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Our family loves nothing, if not traditions.  We have a few old traditions, but mostly, each year, we use any and all opportunity to make new traditions. When John and I got married, I quickly discovered that he had almost no traditions in his family with the exception of New Years Eve.  For some reason, he likes to grill steaks on New Years Eve.  He doesn't grill them any other day or time.  Then, when we moved to Germany, we started the tradition of hosting a fun New Years Eve party.  We planned a large tournament of games in a rented hall for a couple of years, and then we moved on to planning a large, fancy dance followed by a large display of fireworks at midnight.  Goodness, just writing about those brings a smile to my face.  Those were fun times, for sure. When we moved to Pennsylvania, we discovered that having no friends severely impacts the success of game nights and dances, so we started family traditions.  We still try to shoot off fireworks, but they are nothing l

Both Rebecca and I feel like we have been in each other's lives for forever, which I think is how marriage is supposed to go. We can't imagine what life would be like without the other now, which makes for a pretty happy marriage if I do say so myself. Yesterday, however, was three years of marriage for the two of us and four years to the day since we met, so it was nice to reflect on our relationship. Our anniversary is weird, partly because it's halfway between Christmas and New Years. This means that we have usually just given a fair amount of gifts to each other three days before for Christmas, so it feels rather superfluous to get each other more gifts. We are also always with our families on our anniversary and we only have much time with them, so it doesn't make sense for us to use that time to go do things by ourselves. The last three years we have gone out to dinner and a movie, and we are pretty content with that. That being said, yesterday was pretty fun be

Knowing that Hannah was leaving on her mission to Ecuador February 7, I needed to get Hannie home.  To her credit, she took care of mostly everything out in Utah, including finding someone to buy her apartment contract.  When I got there, it was all about driving her around so she could take care of last minute things (selling back her books, mailing back a rented book, turning in her work stuff at the library), but really it was about some good old girl time too.  Eating at some of Provo's great eateries and buying cupcakes. Kitty, sampling some of the goods. Ah cupcakes.  Sweet Tooth Fairy bakery has become a tradition every time I visit Utah.  Seriously, they sell the most delicious cupcakes and cookies there.  It made sense to me to buy eight cupcakes for the two of us for a three day drive home.  Little did I know... One of the things that I have done too many times to count now is helping my college-age kids move in and out of their apartments.  Seriously, I did it at

I pretty much think that any calling I have at any moment is the best calling I've ever had.  So it comes as no surprise that I love teaching Gospel Doctrine during Sunday School.  It's been a huge learning experience for me, trying to figure out how to inspire discussion about gospel topics as well as being completely prepared for that discussion to go any number of directions.  I've had better lessons, and not so great lessons, but from both, I learn just a little bit more about myself, about others, and about the gospel.  (I have to give huge props to the things I've learned teaching seminary over the last four years.  Those lessons have come in handy more times than I can count.) After last Sunday's lesson about the Brother of Jared (in Ether) and my parallel fasting experience about faith, I was left thinking a lot about our decision to move.   So as I moved into the next lesson for Sunday, I began to study the principle of hope.  The prophet Ether said,

State College is a great place to live.  Really, it's been ideal to raise our kids--good schools, safe neighborhoods.  However, my art-loving spirit has had a hard time finding anything very inspiring there, and as a consequence, I'm always traveling other places to feed my soul. I thought that I would be able to stay put for most of the month of December.  It's a busy month for a family of musicians, and yet, on one of my trips to Ann Arbor, I noticed a flyer up for The Kings Singers, and I saw that they would be coming to Hill Auditorium on the second weekend of December. I seriously put it out of my mind a million times.  A six hour drive there just to see a two hour concert, and then a six hour drive back through the night because I had a Gospel Doctrine lesson to teach the following day?  Was I crazy? Four days before, I texted Rebecca and Beth (John's sister), and asked if they would like to make a girls' night out of it all.  Thankfully, they were on bo

