A holy day

Dear family,

Sunday is a day of rest, but it is the busiest rest I can fathom.  I loved the time I got to spend with you for different parts of it.  I've got a couple more responsibilities before sleep tonight, so I'm signing off.  Love you all!

Love,

Dad

Sunday, December 13, 2020
9:18 pm

I love Sundays.  Today was completely full, but I felt like I used it well to worship God and to serve others. 

This evening Spencer did most of the work on mulligatawny soup for dinner, and he did a great job.  We tweaked the recipe just slightly to leave out the butter and flour to make it gluten and dairy free.  It was delicious.  Using smoked turkey stock as the soup base makes it even better.  It was fun to work with Spencer in the kitchen; he's well on his way to becoming a fully competent cook.

After dinner we watched about half of The Chosen Christmas Celebration.  It included lots of contemporary Christian artists singing songs of Christmas praise.  The songs are different than what we use in our Sunday worship, but they were uplifting and a fun change. 

Abbie and Spencer joined an online fireside with the missionaries in our area (the Spanish-speaking Elders in a threesome and the two Sister missionaries assigned to our stake).  They were talking about how missionary work is taking place online today via social media.  I only saw bits of it, but it seemed like they were engaging the kids.  Neil and Isaac joined them.  Meanwhile, I read a couple Christmas stories to Emma and Camilla.  It was a pleasant evening.

Final stop, Christmas devotional, scriptures and bedtime.  As usual that was a bit of an adventure, but we got everyone in bed.  Part of the distraction was Nathaniel discovering he could play peek-a-boo with Isaac's bedroom door.  He was infernally cute doing it.  In just a couple minutes Spencer and I are going to drop off the first of the 12 Days of Christmas gifts that we help Marie Fisher with each year.  Julie pointed out that this has been a good driving-lesson opportunity for many years.

Thankful: I am thankful for the love I feel for the members of our ward.  I recognize the direct revelation of the Holy Ghost making this possible. 

Ministering: Today I met with and ministered to many people in the ward.  I recognized at least one distinct prompting of the Holy Ghost and acted on it, leading to a tender and uplifting experience.

I didn't take any photos today, so here is another from Randy's birthday yesterday. He is happy to have lots of stamp pads now ... to stamp.