A Christmas Story to Share

Wally Purling was in the second grade even though he was nine years of age and should have been in the fourth grade. He just had difficulty in keeping up with the other children his age, but all his classmates liked him, even though he was big and clumsy and slow in movement and mind. He was always helpful and willing, smiling and happy and the natural protector of the underdog.

Each year the school presented the traditional Christmas pageant and this year Wally was assigned an important role. After all, Miss Lumbard reasoned, the innkeeper did not have many lines, and Wally’s size would make his refusal of lodging to Joseph even more forceful.

On the night of the performance, Wally was so caught up in the magic of the night that he stood in the wings and watched the pagenant with such fascination that from time to time Miss Lumbard had to make sure he didn’t wander on stage before his cue. Then came the time when Joseph knocked hard on the wooden door set into the painted backdrop.

“What do you want?” Wally said, swinging the door open with a brusque gesture.
“We seek lodging.”
“Seek it elsewhere.” Wally looked straight ahead but spoke vigorously. “The Inn is filled.”
“Sir, we have asked everywhere in vain. We have traveled far and are very weary.”
“There is no room in this Inn for you.” Wally looked properly stern.
“Please, good innkeeper, this is my wife Mary. She is heavy with child and needs a place to rest. Surely you must have some small corner for her. She is so tired.”

At this comment the innkeeper relaxed his stern stance and looked down at Mary for the first time. There was a long pause that made the audience a bit nervous and the prompter whispered from the wings, “No! Begone!”

“No!” Wally repeated automatically. “Begone!”

As Joseph sadly placed his arm around Mary and the two of them started to move away, the innkeeper did not return inside his inn. Instead, Wally stood there in the doorway watching the forlorn couple with his mouth open, his brow creased with concern, and his eyes filling unmistakably with tears. And suddenly this Christmas pageant became different from all the others.

“Don’t go, Joseph,” Wally called out. “Bring Mary back.” And Wally Purling’s face grew into a bright smile. “YOU CAN HAVE MY ROOM!”

May each of us make room for our Savior this Christmas Season, just as Wally Purling did.
Merry Christmas to each of you!

Give a Little Hope

I wanted to share this story at the beginning of this Christmas season to remind us to look for those around us who may need some "hope" this year. In this month's Ensign, President Monson reminds us that Jesus Christ went about "doing good." We don't have to look very far to find someone to do good to! Enjoy the story.

I am a mother of three (ages 14, 12, 3) and have recently completed my college degree. The last class I had to take was Sociology. The teacher was absolutely inspiring with the qualities that I wish every human being had been graced with. Her last project of the term was called, 'Smile.' The class was asked to go out and smile at three people and document their reactions.

Soon after we were assigned the project, my husband, youngest son, and I went out to McDonald's one crisp March morning. It was just our way of sharing special playtime with our son. We were standing in line, waiting to be served, when all of a sudden everyone around us began to back away, and then even my husband did. I did not move an inch... An over-whelming feeling of panic welled up inside of me as I turned to see why they had moved.

As I turned around I smelled a horrible 'dirty body' smell, and there , standing behind me were two poor homeless men. As I looked down at the short gentleman close to me, he was 'smiling.'
His beautiful sky blue eyes looked up at me as he searched for acceptance. He said, 'Good day' as he counted the few coins he had been clutching. The second man fumbled with his hands as he stood behind his friend. I realized the second man was mentally challenged and the blue-eyed gentleman was his salvation.

The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted. He said, 'Coffee is all Miss' because that was all they could afford. (If they wanted to sit in the restaurant and warm up, they had to buy something. He just wanted to be warm).

Then I felt it - the compulsion was so great that I almost reached out and embraced the little man with the blue eyes. That is when I noticed all eyes in the restaurant were set on me, judging my every action.

I smiled and asked the young lady behind the counter to give me two more breakfast meals on a separate tray. I then walked around the corner to the table that the men had chosen as a resting spot. I put the tray on the table and laid my hand on the blue-eyed gentleman's cold hand.

