Top 25 and Merry Christmas

Meri Kirihimete (a Maori Merry Christmas) from New Zealand! As we look over the list of recipients we love you all and have sweet memories of our times together. Thank you. We hope your Christmas is calm and bright.

Some of you have advent calendars to count off the 25 days of December until Christmas, some of you have been “lighting the world” with 25 days of Christmas. Good on you! In keeping with “25” we have observed or tried 25 possible activities that think can make you feel good in some way this Christmas season. We suggest:

#25. Dress up and dance. Granddaughters Adi and Gwynee recommend it as a daily activity, they endorse the tutu but we have found anything that makes you feel special works.

#24. Read good books. Granddaughter Livy has found reading a good book is especially invigorating.

#23. Swim with your dog (or run or go for walks). It makes him feel loved. This attention has been found to work on people too.

#22. Buy a chocolate Kiwi (they are on sale this week).

#21. Go to the temple with friends. It’s also good to go to the temple by yourself because Heavenly Father is there and He’s you friend, so you're not alone. Our sweet YSA Leonnie asked us (and Ana and Marilyn and cousins) to come with her before she leaves for her mission to Australia.

#20. Put up a nativity to remind you of baby Jesus…a little Tongan lady hand-made this Tongan nativity

#19 Put up another nativity, or 6 or 20 if you have them. This one is made from Rimu wood by our woodcarver friend from Bethlehem.

#18 Send your friend a note or a picture to help them remember friends and Christmas at home (these next two are from Kristin Kapp...this one at Temple Square). 😊

#17. Hug a kitten if you have one….or two. Thanks for the reminder Porter Kapp, thats its generally warm and fuzzy…well, mostly, unless something startles the cat.

#16. Subject yourself to a new language. We attended a Tongan ward church service where they spoke only Tongan. It stretches you and is a reminder how it feels to be the “outsider”.

#15 Make someone feel welcome. This sweet Tongan “friend” came up in the Tongan service and welcomed us to church and during the meeting came over and sat by us to help us find the hymns to sing in Tongan.

#14 Be an angel and help or coach someone- Sister Affleck sat by me through one of the Tongan meetings (RS) to interpret (and let me know that they had just invited me to come up and share my thoughts…yikes). She coached me.

#13 Be a friend to a child (this one thought she’s never seen anyone as tall as Elder Downs and asked to have a picture with him), and look at things from their point of view.

#12 Be proud of your heritage, whether it means you wear a tupenu (like a lavalava) and ta’ovala ( a woven mat worn around the waist and tied), or a kilt, or lederhosen…love your roots.

#11 When you find Santa won’t fit on your porch, SQUEEZE and make room for him (these folks were determined to have a 10 foot Santa on their 7+ foot front porch). You should do the same for the Savior…if there’s not enough room for Him on your porch or in your life, SQUEEZE and make some room.

#10. Stop for a sunset, see THOTL (The Hand of The Lord) everyday, its everywhere!

#9 Give someone you love wings, to see and be above the clouds. This “Wings” sculpture is near the beach.

#8 Have dinner around a table often with family or friends. We don’t spend enough time in our world around the dinner table talking and learning from good people. These are the senior missionaries at our December FHE, enjoying sparkling cider and each other..

#7 Appreciate the talents of others, even if it means you need to wear or display their talent. For example, two lovely sister missionaries displayed a rare talent of crocheting nose warmers…and all of us received a carefully crafted nose warmer. SO we did what all of you would do, we wore them.

#6 Make some time to develop talents of your own. If you can crochet nose warmers, then crochet them. You might make the world, or a nose, better because of your talent.

#5 Open your mouth and TALK TO PEOPLE. We did on the Te Atatu Penninsula with our Institute Director Phillip Skeen and found that this carload of guys we didn’t recognize at first was really some of our Institute fellows. We’ve been trying this more and more wherever we go. Wow! We have discovered old friends and new ones too. We find we are surrounded by amazing folks who share this planet with us!

#4 Be patient. We sat down in an empty classroom for Sunday school and no one came. We almost left but decided to wait. SO glad we did. One by one these wonderful YSA’s filled the little classroom and we had a pretty sweet experience with a question posed by Nora about the pull of the world vs. hanging in there and having faith. Some great insights and feelings of the spirit shared. Glad we were patient and didn’t give up

#3 Let go of some things…maybe it’s sending Christmas cards, baking cinnamon rolls, or spending hours decorating a house and a big tree. We find traditions are nice and take a lot of time. And some of them are even important, but maybe not all. A few gingersnaps will replace the cinnamon rolls and endless treats, and have us covered in the goodie department. We hope you all feel our “card-less” love.