On the 3rd Day of Christmas past we learned Mothers can make any Christmas the best! With courage, determination, and happily making due when hard pressed. Story still available on yesterday’s 3rd Day Question and Story post. Congrats to 3rd Day drawing winner, Janet Egbert, who won a beautiful set of carved olive wood ornaments from...
Read MoreQUESTION and STORY 3rd Day Christmas Past
On the 3rd day of Christmas past the question is to be: How can Mothers (past and present) make the “Best Christmas Ever”? (To be entered into today’s giveaway & FREE tour drawing, Comment & Share your thoughts on Facebook or our blog) “It snowed! It snowed!” shouted my sister. We jumped out of bed and ran to the window. Snow was rare in our little town of Thatcher, in southern Arizona, and on that Christmas morning in 1908, our excitement knew no bounds. Awakened by our chatter, Mother joined us. Together we stared at the beautiful sight, knowing that we would remember it for a long time. The full moon sat low in the west. Only a few clouds remained from the night’s storm that had clothed the earth in a beautiful white robe for Christmas. “You know,” Mother said, “I think Heavenly Father knew that Santa wasn’t coming to our house this Christmas, and he sent the snow to make this day special.” Each of us knew in our hearts that Mother was right. Our father, known to all of Thatcher as Bishop Moody, was far across the Pacific Ocean serving as a mission president. Of course, we had wanted to go with him, but because of the lack of schools, the primitive conditions, and the heat, our parents had decided that we should remain in Thatcher. This was our first Christmas without Father. In order not to let his absence cast gloom on our holiday, we had planned a very special Christmas just by ourselves. Not even Santa would be a part of our celebration. For weeks, secrets, whispering, and sometimes a “Don’t you dare open my dresser drawer” had permeated the house as we had made gifts for each other. Since a Christmas tree was out of the question, Mother had designated a special chair for each of us where our gifts would be placed. Accordingly, on Christmas Eve we each decorated our chair with strings of popcorn, paper chains, bright red bells, and other homemade decorations. On Christmas morning, Mother shooed us back into our beds while she made the fire and tended the babies. She told us to stay there until she called, but we eventually climbed out of bed, got dressed, and waited. What a sight met our eyes when Mother finally called us to come downstairs to the parlor! The chairs were arranged in a semicircle around our high-topped parlor organ and were loaded with exciting gifts and packages. Mother had placed a beautiful star on each chair with a name on it: Mama, Hazel, Ruth, Delia, Flora, Mabel, and Rupert. Mother must have worked for months. She had crocheted a cap and mittens with a matching scarf for each daughter, had renewed our last year’s doll and made it a new dress, and had even made each of the girls...
Read MoreANSWER 2nd Day Christmas Past
On the 2nd Day of Christmas Past, Wilford Woodruff’s life changed in an unexpected way. When the gospel filled his soul and he was baptized on New Year’s Eve Day. Story still available on yesterday’s 2nd Day Question and Story post. Congrats to 2nd Day drawing winner, Susie Amini, who won a wood carved Holy Family olive wood decoration made in...
