When Dreams of a White Christmas Come True...

Lydia prepares a snowball to throw at Grandpa


Joshua loved "helping" with the dishes


Adam and Joshua ride the toboggan down the hill


The Crider kids playing in the snow at Edler Lake


Adam, Lydia and Joshua on the toboggan. The little ones couldn't get enough!


Adam takes the disc down the hill

Our Family Christmas Party 2009

Friday, December 18 was the night of the family Christmas party. We ordered a 6' sub from Ned's, and met at 5:00 at the northeast corner of the Phoenix Zoo parking lot. We easily located a picnic pavillion (the park was empty) and set up for dinner. Everyone was there except Emily's family who had to spend Christmas in Utah this year. After we had all eaten, we walked over to the Zoo Lights show. It was beautiful, and the kids really loved it, especially the talking giraffe. Almost all the children rode the carousel before we left the zoo, then we went to Cynthia's. We had Owen and Adam in the back seat of our car on the way back to Mesa. Owen said, excitedly, "Adam! Wasn't that fun? The zoo was so cool! But now we're going to the funnest part - eating donuts!" Owen told a story about two little boys named Owen and Adam who were best buddies who played together and had sword fights.

We all gathered together at Chris and Cynthia's place for hot chocolate and donuts. We passed out the Christmas presents and visited. It was a low-key evening; no schedule to adhere to, no sky-high expectations, just being around the people I love the best in the world. What more could I want for Christmas?

How's that again?

I recently was a judge in the annual VFW Patriot's Pen essay contest for grades 6-8. This year the topic was "Honoring our Heroes." Here are some sentences that I really got a kick out of.

"If stuff was mandatory everyone would do it so that's another way we can but its not all about fun stuff because I am sure that the war wasn't fun for our courage's men that fought there I think that everyone should have a flag in the yard."

"I don't know about this holiday (July 4th) but every time it comes around I feel really happy."

"One of them is the days that we have parades for the 4th of July. It gives thanks for the winning of the Civil War."

"Guns and mustaches do not make up a hero."

"When they come home is the best time to honor them would be when they come home."

"They (veterans) are the freedom fighters and fight for us. They are the bravest in the whole world, the whole universe, the whole galaxy. They will keep on fighting until death, until the end of the human race."

And my favorite:
"There sacrifice not to be in vane. Supporting our troop, the sacrifice not to be chosen. It's a duty and they gladly serve are country. They are ones who leave a reality stable and good society, to go to the farthest outreached of the world."

Come again? Last year one of the kids wrote that his grandfather had been "a tailgater on an air plan."

But I WANT it!

I have been thinking a lot recently about a story told by Elder D. Todd Christofferson at October conference.

An incredulous female friend asked a young adult woman, committed to living the law of chastity, how it was possible that she had never “slept with anybody.” “Don’t you want to?” the friend asked. The young woman thought: “The question intrigued me, because it was so utterly beside the point. . . . Mere wanting is hardly a proper guide for moral conduct.”

As we look around at the world today, how many troubles do we see that are the result of people expecting to get what they want? The recent news reports of the world's greatest golfer are a good example of people not knowing how to deny themselves of what they want. In my work, I deal every day with people who demand that the Town buy something we cannot afford, simply because those people want it. But wanting something does not mean you should get it.

I believe that one of the worst things parents can do for their children's moral development is to give them whatever they want. Those children will grow up believing that they are entitled to have whatever they want, simply because they want it. At the same time, they do not value what they receive, because they did not have to earn it. They never learn to tell themselves, "No. I can't have it. I can't afford it." As parents, we want to give our children what we didn't have when we were growing up, but we need to be careful to give them what we did have, too.

Our whole society is groaning under the weight of people who think they should have whatever they want, and they think other people owe it to them. Look at all the people who bought way more home than they could afford, because they wanted a spacious home - because everyone else had one. Living beyond your means is a sign of moral failure.

I am sure this posting will raise some eyebrows, but that is ok. Raising eyebrows lets more light in when we are examining ourselves.