I wanted to share some neat Christmas things that I feel most people even know. My mom and I found them in a church cookbook and used them at the old folks home my Dad does church service for. We had to put together talks last minuet. I hope you enjoy these

The Candy Cane                                                                TheTwelve Days of Christmas          
During the latter part of the 18th                                              A week before Christmas a bulletin from a             Century in England, all religious symbols were                           St. Louis Church gave this explanation of    
banned from public display.  No longer Christian                      how creatively the Christian religion has had
brothers and sisters recognize one another in public                  to teach and spread the gospel in times of
by the crosses they wore on their clothing, or as jewelry.           persecution.  From 1558 until 1829, Roman
                                                                                                Catholics in England were not allowed to
During this time, it was told, there was a dedicated                     practice faith openly. Someone during that
Christian candy maker who set out to find some way                era wrote this carol as a catechism song for
for members of the Christian family to indentify each                 young Catholics.  It has two levels of
other, in spite of the ban.  He began with a piece of                  meaning : the surface meaning plus a hidden
pure white candy to signify purity and holiness of Jesus            meaning known only to the members of their
Christ. Next, he fashioned the candy into the shape of a          church. Each element in the carol has a code
sheperd's staff, as a reminder that our Heavenly Father           word for religious reality which the children
is the Good Shepard.  Then he placed three small red              could remember.
stripes ' round the candy to represent the encompassing
power and presence of the Trinity, the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit.  Finally, he placed a single, bold
red stripe through the candy to demonstrate the redeeming
power of the blood that Christ shed upon the cross for each
of us, and the forgiveness of our sins.

• The partridge in a pear tree- Jesus Christ
• The two turtle doves- were the old and new Testament
• Three french hens- stood for faith, hope and love
• The four calling birds- were the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
• The five golden rings- recalled the law, the first five books of the old testament
• The 6 geese a laying- stood for 6 days of creation
• Seven Swans a swimming- represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit
• The eight Maids a milking- were the eight beatitudes Christ shares
• The nine Ladies dancing-  these were the fruits of the Holy Spirit ( Galatians 5)
• The 10 Lords a leaping- were the 10 commandments
• Eleven Pipers piping- stood for the 11 faith disciples of Christ
• finally, the 12 Drummers- symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles creed.

Crazyiness!!

So, went out with a friend last night. We had the most crazy adventure I have had in a very long time! We had planned to go for hot chocolate and than go see Christmas lights. Well, I had printed out the directions to an I hop near the lights.  We follow these directions and look when we supposedly should have arrived to our destination for this i hop. Well, didn't see one. Drove around the area didn't see one. The lightrail turn signal for traffic didn't go off. We waited through 3 lights while we saw the lightrail driving next to us 2 times.

We moved up to the next light, and by this time we decided to use the GPS ha ha! It started taking us a new route and we followed it and followed it and started ending up in interesting places. It dragged us all over the valley, out to the desert areas on the outskirts of the city, and finally it took us to a shopping center area that had one. We didn't see it at first because it is a large shopping area. It didn't take us to the exact spot it was located. We drove around didn't see it. We ended up out of the shopping area and unfortunately for the turn off we were at goes straight to the freeway h a ha! So, we drove down the freeway trying to get back and nope started taking us the other way. We take out the GPS to get back on track and it took us back to that shopping center. We decide to ask someone in a shop where in the center place it was. We go to this western store and tell them our story. The laugh and relate with us. They told us where to go and we finally got there 1 1/2 hours after setting out to get to the place. We just ate and had hot chocolate and talk. Than, went home ha ha! But, on the way home my friend ended up turning in towards a one way street with on coming traffic. I didn't realize she was doing this until we were turning around in the intersection. I had thought she would go straight like your supposed to. It's a street that has 2 of the same street. One that goes for one direction of traffic. Than, to go the other way you have to pull farther up the street and there will be the exit to turn on to go the opposite direction. So, needless to say we thankfully hit no one. Everyone just watched us drive a lovely circle in the intersection. Later, when we were going the right way again a car drove up next to us laughing very hard. We knew they had seen what had happened. But, we were laughing at the moment about it all ourselves. It was highly amusing for a night.

Earlier when we first started out we talked about driving and stuff. We did everything we had talked about from earlier that night. I just think it was funny.

Poinsettas everywhere!!!

These are pictures of a annual poinsetta festival that a nursery was hosting. But, this was the last year and day of it. They said, it just is not cost effective to do it anymore. :(.

He ha!!