He looked up at me, with tears in his eyes, and said, 'Thank you.'
I leaned over, began to pat his hand and said, 'I did not do this for you. God is here working through me to give you hope.'

It truly takes so little to give a smile, a little hope, a little love to someone in need. Let's do good this Christmas season.

Thankful for Thanksgiving

I think it is a good thing to have a holiday that makes you focus on all of the blessings that you have. I've decided that, although food is at the center of the day, it is really family that makes it a special holiday. Family that is far away or as the ones that you are with, without them, it would be an empty day. There is so much to be thankful for in our lives, it is a shame to waste gratitude on just one day of the year! I, for one, am going to add gratitude as one of my daily activities.

Here are a few of the things that made our Thanksgiving day a special one this year:

Scott made this pilgrim hat at school. Every time we looked around, he had it on again! Cute! (Do you like how I got his drool frozen in time?)

I captured this special moment with Scott and his Aunt Kathleen at our Thanksgiving party in Logan. She is singing "I Am a Child of God" to him. He sat enthralled through all 3 verses of it.
Precious moment.

I captured a few of the sights during the day. Janice & Carl carving the main attraction.

Dad & his brother Alan. They certainly look like Pehrsons, don't they?

Michele, Wayne & Olivia came over in the evening to share in our turkey leftovers! Ended our day in a cozy, happy moment captured in these pictures. Grandpa's feeding Olivia pureeded turkey!

Tagged

This is my "tag" picture, on the right. It's a great one, don't you think? Don't know where or when it was, but I do know who it is!! Brings back good memories, huh?






I love this one of Oliva & I. I thought it looked a little bland on this side of the post, so I will share it with all of you.

Catching Up on October

While waiting to get new batteries for my camera so I could share our Halloween pictures, October slipped away and up popped November! So here are some belated pictures of our Lewiston Halloween events.....pretty quiet on the home front without any little kids to dress up. Dad couldn't wait to carve his pumpkins. He makes me draw the faces and then he does the carving. The one with eyelashes is supposed to be Olivia Mae with a little bow in her hair! The little one is Scott's that he did at BRASC. They make a cute couple, don't you think?

Scott's costume was, as always, gleaned from Dad's closet. In case you can't tell, he is in camo. We are very creative these days!

Things livened up when the M & M's came to trick-or-treat us with a cute little LadyBug! Green M&M wouldn't let her have any candy, so she got a frozen popsicle from her grandparents!

That was the beginning & the end of our trick-or-treaters! But, don't worry....our candy didn't go to waste!

September Happenings

I love the fall! I can't wait until the leaves start turning into their beautiful colors. Lots of red and yellows here in Utah. If I were an artist, I would paint a grand picture of the foothills and the golden trees.

Other September happenings include the harvest of our luscious, ruby tomatoes! Hmmm, hmmm, good. The fruit of the heavens, I think. This one especially "spoke" to me....I call him Mr. Tomato Head. What do you think?




Chase was having a grand time under the tree a couple of weeks of go. I thought he looked so cute up on his shelter. People often comment to us that they like to drive past our house just to see where the goat is tethered. He is becoming quite famous in Lewiston!






Here are the long awaited pictures of our new carpet. What a monumental day it is in our house to get something new! We love it; it makes our house feel much bigger and it lightens up the room. We are especially glad that we have a new carpet now that Olivia is such a mover and shaker. I think she's covered every inch of it, so far!



As I write this, Carl (& Wayne, but not together) are out hunting. It is the muzzle loader hunt and Carl, Tim, & Doug are in the Uintas this weekend. I am trying not to get my hopes up for a sirloin venison steak smothered in mushrooms! Scott & I are ready for him to come back home and give him big hugs. We miss him, but are so glad he could get out and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Scott & Olivia are getting to be great friends, if a giant & a munchkin can be friends! He is learning to be very gentle with her, and makes it "most" of the time! Michele will have to teach her the right defensive moves to make!

