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Christmas, 2018 wasn't going to be anything big or special.  Mark and Allison were headed to Mexico with the Boss family, and we would be counting down the days until Glo left on her mission. Just a time to hunker down, play some games, and enjoy time together. "Tater" was all bathed and ready to go in his Christmas finery. However.... Glo had let me know that her boyfriend, Ethan, didn't have any Christmas plans.  That his family doesn't even put up a tree, but instead his parents just put a few unwrapped gifts on the couch Christmas morning for each of their three kids.  And Ethan had already received two of his gifts.  Knowing how much happiness we Kennedys feel around Christmas, and knowing how much we do to celebrate, Glo and I came up with the idea of inviting him to our house for the holidays. There was a stipulation from Glo though--she can only take him in small doses, so she didn't want him staying for a super long time. She invited him,...

You know me, always coming up with new programs and traditions for our family.  I just can't HELP myself! ;-) This year, I had the fun idea for a Christmas tree.  Some years, we get two trees, depending on how I feel and the space we have.  I liked having a tree in our Garden Room last Christmas so I was planning on doing it again this year.  But I thought I would take it a step further. As our boys have gotten married, I've appreciated that it's expensive to build a home in the beginning.  And one of those expensive purchases around the holidays?  Christmas tree decorations.  I remember the first year that John and I were married, we had all of three ornaments (one of which I still have).  Add to that lights and a tree topper, and it's definitely not cheap.  So I got to thinking and came up with the idea to "donate" the second tree to a specified someone each year.  It worked like this: Someone in the family "claims" the tree as t...

Everybody was home (minus Mark and Allison) for Christmas.  Our schedules were such that we would only have one day with the Barneys when their whole family would be in town and our whole family would be in town, so Amber came up with the idea to go roller skating. Now I'm not sure anyone really appreciates how much roller skating has played a part in our lives.  Let's take another trip down memory lane, shall we? (I actually searched this blog to see if I've written this story before.  I couldn't find it anywhere, but please forgive me if I end up repeating myself.) I was a latch-key kid meaning there were no parents when I got home from school, so I let myself into the house, and entertained and fed myself until my parents got home between 5:30 and 6:00.  This started when I was about nine or ten years old and continued until I graduated high school.  TV was a good babysitter as was the large freezer stored on our back porch in Lubbock, Texas, filled wit...

With just a little over a week left until the end of the year, I’ve been thinking a lot about President Nelson’s challenge to the sisters to read the Book of Mormon. When he gave us the challenge to read the BoM by the end of the year, it reminded me of a similar challenge President Hinckley gave to all members of the church about 15ish years ago. I was in high school, and we were studying the Book of Mormon in seminary. I was the only seminary student in my class that was actually doing the assigned reading everyday, and I justified that I didn’t need to do President Hinckley’s challenge because of it. In the years to follow, many of my friends bore testimony of how much the experience meant to them. I always felt bad that I hadn’t completed the challenge myself. So when President Nelson gave his challenge in October, I knew this was my chance.   As with most lofty goals, I was super motivated and on top of things in the beginning, but by the end of October I started to fal...

I love taking the sacrament.  For some strange reason, I have some of my most powerful spiritual experiences while sitting up on the organ bench and praying during the sacrament.  I think it might be because there isn't a single other distraction--no kids, no phone, not even John.  It's just me and thinking about my Savior. I also find that a lot of times, the Spirit directs those prayers.  I think I'm going to be praying about something or someone, but my thoughts go in other unexpected directions. It was no different this past Sunday.  I was sitting on the bench, planning on once again praying for the mess that is our lives at the moment, and praying for hope that I won't want to kill myself sometime in the near future, and all I could think about was my blessings. So many blessings. In fact, I realized in those ten minutes, that in the time that our livelihood has been taken away, I have been given so much more.  As I like to tell the kids when t...

Our good friends, the Barneys, have been anxiously waiting for their son, Layton, to return home from his mission to Taiwan.  When I first met Amber a year ago, I could feel that there was some serious anger from her toward the church in taking away her most loving and happy son.  I get it.  While missions are great for the kids involved, the parents who are left behind feel the pain of their absence everyday.  And as John and I have said before, our lives have been more difficult since our kids have been on missions than they ever were before (where are the promised blessings, I ask you?) I could tell in how she felt that she loved Layton as much as I love my kids. So I was counting down the days with her as his return date neared.  It went from months, to weeks, to days, to hours.  I didn't want to interfere with the homecoming, but I offered to come and take pictures, because for us, that's been the hardest thing to do.  It's one thing to welcome ...

