A BIT OF THIS AND THAT AND SOME HAPPY NEWS

Before I take the decorations down--not that they will get taken down for a long time but there's always the thought that I'll get motivated--I thought maybe I'd post a couple. This is the reason for the whole Christmas celebration and I never do a good job of focusing on the birth of our Savior. By the time Christmas comes I'm worn down to a simmering frazzle. Next year I will start earlier. Famous last words.


I am so grateful to our Savior and so tender about him that it makes tears come to my eyes to even type this. He loves us so much he was willing to pay for our sins. He took not only our sins but our hurts, our fears, our loneliness and depression. He knows how we feel because he felt it. He wants us to give our sins, our hurts, our everything sad in our lives to him so he can heal us. It all started with his birth in the most humble of circumstances.

This is--what Phil calls my "Dolly Parton" or "Liberace" display. I try to restrain myself when he says things like that. Anyway, I love it and only burned part of the garland. (Don't tell Phil, he said I would and I said I wouldn't.) It was the starry, metal garland that wound through the candles--I don't think it shows up in this photo--so there was no danger of fire but still...he was right and I was wrong.

Pika, the pretty one, just wants to be admired, scratched a bit around the ears and maybe on the back and then wants to sleep under the Christmas tree. Minkey does not want to see a cat being lazy--even though he is lazy three-fourths of the time--so he saunters up to her with mischief on his mind. She is suspicious but he is nice and licks her face a bit. Just when you see her starting to believe he's a changed cat he reaches out and swats her and then the chase is on. Poor trusting Pika.

Last night Minkey decided to yowl in the middle of the night. When the dogs were here I heard nothing from him in the middle of the night. But the dogs are gone now and he knows his yowling won't bring frantic barking and scrambling to the chase so he yowls at 2:00 AM. I couldn't find the squirt bottle so I opened the door and squirted Fabreze into the hall. It did the trick. Maybe he just wanted to be freshened up.

Now the happy news. Some time ago I told you that my daughter's sister-in-law was carrying twins and might loose one. (This was in a post called A Vacant Mind.) I asked you to send a prayer in her behalf. Phil and I have been fasting for her and the babies every Sunday and praying for them every day. Her whole family has been doing the same, hoping that a miracle would happen and she would be able to carry those twins. The doctor told her to come to Utah and not worry and check with him when she got home. She went in yesterday and the problem has resolved itself. A miracle. Truly a miracle. Thank you for your help. We will continue to pray and fast on Sundays and I'll let you know when these little girls are born.

The doctor asked her if her family had been praying for her. Doctors know that some miracles cannot be explained and when they dig deeper they find out prayer and faith were involved.

I realize not all problems are resolved. Sometimes babies are lost--we lost three, one a five month pregnancy, one a four month and one a three. I didn't think I would ever carry a child to term again. I grieved, without a doubt one of the worst times of my life. I feel we will see those children again. I really do. I think God does not allow a child to be formed for no reason. I believe I will have them again. They belong to me, to Phil, to our family.

So with that I will close. I wish you all a good night or a good day or a good whenever-you-read-this part of the day. May you have peace and joy. May we all have peace and joy.