More Christmas Fun

I had some dental work done this week this week (and last).  I broke a tooth eating banana chips.  I thought the banana chip had an extremely hard center, but it was my tooth I was trying to bite into.  Because I needed a crown, I decided to change dentists and go to Stephen.  My dentist is great for cleaning and xrays, but Roy had some problems with him when doing an implant (Stephen was able to finally get it all fixed).  I got the one crown, and while at the appointment, Stephen showed me a few other teeth that had some problems--one with a crack all the way down.  He said if that one broke it could cause me some real discomfort, so I opted to go back another day for another crown.  When I got there (Monday morning), somehow the lady in charge of insurance and payment talked me into doing three at once (best for the insurance).  So, I've had some jaw and tooth pain throughout the week.  I've also been biting my cheek because my jaw feels off.  I go in tomorrow for the permanent crowns.  

We enjoyed a perfect Christmas concert in Logan.   Perfect because of the beautiful singers, the length of the program, and the company.  Plus we got lots of loves from Zack.

The Vance singers: Bridget, Greta, Zack, Todd, Ruby

We also had two birthdays this week.  Jordan and Foster Howell.  Happy birthday to you both.

Thursday night was the Christmas party for Roy's work which we held at our home.  It was a successful get together, even though we had a lot fewer guests than originally expected.  Several cancelled at the last minute due to illness or other reasons.  We left the next morning for another quick trip to the cabin.  Roy had a few more things he wanted to get accomplished, and the Dixon's had invited us for dinner and cards.  Carrie is quite the cook and had made a delicious dinner of filet migon. I guess they like socializing, because they invited us back for breakfast.  We had given them a box of giant potatoes for Christmas, so she made hashbrowns--and eggs benedict.  We brought the bacon.  

Dana and Carrie

Catharine (the tree in the background was about 14 ft. tall; they cut it down themselves).  They're a few years older than we are, but they cut all there own firewood every year; with the help of a few grandkids.

Right after we arrived at the cabin, Roy went to find Dana down at the lake while I had a nap.  Dana has taught Roy how to actually catch fish.

Dana

On the way home, we listened to the podcast Follow Him.  The guest was Bonnie H. Cordon, who used to be the Young Women General President, but is now President of Southern Virginia University.  She shared the following:  

There’s a quote, you may have heard it from a gentleman, it’s Frank W. Boreham. He’s an English Baptist preacher and he was speaking of events during the Napoleonic Wars and the early part of the 19th century. He said that men were following with bated breath, the march of Napoleon and waiting with feverish impatience for the news of the wars and all the while in their own homes, babies were being born, but who could think about babies? Everybody was thinking about battles. In one year between Trafalgar and Waterloo, there stole into the world a host of heroes. In 1809, Gladstone was born in Liverpool. Alfred Tennyson was born at the Somersby rectory. Oliver Wendell Holmes made his first appearance in Massachusetts. Abraham Lincoln drew his first breath at old Kentucky. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born at Durham. But nobody thought of babies. Everyone was thinking of battles. Yet which of the battles in 1809 mattered more than the babies of 1809? He goes on to say, we fancy that God can only manage his world by big battalions when all the while he is doing it by beautiful babies. He says, when a wrong wants righting or work wants doing or truth wants preaching or a continent wants opening, God sends a baby into the world to do it.                                                   

That is why long, long ago a baby was born in Bethlehem. God uses that same pattern. When you think about the Living Christ and who signed it. I have a question. Consider the year 1940. What was happening in 1940? 1940 was World War II. There was the Battle of France. France was being placed under German and Italian occupation. The German forces invaded Netherlands. We were thinking a lot about battles. Then you wonder what about the babies in 1940? Do you know some of those babies that were born in 1940? One of those babies signed the Living Christ. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, born in December, 1940. 

I'm grateful, this Christmas, for my Savior.  He is the reason we celebrate!  "He is the light the life and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come.  God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son." --The Living Christ