Corn Day

The first sign of fall is always the day we do corn. Today was the day! It was perfect weather for "corning"....70 degrees with cloud cover. Carl, of course, did all the prep work and Scott and I joined in when the first batch was ready to cut. We had a great time! It was really a "family affair" as you can see by the pictures. Scott helped husk and eat the corn; the llamas and Buddy thought they had died and gone to heaven. We got 15 dozen ears of corn and froze 23 bags. What a winter treat they will be!

She Brought the Rain & the Sun

Jenny's back!! Just like last time, she brought with her some of that Alaska weather, including a rain storm and cooler weather...well, it did take a few days for the cooler weather to come, but I think that Mother Nature empathized with her condition and dropped a few degrees today so Jenny could survive! When you are carting around 3 people, you just get hotter...right, Jenny? It is so cute to see her little round tummy holding our 2 newest grandchildren! We measured today and will measure again before she leaves to see just how fast she is growing, because we think we can sit and actually watch her tummy growing! That's a good thing!
We had a fun time at her baby shower on Friday...thanks to all of our great family coming and sharing this time with us. We're trying to figure out how to get everything back to Alaska now! We had a great day at Bear Lake on Saturday....the weather was perfect and the water wonderful! And we couldn't resist the famous raspberry shakes on the way home!
Looking forward to adding more memories in the next few days, as we count down the hours until she gets to go see her big sister, Anna, and Aleah for the first time ever! Thanks, Devin, for flying her down her for us!!

We got in a trip to Bear Lake and a picnic up Smithfield Canyon. It sure was hard to let her go! Thanks a million for coming, Jeanette!!!!

Kelsey the Great!

Kelsey Marie flies back to North Carolina today! We had such a great time while she was here! It couldn't have been better unless her sisters had been here with her! I know that she will forget half of the things that she did while she was here, so I am going to make a list so she can remember it all!
* Meeting Michele at the airport and spending some time on Temple Square. Remember standing by the statue of Christ and looking up at Him? What a neat feeling to know that He knows who you are and loves you very much!

* Hugging Scott for the first time and seeing his

excited face when he saw you! He wouldn't let you out of his sight for the first few days! I am amazed at how much patience you have with him, even when he is drooling all over your shoulder when he gives you a MUH! He went upstairs the day after you left, looking all over for you!
* Staying over night at Michele and Wayne's and going to the Youth Conference, doing yardwork, laughing until you almost wet your pants, and going on a hike the next morning. You were such a trooper, and the YW president was amazed at your buff muscles! You even got a some pictures and a t-shirt to take home with you (except you left it here in the wash and I will have to send it to you!)
* Going to Casper's to get ice cream with M & W and then on a special Grandpa-granddaughter date and getting a "Fat Boy" t-shirt! Remember all of the ice cream bars we had when we were watching TV at night? Yummy!
* Playing "You Blew It" a hundred times with Grandma! You won every game except 1, I think!

* Helping with Olivia when you were over at M & W's. She sure loved you, and I think it helped you not miss Aleah so much! Your aunts will be glad when you are 12 or so and can really babysit for them!

* Going fishing with Grandpa at 3rd Dam. You didn't catch anything, but I know you sure had fun trying!
* Doing all those chores for us! (What will I do without you???) And getting paid for them, so you would have some spending money. I know you spent some of that on gifts to take back to your family. Good girl!
* Going to work with Grandma and getting to have fun with Claire and Emma. You sure learned how to make those origami frogs!
* And let us not forget going horse back riding with Wayne's brother! That was one of your favorite things to do, I know!
* I think my favorite was going to Bear Lake and spending the day in the water and on the beach. My favorite place to be!
There were so many other little things, like talking to your family on the phone every night, watching lots of good Disney movies while we played "You Blew It," saying prayers with Scott when he went to bed, the night the electricity went out, and getting a blessing from Grandpa before you left. We can't wait for you to come again, Kelsey! Maybe next time, Morgan can come with you!

