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Over Thanksgiving, everyone was home, and on Sunday, I had Mark and Johannah joining Glo and me in the pew at church.  There's a feeling of safety in that for me; something about knowing that I have a micro Kennedy army of my adult children to protect me from people who don't treat me very well.  As a result, I felt safe attending Sunday School, being surrounded by my lovely children. During the lesson, the teacher was trying to make the point that when our young children come to us, asking a question, if we let them figure it out themselves, they will generally come up with a different, but better solution than we could have given them.  She then asked the class, "Isn't that true?" While I wasn't trying to literally answer the question, I shook my head "no", and she caught the nod.  She then looked straight at me and asked, "You disagree?" Oh boy.  Deep breath. Without really pausing (again, it's like I gain superpowers of brav...

Sunday, December 27, 2015.  Anneliese Margaret Kennedy's blessing day.  Another happy day in the Kennedy annals. Ethan and Rebecca decided to bless Annie in Rebecca's home ward in Hancock, Maryland.  John was on call, so he got someone to cover for him for five hours.  Just enough time to drive the two hours there, sit in sacrament meeting for an hour, and drive the two hours back home.  None of us were too happy about this, but the ox was in the mire, so we did what we had to do. Annie was wearing the blessing dress that I had made her.  It was a bit big, but it's not like I could measure her when Rebecca was seven months pregnant :-)  That dress meant a lot to me, and as I saw her in one of the three white dresses she'll wear during important moments of her life, I was glad that I could contribute one. Rebecca was only missing one brother, but the rest of her family was there.  Thankfully, we once again had the Morans.  I'm always so ...

Something I am beginning to appreciate more as I age:  you just never know what kind of impact you will have on a life. Sometimes, an impact can be seen instantaneously.  That's a nice feeling.  Like when Glo texts me and asks me to pick her up after school because she's so tired.  And on the way home, she falls asleep in the seat next to me.  I know right away that I did a good thing. Most of the time though, I find that you won't know what kind of impact you've made until a while later, or perhaps never.  However, that doesn't negate the good you've done.  After all, we shouldn't be serving in order to be seen.  We should be serving in order to bring ourselves closer to our Savior. I had heard of miraculous stories from the service of missionary children.  Stories where a non-member family member joins the church while their child, or niece, or parents are serving a mission.  Miracles of health where a father's health is prolonge...

Oh boy, it's Christmas card picture time again.  Always a cause for a bit of worry on my part.  Trying to figure out the color scheme alone leaves me awake at night.  And the location.  And included with that is the weather. Turns out this year, the biggest snag was scheduling.  Trying to find a time when all eight of us were together, during the day, was a challenge. As it turned out, we found about 30 minutes on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to take the pictures.  John rescheduled a surgery so that we could hurry out the door and take them before he had to leave (and drive like the wind). No joke, there's something about that kind of pressure that leads to some of the best family pictures we've ever had....and some of the funniest. I present to you the Kennedy Christmas card outtakes from 2015: Baby Annie.  She doesn't like the cold. Refusing to allow "squinty eye" in the picture. I seriously never know when Glo is going to ...