Posted by admin on Dec 18, 2012 in Christmas Past 2012 |

On the 6th Day of Christmas Past dear Grandma Hinckley, made Christmas magic with special cards and activities filling her grandchildren with glee. Story still available on yesterday’s 6th Day Question and Story post. Congrats to 6th Day drawing winner, Afton Ferris, who won “The Savior in Kirtland” new book autographed by author Karl Ricks...

Posted by admin on Dec 17, 2012 in Christmas Past 2012 | 3 comments

Question On the 6th Day of Christmas Past: Why did Marjorie Pay Hinckley’s family consider Christmas time her holiday? (To be entered into today’s giveaway & FREE tour drawing, Comment & Share your thoughts of story below on Facebook or our blog.) If the grandchildren had to pinpoint one time of year that reminds them of Grandma Hinckley, it would have to be Christmas. This is her holiday. Everything she does with it is magical. Around the beginning of December, little cards arrive every four or five days in the mail to her grandchildren. Each child remembers the excitement of getting a card with just his or her own name on it. If you lived out of town, it was added reassurance that Grandma always thought about you even if you didn’t see her very often. And these aren’t ordinary cards. They pop out or stand up or play a Christmas carol. Lizzie even remembers one that her brother received that unfolded into a Santa mask. The cards usually contain one or two sentences at most, things like: “Good things happen at Christmastime” or “From your secret elf” or “Start counting the days” or just a simple “XOXO.” She usually didn’t sign her name, but the small, cursive penmanship was very familiar.  Somewhere in between all of the cards was an invitation to the Grandchildren’s Christmas Party: “Attendance mandatory” or “Only the chicken pox will qualify as an excuse.” Christmas anticipation for her grandchildren didn’t get any better than receiving: Sunday, December 18, 5:30 p.m. Christmas dinner and fish pond. Walk through Temple Square. Try, try, try to be there! Love, Grandma H. Thursday, December 22, 7:00 p.m. Walk through Temple Square if we didn’t make it on the 18th. Sleepover. Breakfast. “Annie” at Promised Valley Playhouse. 4:00 p.m. Straight home! Love, G. Hinckley Marjorie Hinckley’s granchildren write the following accounts – Michael Hinckley, a grandson, remembers these extraordinary parties: My earliest and clearest memories of Grandma are the “Cousins’ Christmas Parties,” which were an essential part of each Christmas season. The magic of the Christmas season is already prevalent in the lives of children, yet this annual gala put on by Grandma added even more excitement. First of all, the simple fact that Grandma would invite only the grandchildren to come to the party was something significant in itself. While at family dinners we kids were always at the “children’s tables,” such was not the case on this occasion. There were no adults—only Grandma. We children all sat together at the “adults’ table.” We were the important people. The tables were festively decorated with linens of green and red, plates portraying Christmas scenes and symbols, and other articles ornamenting each dining place. Perhaps the most exciting feature of the dinner table was the shiny Christmas-tree ornament decorating the place of each grandchild. (I still have all of these,...

Posted by admin on Dec 17, 2012 in Christmas Past 2012 |

On the 5th Day of Christmas Past learned Lydia Knight, that paying tithing from her first instead of last brought blessings and felt right. Story still available on yesterday’s 5th Day Question and Story post. Congrats to 5th Day drawing winner, Betty Bringhurst, who won some carved olive wood christmas scene ornaments from...

Posted by admin on Dec 16, 2012 in Christmas Past 2012 |

Question 5th Day of Christmas Past: What did pioneer Lydia Knight learn about paying tithing? (To be entered into today’s giveaway & FREE tour drawing, Comment & Share your thoughts of story below on Facebook or our blog.) When first moving into their little home in Utah, Lydia [Knight] had put all the cows but one upon the range. The following very remarkable instance is an example of what God will do for those who gladly keep his laws: The one cow left at home stood out in the open air, staked a little way from the house. One morning in December Lydia awoke to find herself surrounded by a mountain of snow. “Oh, the cow!” said Lydia, as she sprang from her bed. “Boys, something must be done.” Hurriedly dressing, she went to the door, and there stood the faithful beast, cold and shivering, and there was not a spear of feed to give her. “Boys, take this blanket,” said Lydia, taking a heavy, warm, homemade blanket from her bed, “and go down to Brother Drake, who lives in the Second Ward. I knew him in the Ponca camp, and something whispers to me that he will have some feed for the cow. Tell him I would like to get enough of some kind of feed to last until this storm is over, and we can turn the poor thing out. This blanket is a good, almost new one, and should be worth part of a load.” The boys hastened down to Brother Drake’s, and in a little while Lydia was pleased and surprised to see them returning in a wagon, which was well loaded with feed. You may be sure Lydia thanked and blessed her kind friend; the boys went to work and made a pen of poles that they had hauled for wood, and they soon had “Bossie” in a warm place. In the course of a day or two, Lydia was able to churn, getting just about a pound of butter. When it was all worked over, she said to the children who had watched the operation with much interest, “Now, children, what shall we do? Here is just about a pound of butter; we may not be able to get the tenth from the cow, and shall we pay this, the first pound for tithing, or will we eat this and trust to luck to get the tenth?” “Pay this for tithing,” answered all the children with one breath. “We can do without, mother, till you churn again.” So the butter was taken to the tithing office. That cow was a “stripper” (had no calf for two years), and furthermore, the cow never got a spear of feed but what Brother Drake had brought, it having lasted until the grass grew in the spring. As Lydia has since told me, she has made it...

Posted by admin on Dec 16, 2012 in Christmas Past 2012 |

On the 4th Day of Christmas Past, Brigham Young with his council met. To make sure preparations for the spring Trek were all set. Story still available on yesterday’s 4th Day Question and Story post. Congrats to 4th Day drawing winner, Loraine LeFevre, who won a set of Israel olive wood carved...