Went to a farm not to far from me. I will attach pictures. One is of this giant air bouncer, riding on the train, peddler, and hammer hit.

The story of the eggs

My mom is offically a new hooked member of pentrist. As many know it is the new growing phenomena of arts and crafts website with ideas for everything! She saw this post about a new way of doing the boiled egg. You use a muffin tin and put the eggs in and bake them in the oven for 30 minuets. It bakes them. Supposed to be easy to peel. They are cooling right now in their water bucket. Needless to say boiled eggs pick up grease not fully cleaned from a pan ha ha!! The shells have grease spots and I look at the pan and looks much cleaner ha ha!!

Pictures of Cali

I got to go all over the San Francisco area. It was so nice and fun that I didn't want to come back ha ha!!

There are pictures of Napa (grapevine places of the wineries), beaches, and such. I was able to go to Berkley, Jelly bean factory, Saw the place where the movie "the birds" by Alfred Hitchcock took place, few beaches of the san fran area, craziest street ever, lambard street,golden gate bridge and such. Enjoy.

The fabulous life of Cali!

So, I arrived in California about 2 days ago to stay with my friend out here. She lives near San Francisco.  The morning I got off the plane her grandma dropped us off and we toured part of San Francisco. We walked the warf and saw an old arcade museum with the games still working. Saw some old ships, missels from WW 2, submarines (can't believe people could handle being in them, so small spaced), and people playing on the street corner. We saw the bush man and yes he got my friend and I. You can youtube him, he is very famous! We went to Ripleys believe it or not museum. We did conquer the mirror of mirrors maze. We got to hold a live lobster by the claws. The thing is half my size, so crazy! the area by the warf is very similar to Seattle, WA. I will upload pictures soon, they are on my friends I phone. My camera I got a new one with a camcorder and just got the new memory card yesterday.
Getting off the plane was cold to me! I have been in 110-118 degrees F weather. I was like shivering ha ha ha! It was like 60s and 70's by the bay. In my friend area it's a lot like back home, hot! It was 101 degrees F yesterday. My friend and Grandma have blamed me for bringing the heat from home here. I guess I cannot blame them, I told them I'm so sorry ha ha!
I tyed stuff for the first time yesterday. Today we rinse them and wash them. I am very anxious to see how they turned out! We also saw a protest from janitors on the street by the china town in San Fran. kind of crazy for first day!

Cow day!

So, Chick-filet restaurant today gave free meals to those who dressed fully like cows. My nieces and I dressed up like cows and got free meals. So yummy. I had to pay $0.33 for the lemonade. Theirs is freshly squeezed. Ah so good. I will keep this receipt forever!!
Those who only dressed like half cows got half off the meal
and those that were not dressed had to pay full price.

Than it was free veggie tales movie day and the girls liked that. Community you rock!!!

The battlefield

Yesterday, we got our first big rainstorm all summer!! We went to walmart and the workers were all smiling and just people in general were so happy! Our family in washington wasnt' super happy having rain on the 4th, but shoot Arizona were like "bring it on"! We put my sisters kids outside in their swim suits to play out in pouring down rain. They loved it. We had got cheapy waterguns and they actually worked better than the one the costed more.  My sister, mom and family friend we drenched each other.  My mom squirted my Dad and well " you all know what happens when a female plays tricks on the male" ;). He chased her down and they wrestled over the water gun. He eventually got it away from her and let her have it. She ran outside to get away from him. We locked them out and he let her have it with the water gun ha ha ha!! It was hilarious! We just watched from the front window and laughed. The kids wanted to partipate so soon everyone was squirting water at everyone. It was so fun! It was nice day, dropping weather to 78 degrees F from our usual 110-114 degrees F.

Bubbles, Bubbles

So, I made some healthy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I wondered when I tried eating them why they had a particular taste to them.  After starting to rinse the mixing bowl I saw bubbles form in the water. I hadn't added any bubbles to scrub yet. So, I realized whoever used the bowl last didn't get all the soap from around the edge out ha ha ha!! So, I ate soapy cookies. Last night was video night to send my sister on a Church mission. we had a family friend over and had him be a main actor and these cookies the star of the show.  We had him sit at the table with my mom bringing the cookies over to him to sample. He eats one and my mom leaves the scene. All of the sudden bubbles start popping out of his mouth as he is eating the cookie. He just starts having more cough out of his mouth as he continues to eat the cookie. It was hilarious!!! We were all busting up with laughter. :)

Firehouse

Went out to eat with my family after a trip to the Temple.  We came to this place called "Firehouse Subs". It was apparently founded by a fireman in 1994.  The inside is so cool! It has a side wall with a rack and fireman uniforms on it.
A big picture on another wall of the mesa and gilbert fire department fighting a fire on a house.  The place is located inbetween both of the two cities of mesa and Gilbert.
The tables are black and white spotted to represent dalamation dogs that were known to be fire dogs back in the day.
They had the coolest pop machine. You select your soda or juice on a touch screen and than press the button push. Have your cup under the selector box and push the cup back and it fills up.
The whole place looks like a fire station.