Middle School.  That's a weird term that my kids have used to describe sixth through eighth grade.  When I was growing up, it was "junior high".  Whatever the name, I think it's still the same experience ;-) I've been accompanying the Slauson Middle School choir for the last year.  I love the gig.  The music is never very hard, I get out and have a life with someone other than the cats and dogs, Mr. Steck (the choir director) thinks I am God's gift to the piano, and I get paid in restaurant gift cards.  What's not to love? Not wanting to set a bad example, I don't like to pull out my phone to take pictures of the experience.  But John has never remembered to take a picture of me at concerts (even when I was playing on my old high school stage).  So I snapped a quick one at rehearsal.  It's a really funny picture though because it looks like two boys are dancing.  Really, they were practicing moves for a funny Christmas song, and I co...

One fun thing to do here in Southeast Michigan is to attend University of Michigan hockey games.  It feels like football-lite.  The arena is easy to access, the tickets can be inexpensive, and it's only a two hour time commitment.  But it still has a lot of the same excitement of the fall football games.  And man, hockey fans are committed ! Whenever we don't have much going on, I look up the schedule and can usually find tickets.  But every time, we're sitting in the regular bench seats with our knees jammed up against someone's back.  It's all part of the experience, but I do look longingly at the comfy seats higher up in the area; seats with arms rests and backs, and John's eye inevitably wanders over to the balconies with free food for the season ticket holders. So a couple of years ago, I signed up for Michigan Athletics texts which offer last-minute, discounted tickets to various sporting events.  My bank account is automatically linked to th...

Once a month, John and I work the Saturday morning shift in the temple--it's the shift that Mark and Allison used to work--and it's a completely different beast from the Thursday night shift. Thursday evenings, the workers frequently must act as patrons because there simply aren't enough actual patrons to fill the temple.  We are assigned to be patrons in the endowment session, in the initiatory booth, and in the sealing room.  The work must go on, but it's sometimes disappointing to see those assignments on our work schedule. Saturday mornings though are busy from the moment we step in the temple, and John and I both really love it.  Since I won't be working in the Detroit temple much longer, I wanted to record all the good, fuzzy feelings while I still have them. At 6:53 a.m. this past Saturday, I woke straight up.  It was the weirdest thing because my alarm was set for 7:00 a.m., and for the few previous nights, I'd actually been able to sleep.  I got u...

December 5.  Sankt Nikolaus Tag.  You would think I could remember that, but every year, I don't.  Glo, however, never forgets it, and Hannah is close behind in remembering it.  From Wikipedia:  Sankt Nicholas Day is the feast day of Saint Nicholas.  It is celebrated as a Christian festival with particular regard to his reputation as a bringer of gifts.  One custom associated with the day is children leaving their shoes in the foyer on the even, in hope that Saint Nicholas will place some coins on the soles.  Well, I'm not sure what happened in our little corner of Germany, but my children (along with the other Eifel Kinder) expected candy in their shoes. One year, when Hannie was away at BYU, I had Becky Mecham drive down, sneak into her apartment and fill her shoes with a bunch of treats.  Over several years, I forgot to fill Glo's (it didn't help that she didn't tell me she was putting her shoes outside of the house the night before) and...

This morning, I attended the funeral of Helen Bauss.  She was 77 years old. Sister Bauss first entered my life sometime in my teenage years.  She was called as Young Women's president, and as a Laurel, she taught our Sunday lessons (so I guess it was when I was either 16 or 17).  She is one of two Young Women's presidents that I can remember having (the other being her successor, Elaine Starko, who was around when I graduated high school). I remember going to Girl's Camp one summer, and she was our leader (hence she must have been with us when I was a Mia Maid).  I remember Sister Bauss as being so much fun.  She kept us laughing long into the night, and never lacked a smile.  I remember one night I woke up in the middle of the night and I woke her up and just started a conversation with her (we shared a bunk bed).  She was more than happy to talk to me and laugh with me.  I loved it. Being only semi-active (I didn't go to weeknight activi...