Here's to lots more years of having grandchildren come and spend time at our house! Grandpa will have to keep his promise and let us get some nice play equipment for all of you! Until next time, the motto is: "What happens at Grandma's, stays at Grandma's!"

I Made It to Utah: Day One

This is Kelsey Marie Sisson. I am going to talk to you about my trip on the airplane to Utah. I sat by a very nice lady with my friend Gabe.We sat next to each other. The first part on the airplane was taking off. We chewed gum really fast as we plugged our ears. As we got settled we played tic-tac-toe. Then we drank Sprite and ate cookies and watched TV for an hour. Finally we landed and my Aunt Michele picked me up! When she did, we went to Temple Square and saw the Conference building. We also saw the temple and the Visitor's Center. After that we got something to eat and went to my grandma and grandpa's house!

Lewiston 4th

Okay, you win. I will save my philosophizing for my journal and tell you about our exciting life in Lewiston. The Fourth was going to be a really hot day, but with the cloud cover and the breeze, it turned out fairly tolerable. We went to the longest parade ever in the morning; Scott got a whole bag of candy...brother! MWO came to spend the day with us which made it seem more like a holiday. Went over to see the booths at the city park and ate gyro sandwiches for lunch...yum. Afterwards, we went back home and set up the trampoline and pool and shade cover and spent the afternoon outside. Janice, Crystal & Cameron came for lunch and spent the afternoon with us. It was fun to have some family around. Olivia loves her little swimming pool and splashed around a bit. Scott was too wimpy to get in the pool...icy water! MW & CC went in and cooled off. Carl made some smoothies that tasted great. In the evening Carl went to the horse pull and really enjoyed it even though he was alone. I watched the fireworks from my chair in the house....I just happened to notice them through the open door so i watched Lewiston's and Washington DC's at the same time. That pretty much ended our Fourth for this year. Jenny, since you and Devin are the only ones who ever read this or comment on it, I will be looking for your comment! Thanks for making it worthwhile:)

Gardening

Since the HOPE Institute (where I have worked for 10 years) dissolved, I, who have killed every Mother's Day plant I've ever been given, was left with the job of keeping the plants alive, or tossing them out. I was left with 6 plants in various stages of heartiness; a couple actually looked like they had had some tlc (tender loving care); the other 4 looked like they were in the last stages of a terminal, wilting disease. I decided that, since this was a new beginning at work for me, that I would give these plants a new beginning, also. And so I started to give them water on a regular basis, something that they had never had before. It took a few weeks, but then I started to see a difference in them...they were growing and making new leaves; they were greener, stronger, and much happier little plants! I am committed to them now, and I take good care of them, plucking off dead & yellowed leaves, turning them so they can get the best light, and making sure that they look good. I found out that I can be a good gardener!

At church today, in Fast & Testimony meeting, I saw the same thing happen. I watched as one glowing person after another, went up to the pulpit to bear their testimony. A few months ago, each of these had been wilting, with dead leaves all over them, with no gardener taking care of them. But, then a wonderful thing happened; someone began to shower them with tlc regularly, and kept turning them towards the Son; plucking off a dead leaf here and a yellowed leaf there; checking their soil for dryness, and giving them just enough water; some even getting extra plant food to help them grow. And it worked, just like my plants. They are growing ever stronger; they have good nourished soil, and their countenance shines with peace and joy. One came from a background of drug abuse and wild living; one had been excommunicated and was divorced from his wife and 4 children who lived in our ward; others had been inactive for so long that they had forgotten that they really did have testimonies of the true Church, deep down inside. And I learned again, that when the Master Gardener tends the tender plants in His Garden, that miracles happen and lives are changed.

It was a good day.