Biggest water blasting of all time

Went to the Biggest water park in AZ! They have this toilet bowl ride, super bowl ride, racer slides, no straight down slides. I wouldn't go on one anyway went few years ago for a birthday and only went on them to be brave ha ha! I really wasn't actually, I was showing off. lame

http://wetnwildphoenix.com/- here's the website and you can see all the cool rides I described. The tornado( toilet bowl) was a crazy ride. We went with a nice couple we met there since you need 4 people and so they joined us. I went on the lazy susan and had a bee almost attack me and then it went after these to asian kid boys and they were like " whoa, it almost go us, and than I responded to them, and they were like " no one would help you, you old lady!" so mean! I was like "I am not an old lady". I stopped listening to them after that.  That was fun! Nice to cool off. It is expensive without a pass.

Cool story

While in the car going to the store. Saw a cop that was using his jeep suv type car and was pushing a guy's car that had stalled on the road. He pushed the guy all the way to his apartment using his jeepish car to push his car.  It was really cool to watch.

hairbrush anyone

So, went to church yesterday and my two friends came since their parents are in the congregation also. They had chopped off their hair. They had some "long" hair. One donated 3 ponytails of her hair. Her sister donated also, but just one ponytail. Then my friend came to get her car she had at my house and her hair was so different. She looked like a super model or something. She was always a nice, pretty person. This new look just brought herself out more.   I am trying to decide if I want to grow my hair out since my hair cut my hair has grown like 3 inches in the last month and half. That was kind of fun to see my friends all have new hair on the same weekend.

The newest member

My sister on Friday at 2:45 am finally had her baby. His name is Carson. He is 8lbs and 14 oz. She just came home from the hospital with him today. He is a pretty quiet baby except during diaper changes because of his recent circumcision.  Than we just learned today that my cousins wife is pregnant again. Hopefully, this pregnancy for her works out. :)

The nursing home

Today, we  took the two oldest nieces to the old folks home my Dad does the sacrament for and the 5 almost 6 year old was nervous to talk to these old people. Then the oldest girl walked around and showed the old folks her new bracelet she had gotten at a jewelry party. She told them all about it. It was neat to see that. She wanted to sing with the ward that was assisting for the final number in front of the group because it was the "I am a child of God" song. One of the young men that was up there motioned her that she could stand by him and he helped her. You could tell that Ariel's example really  touched him. That was really neat to see today.

Tribute to Dad

My Dad is amazing! He has always been a hero to me. He always serves his family over himself. He always gets mom flowers or something for us just to be thoughtful. Cleans the house without being asked. He always listens. He is more like my friend than a Dad. He is always being thoughtful. He always tried to make time for us even though he was busy. He made all my band concerts, choir concerts and play horse for us. He would drive however far just to see us. He is a hard worker,but it doesn't really do it for him,  he does it for his family.   Dad your the best!

Dino frenzy!

Target is really cool!! It pays and has it's workers help at cultural centers.  We went free to the Children"s museum and the Natural History Museum. The make it hands on kids friendly.  It is so cool !
They have a place for kids to pan gold, see Dino bones, puzzles, a kids room with boosk, puzzles, coloring, fishing for dinos, look under the microscope at sea shells, a projector to look at dinosaurs and all sorts of stuff.

It looks so different compared to when I was a kid.   We took my sisters two oldest daughers and they had a lot of fun :).
I took a few pictures of it.

Horse Drama

Yesterday, it was my sister's birthday. She wanted to go Horse back riding since she's never been. We went to a place my Dad took my older sister and I many years ago when we went for my birthday.  I also took horse lessons before and every horse I've ever ridden has been a blackish-brown horse.  They always like to be the leader.  My horse yesterday, had flies buggin him and so he kept going up to the other horses and wiping his face on their behind and stuff. He would bite the other horse in front of him. I was like wow! It is was entertaining.  My sister had a good time. I"m not too sore the next day ha ha!!