I feel that green beans deserve a blog post...not because I want to give them any glory, but because they are the bane of my existence. I was a picky eater as a small child.  No joke, my mother would mix cooked ground beef into cookies for me so that I would get some amount of protein.  However, there is one food that I wouldn't eat then, and I won't eat now:  GREEN BEANS. Ugh, just thinking about them, I have to voice an out-loud guttural "yuck", stick out my tongue, and shake my head.  If they are sitting in front of me, and I can smell them, or see them, I will actually begin to gag if I don't look away immediately. I have wanted to like them through the years.  I think fresh garden beans actually look quite beautiful, still hanging on the plant, and I love to see my kids devour them while picking them in the garden.  However, short of my family members' lives being threatened, there's nothing that will get me to eat them. One of my earliest

This weekend, I am fasting (once again) for our house to sell.  I have always believed in the power of fasting, and it's ability to bring us closer to the Spirit and to our Heavenly Father.  I liken fasting to a protein shake.  A glass of milk is fine in the morning to get you going.  It's nutritious and good for you.  Prayer is the same thing.  It gets us going, and it's good for us.  Fasting, though, is the protein shake.  If you want a little extra "oomph" to your pleadings with Heavenly Father, fasting will do it.  Some of my most sacred experiences have come through fasting. John and I are incredibly frustrated about our house not selling.  I seriously want to weep every time I read about another one of our friends or family selling their house.  Most of the time, they sell them within days of putting their house on the market, and at the most, they wait a couple of months.  Our house has now been on the market for over a year, and we haven't had a sing

Oh goodness, I don't really want to write about this day.  I think as far as all Kennedys are involved, we would like to completely forget that this day ever happened.  However, it's good to remember that the bad makes us appreciate the good, right? The day started off with a bang.  I was upstairs, ready to come down, thinking, "Gosh, I wish Hannie would make us breakfast," when within minutes, Allison and Mark walked through the back hall door with groceries in hand, ready to make breakfast!  And it was our favorite Kennedy kind of breakfast:  blini with fresh fruit, bacon and sausage.  Oh so good.  I will admit that it has been such a treat having the kids cooking over the weekend.  It's just so nice not to eat my food all the time (and not need to prepare every meal either). Then, it was picture time.  We need a Kennedy family picture for the Christmas card, and this was the one day to make it happen.  Unfortunately, I was three days out from getting my hai

THIS was the day I was most excited about in the grand scheme of Thanksgiving.  I had planned it out myself, and it was pretty much my most perfect day.  Minus the necessary driving.  And an exciting addition was Allison who had never been to Philly before this! Getting our entire family to the temple at any given time is proving difficult as everyone grows up and moves away.  Either someone inconveniently lives out in Utah and spends most of her life there, or some other persons decide it would be fun to have a baby so they have to tag-team it, or someone else is frequently on call, or someone else has decided that concerts and rehearsals take top priority.  Yep, it's not always easy.  (I would like to point out that I am always completely available...) So, the idea of having everyone at home and under my rule of thumb made me happy indeed.  And what better way to spend time together than in the Philadelphia temple, a temple that nobody but myself has visited post-dedicati

I love Thanksgiving.  It feels like a sampler of what life will be just a few short weeks afterwards.  Mark calls it a "teaser", and he doesn't have as good of feelings about the three weeks that bridge Thanksgiving and Christmas.  However, when you don't have children at home most of the time, three weeks feels like a small price to pay to have everyone home two separate times within a month of each other.  I love how all the Kennedys ducklings return home to the roost.  Or is it a lake?  What a blessing to have everyone together again. A blessing for our Thanksgiving this year was having Allison with us.  She's become such an integral part of our family now that I actually can't imagine a holiday without her (although we'll find out what it's like this coming Christmas).  She brings a smile and happiness along with some pretty amazing food, so she's a joy to have around. This Thanksgiving, another family member was joining us too.  Baby Cat.