Giving Joy

We just got done viewing the movie "The Bucket List" last weekend. It wasn't quite what I expected, not nearly as funny, but it did give me some things to think about. In one part of the movie, the two friends, portrayed by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, are sitting high up on the top of a pyramid in Egypt (something on their "bucket list") and one turns to the other and asks him two questions: Did you have joy in your life? and Did you give someone joy?

As I thought about how I would answer those questions, I thought of several things that have given and still do give me joy. Of course they center on my family and the great moments that we have had; right up there with family times are the times I have been outdoors and in beautiful places, like up in the mountains, at Bear Lake, and at the ocean. But I have to say that the most joyful times I have experienced had to do with the gospel and the love I feel from my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ for me, personally and privately. Knowing that I know the truth; know who I am; know where I am going; and know the Giver and Creator of all truth. When a person feels that love coming from Jesus Christ, speaking spirit to spirit, there is no greater joy.

As to the question, Have I given joy?, I can only answer that I hope that I have. And again it centers on my family and the times that we have shared; the love that we have for each other. I can do more, I know. I can reach out to others who may be in need of more love and care. I love this quote from Mother Teresa: In this life, we cannot always do great things--but we can do small things with great love. That, I think, is what I will try to do from now on....increase the small things that I can do, and do them with great love.

Our Names are Written in the Land

We went to an outdoor gathering this weekend, held at a home that overlooks a small glen with the Cub River running through it. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was as I looked out over the green pastures below, spotted with horses and their colts, sheep with their lambs, and a few llamas. As I looked further at the rolling foothills covered with a kaleidoscope of green, and then to the mountains beyond, I couldn't think of a more peaceful setting. It reminded me once again of what Ireland must be like....that IS why I moved to Utah, because Sardine Canyon reminded me of the Ireland of my dreams. I've always thought it odd that, after moving here, I found out Utah was a desert land! I hope that each of you have discovered the beauty of your land and that you embrace and explore it.

I just read a book, "Sarah, Plain and Tall," and in it a woman comes from Maine to live on a farm on the prairie. The book (and movie) tell how she learns to love her new husband and his children, and finally, the land. During an especially harsh summer under drought conditions, she goes back to Maine with the children until the situation improves. Her husband stays on the farm because, "his name is written in this land, " and he will not leave it. When rain returns to the land, she returns to continue her life with her family. The first thing she does when she returns is to get a stick and write her own name "in this land," signifying that she, too, will never leave it again because it is now part of her. I love that story, and as I and my daughters have left our home land for new territory with our husbands, we must come to a time when we write our name in the land and take it for our own.

Alive & Well in Utah!

Jeanette has reminded me that it has been a whole year since my last blog!! I can't believe that time goes past so fast and that so much can happen in a year!

To begin with, next Sunday is Father's Day (again!) and I still honor, admire, and love the father of my children! That's good news! He is amazing and still taking such good care of everyone but himself! He's going to wear himself out soon if he doesn't watch it.

It's been a good year for fathers: we have a new father in the family, and a father-to-be! Hurray, because that means more grandchildren for us! Olivia Mae Smith is now 5 months old and discovering more and more of her world each day! Michele tells me she discovered her toes yesterday and insists on sucking them now! I don't think I could ever do that, and certainly wouldn't want to try it now!

Miracles still happen, and Jenny & Devin are growing twins! It is amazing how the technology today can make such an unbelievable thing happen to some wonderful people! We are so excited for this new development and give total credit to a loving Father in Heaven.

Speaking of grandchildren, we have some glorious girls back in North Carolina who are growing more wonderful each day! We can't wait to give Kelsey Marie a hug when she comes to visit us in July! We just wish that all could come and join her here in Utah. We will continue to be patient and wait for that to happen in April of 2009! What a great day that will be!

Scott continues to delight and amuse us, and stretch our patience with his "silly goose" moments. He loves spring and summer (when it is not snowing like today!) when he can come and go freely outside whenever he wants.

Life is good and the simple pleasures are still the best. We love all of our family and can't wait for a day when we will all be together again!