Library madness

So, Went to the library yesterday since my books were due. Went at the time I thought they opened, well, oddly there were all these people there. The library opens a half an hour later now. More kept coming as the time neared for it to open. I thought it so strange. Then, my mom and I started thinking ah it's the culture passes they are after. We have passes that allows for 2 free admissions to the zoo, science center, museums and so forth. Towards it almost opening my mom and I headed towards the door. Then people saw us moving and got up and hurried to beat us to the door. Then the door was blocked. I saw a kid from my work that I've watched before be one of them.  Then, right after the guard opens the door they all speed walk to the cultural passes section.  It was very interesting and hilarious to watch I must say!

Interesting Tsunami story

 So, I was listening to the radio and heard an interesting story. So, there was a boy that lost his soccer ball during Japan's big Tsunami.  He had written his name on this soccer ball of his. Just a little while ago a soccer ball with his name turned up all the way in Alaska!! Crazy right! What a nice way to show God looks out for us and likes to give small happy suprises  when we least expect. I think it was nice little comfort for the boy after the situation that took place where he is.  I just think it is funny that he must have had the ball well pumped up to float all that way ha ha!  :)

Concept

So, recently for the church that is world wide broadcast.  Some of the things I liked from it were from one of the members of the First Presidency Elder Uchtdorf.  He spoke on two words "Stop it".  He went on to explain that we need to let go of grudges and hurtful feelings.  That acting that way doesn't help us any, but hurts us.  We need to love our Enemies because hate is not something we want to feel either. It will de- sensitize us to other things and will harden our hearts.   Today is Easter, and we had a Family Home Evening lesson on using God's name in Vain.  It brought home this point of "Stop it" because Christ wasn't a hater at any point in his life.  He never judged or ridiculed.  This lesson is good because most times I think we don't realize we are having ill feelings in our heart.  Recently, my sister has had to work with someone who is rude, insulting and mean to her.  It has made me sad and mad at this person. But, I know that is will not help.  We need to stand up for ourselves when we are being torn down and made fun of, but we don't need to be mean and hard hearted in the process.  This event has really made me think of this lesson I have had pointed out to me 2 times now in the last 2 weeks. I'm thinking there is something to be gained and learned from it.

Bitanical Garden

These are pictures I took at the Phoenix Bitanical Garden. I hope you will enjoy! I tried to find some things most of you haven't seen.  I will give some names. See if you can match the name to the picture :).  Organ Cactus, Creeping Devil, Jumping Catcus, and Old man. One is a picture of a cactus many many years old. Like a tree you know it's age by the rings. Well, cactus you know by it's arms. Another picture has a hidden animal in it, think you can find it. It is a small animal. One is of our previous local wildlife before we metropolized.

Re trip to Vegas ha ha!

So, this was my hotel I stayed at called "Excalibur".  It is based off of the "knights of the round table". So cool! I loved it! Then I ate their buffet. Vegas is known for those :). I finally master Chop sticks and chow mein. It was the best I"ve ever had. My Chinese friends I went with showed me how. I finally ate like they did. The first night we ate at a Chinese restaurant for them and I looked so out of place. Everyone was Chinese. They all used chopsticks. Then my chinese friends got tired of using them and ate fork like me. I gave up on chopsticks that night ha ha! We saw M and M world. It is a 4 level store for M and M candies.

    We walked around the different hotels. They have a lot of night shows for free. We saw the water show. I will upload the volcano show for "mirage hotel".  We also went to one of the shows. It was a wax museum in the Venitian hotel. It is of wax figures of hollywood, President, and such. They looked so real!! It was kind of odd, but cool~!

My vacation to Florida!

For my graduation present to myself I went back to my church mission in Orlando,Fl.  I was able to meet with my friend from Japan. We went to downtown disney, universal Studios city walk, and the beach. We had a lot of fun!
          I went to an island to go to a really nice beach there.  It was fun and I got some good sea shells there.  I saw some people in the church congregation I knew there and it was good to see them.  I ate at a restaurant with them that is called the "yellow dog". They have the funniest menu names for their food.  Like Fluffy Love, the hound dog, and so forth.  I read a book and hung out by a lack near this family I was close to on my mission. I stayed with them during most of my vacation.  It was nice to see them again.  I got to know their daughter that served her mission near my parents. They met her and now, I met her. She is getting married soon. I hung around the engaged couple for time.  I went to the Orlando Temple . It is so pretty!
    I walked around downtown orlando and they have a disney amphitheater park that is just beautiful!  There are many unique old buildings there.

   All of Florida has cameras on the traffic lights and every free way is a toll road.  You pay like $.75 or $1.00 for using the road.