausted group after that and walked back to the Plazza Barberini.

On the way back we saw the "Castel S. Angelo". Somehow the headless statue guarding the door struck my funny bone -- especially since it was so near Halloween. We walked around the castle and then across the river that we had crossed before on the bus and on the subway.

This is "Fiume Tevere" -- can you tell that I'm looking at an Italian map?

In trying to follow the map back to the Plazza Barberini we went a little off course and accidentally ended up at the Pantheon (above). It was a nice kind of accident. We did go in but didn't have time to do more than snap a couple of pictures and walk back out. We found the Trevi fountain again after that and it was running this time. We made it to the Barberini Plaza in enough time that we stopped to get a drink.

Back on the bus we listened to the ladies behind us giggle uncontrollably for the entire hour and a half ride back to the ship while another group talked about their gambling exploits and another couple talked about herbal tinctures. It was dark by then and so there was nothing to see out the window except that rain had started. It seemed like a long ride. Once off the bus and in line to get back on the ship the clouds really let loose of their water and the wind turned people's umbrellas inside out. Security wasn't fast and we were drenched to the skin before we got in -- but at least the rain was not cold. We were happy to get dry and to sit down for a while. It was an exhausting day but visiting Rome was probably the day I enjoyed the most.

The Principality of Monaco -- Quest day 7

The ship pulled in to Monaco around 9 a.m. on the day before Halloween. We had walked a lot the day before but, even with Derek not quite recovered from his cold and a cold wind blowing outside, we headed out for a walk at around 10. The closest thing to the ship that looked interesting was this castle / fort thing that Derek is standing in front of so we headed up.

This is a view from the top of that fort. I really enjoyed that part of our walk. There were fun sitting areas and overlooks and it was well kept. I wasn't too afraid of the cannons going off since the cannon balls were all welded together.

This is just an example of one of the little nooks in the fort that I liked. At the top of the fort we quickly came upon the driveway to the palace. I joked that we didn't need to walk further because Derek would enjoy watching all of the fancy cars going in and out of the drive. This is the palace where Princess Grace (Grace Kelly) and Prince Ranier III lived and their son Albert II is the ruler now. We were told that we might see some of the royalty out walking their children -- but they wisely stayed indoors where it was warm -- or we think they did. We really wouldn't have recognized them as royalty unless they were labelled.

This is just a fancy building that was unique so I took a picture. Monaco was really interesting. It is built kind of like a layered tower. All of the buildings appear to be in some way resting on the bottom buildings. If you look up high in Monaco you could think you were seeing the Utah mountains -- but you wouldn't make that mistake looking down where you can see palm trees and giant cactus plants. After walking past the palace and through the quaint shopping area we went down the big hill and back up following signs for "Le Jardin Exotique". It took us quite high up in the city and it was interesting to see that if you found yourself having a heart attack after having climbed all of those stairs you could take an elevator directly down to the hospital from the sidewalk. Very convenient.

We made it to the "Jardin Exotique" but ended up looking at it through the fence since we were too cheap to pay the "exotique" entrance fee. Eventually we took an elevator down, down, down, to the harbor level again. It ended in a big underground terminal that we hadn't known was there. What an adventure! We walked to the area with the big casinos after that. The picture above was taken on the way there. I have a picture of the casinos too but I liked this one better. I was trying to show some of the layers of buildings -- but mostly you can just see a little church tucked in -- looking a little inadequate to fend off the evils of gambling!

We could see a park on a buildings roof and Derek asked if we should walk to it. I said no. It was after lunch time and I thought he should not overdo it two days in a row. When we had walked half way around the bay on the way back to the ship he was thankful that I had, for once, said what I wanted. He was tired. In my journal I write that the rest of the day we rested, visited, and had plans to dine with friends. Monaco was the calm before the Halloween storm!

*Just a note -- Monaco is an independent province and a member of the UN but is protected by the French military. They likely speak French but I really didn't talk to anyone but Derek -- who is terrific at speaking English.