One of my fondest and most spiritual memories is participating in the Christmas pageant as a youth while attending the United Congregational Church in Norwich, Connecticut. I played a shepherd and dressed up in a bathrobe with a towel on my head with a rope tied around it. I was one of three shepherds. There were three wise men, angels, Mary and Joseph. There was a manger with a doll in it for Christ, The choir and congregation sang lots of Christmas Carols and even parts of Handel’s Messiah. There really was a beautiful spirit there. This was in the mid 1950’s when the real spirit of Christmas was emphasized vs the commercialization of Santa Claus today. The Pilgrim Fellowship, the teen youth group, went caroling and it also was a spiritual event.

When we were living in Salem, Connecticut I tired to bring that kind of spirit into our home. It was about 1984 or 85 when we put together a living Christmas pageant. The kids dressed up as shepherds and Joseph and Mary and we took pictures. Not all the pictures survived but I do have some of them.

Let us tell the story as found in Luke Chapter 2 with a little literary license.

1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.

2(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

Joseph took Mary to the donkey yard to pick out their rides.

4And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

5To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

6And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

Because there was no room in the inn the inn keeper directed to go around the inn to the little barn in the back yard where they could find room in the straw

7And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

Joseph watched over Mary and the babe in the manger

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

There were three angels who came that night to visit the shepherds.

10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

Mathew Ch 1

1Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judæa in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,

2Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him

And the three wise persons came bearing gifts of myrrh, frankincense, and gold

13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14aGlory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

16And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

The wise ones were amazed at the beauty of Mary and the aura that surrounded the Christ child

18And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

19But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

20And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

Boys and Snow!!

It is amazing what the inventive mind of two 6 and 9 year old boys can come up with when you have a foot of packable snow! That is a 3 1/2 foot high pile of snow! That is James the 6 year old on top "defending" his "Secret" fort!




That is Andrew immersed into his snow fort.
James, his cousin, yelled at me because it is "Secret"! No pictures!
But do you think I could get them to shovel the truck out?




What and engineering feat! Who can stand in the way of a boy and his building project.


Now Grandma is upset because they are soaked! Women! They just do not get it!

It is very late and in order to pass time profitably I turned to the videos on MeridianMagazine.com and a specific one about forgiveness hit me strongly. I just went through a minor incident with Marilyn falling, breaking her nose and dislocating her right shoulder. I was never in danger of losing her but I was greatly affected by a lack of ability to do anything for her. I called 911 and the paramedics employed by the city of Orem were there within 5 minutes and they got her up and onto a stretcher and into the ambulance. They put me into the front seat of the ambulance, out of the way so they could do their job. Two friends both High Priests came by ready to assist but because of circumstances could not.
When we got to the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center Emergency Room she was quickly moved into a room and the staff there took over. My son-in-law Dan Heyworth came dressed in a suit jacket and tie and ready to assist me in giving Marilyn a blessing. I had been silently praying that she would be alright so as soon as a lull came we pushed the door nearly closed and he anointed and I sealed and blessed her. In the blessing I was moved to tell her that the pain would abate in a while and then blessed the medical staff that they would be able to properly diagnose and prescribe correctly.
It took about 2 1/2 hours for that blessing to come to fact but after xrays it was determined that she did have a dislocated shoulder. The appropriate staff was assembled and she was given medication to put her out for 5 minutes and the doctor watched her relax and the arm become limp. He then moved to relocate her shoulder and then test it. He then turned to me and said "That was an easy one" indicating to me that the blessing had been granted.
Now the video on MeridianMagazine.com which has a link to mormon.org is about forgiveness. But it is also about a man who lost his wife and two kids to a drunk driver and his process of how he has forgiven the young man and affected many because of it.
The surrounding story is what affected me in how we are in a fragile existence and it can change in the blink of an eye. We need to understand just who we are, children of a Living God. We are here to be tried and tested. We are not the center but He is the center and IF we realize that then our life here will be filled and fulfilled.
Check out the video. http://www.meridianmagazine.com/42/videodirectlink
It may change your life. It has made me think.

OK It has been a very long time since I posted and a lot has happened.

Callings: We were released from the Nursery especially since it would wear me out. I would come home and take a two hour nap. So I became one of the 11 year old boy teachers. Great calling but a month into it I got released as they wanted the 11 year old scout leader to take this class too. Later yet I got called as the Ward Employment Specialist. The current one is a BYU professor who is going on a year sabbatical to do a dig in a middle eastern country. Wow.

So as the Employment Specialist I needed some training so I went to the Career workshop that runs two days. The workshop is to train you on how to do an interview with a “Me in 30 seconds” statement that describe your self and several power statements that answer the interviewer’s questions with information on how you would solve or have solved those problems in the past. Because I was not prepping for an interview I made up a statement about genealogy. The guy seated next to me asked me where I was from (and me with my Yankee accent). I replied born in New Hampshire and raised in Connecticut. Where’s your family from? NE Mass and SE NH. He then told me that he had some CDs to show me.

When I came back from lunch there was an 8 pack box of the digitized versions of the “Vital Records of ___________ Massachusetts to 1849” and the “Genealogy of the Mayflower descendants” ! WOW! WOW! He said that he previously had published these and sold the Mayflower disk for $160 and the 8 pack for $150. They are great! All this because I was called as the Ward Employment Specialist. Marilyn is using them extensively and has added several hundred names. Now tell me that there are not people helping from the other side of the veil! Rightttt!

Well Rachel is helping me fix the blog so I will do more later.