Read MoreQUESTION and STORY 2ND Day Christmas Past
On the 2nd day of Christmas past the question is to be: Which LDS prophet first heard the gospel a few days after Christmas & was baptized on New Year’s Eve? (To be entered into today’s giveaway & FREE tour drawing, Comment & Share your thoughts of story below on Facebook or our blog.) In 1833, when Wilford Woodruff was twenty-six, he decided to move near Richland, New York, where he and Azmon (his brother) bought a farm. When they weren’t farming, they were (of course) fishing. One morning they caught five hundred salmon! It was there in New York, in late December, that Wilford’s life changed in an unexpected way. Azmon’s wife, Elizabeth, answered a knock on the door of their home and found two Mormon missionaries standing on the front step. Wilford and Azmon weren’t home, so the two elders told Elizabeth to tell the brothers that the missionaries would be preaching at a nearby school house that evening. They would love to have the Woodruffs come and listen to their message about a newly restored church and gospel. When Wilford arrived home and heard about the missionaries, he remembered Brother Mason’s prophecy that he would be a “conspicuous actor in the new kingdom.” Without waiting for supper, Wilford raced out to his horse and galloped to the schoolhouse! When he arrived, the room was already packed with people. But Wilford eased his way through the crowd and finally got a seat at a writing desk at the very front. He wanted to see and hear everything. What Wilford saw and heard that night filled his soul with the Spirit of God. “I felt that I had just heard the first true gospel sermon in my life,” he later said. It was exactly what Wilford had been looking for: prophets, apostles, revelation, spiritual gifts. These were things Wilford knew from studying the Bible, and he knew they were important. He was so excited that he jumped to his feet at the end of the sermon, turned to the crowd, and said, “Friends and neighbors, I feel to tell you not to oppose these men. They are true servants of God. They have preached to us the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. I witness to you it is true!” Two days later, on December 31, Wilford and Azmon were baptized at a nearby lake. Knowing Wilford, however, you may have guessed that he had an accident or two on his way to the baptism. While getting ready for the ride, his horse suddenly kicked the hat right off Wilford’s head. Two inches lower and the hoof probably would have killed the future Prophet. Just ten minutes later, while driving this same horse and another hitched to a sled, several loose boards on the floor of the sled gave way, and Wilford suddenly fell to the ground. With Wilford...
Read MoreANSWER 1st Day Christmas Past
On the first day of Christmas Past, Christmas to ALL in Lee’s Creek was brought. Especially by Aunt Zina who a sewing club did start. Story still available on yesterday’s 1st Day Question and Story post. Congrats to 1st Day drawing winner, PAUL ZUNDEL, who won a set of olive wood ornaments made in...
Read MoreQUESTION and STORY 1st Day Christmas Past
On the first day of Christmas past the question is to be: How did the settlers in Lee’s Creek, come together to bring Christmas even though their situation started out very bleak? (To be entered into today’s giveaway & FREE tour drawing, Comment & Share your thoughts on story below on Facebook or on our blog. See full list of rules on Dec 7 post.) CHRISTMAS Comes to Lee’s Creek IT WAS summer when the settlers arrived at Lee’s Creek and pitched their tents along its wooded banks—the summer of 1887. The morning after the pioneers arrived, it snowed, giving this covered wagon party from Cache Valley a greeting to Canada they never forgot. In the tents where the immigrants huddled around campfires to keep themselves warm, there was talk of home—home in the mountains. “Mom, you said we would be home tonight,” whimpered four-year-old Wilford Woolf, and there were tears in his questioning eyes. “My dear, we are home. This will be home from now on,” said the mother bravely. But Wilford was puzzled. “But Mom, if this is home where are all the houses?” He had looked around in wonder as had his mother and all the mothers in President Card’s party who had left Logan two months before for the north—North to the Prairies—to found a new settlement for the Saints. Wilford looked out of the tent. “Mom, it’s snowing!” he cried, and not without delight added: “It’ll soon be Christmas, I guess. Will we have Santa Claus here, Mom?” Mom said there would be a Santa Claus and gifts, too, and a big Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. And Wilford was laughing as he ventured outside into this new, strange world where it snowed in June and which was to be home from now on. And the mother pondered these things and tucked that thought of Christmas close to her heart. It remained there as the summer waned and autumn brought the first harvest and the quiet change from green to gold and yellow and brown in the brush along Lee’s Creek. THEN came the snow and at night the haunting call of the geese flying south. And the mother thought of her old home—home in the mountains. And she wondered if someone in the colony besides herself would think of Christmas. Someone besides herself did think of Christmas. Of course, she would think of Christmas; she thought of everything. Yes, “Aunt Zina” one day invited all the mothers to her home, no children allowed. That looked mighty suspicious with Christmas so close. Other secret gatherings were held. “Aunt Zina,” wife of the beloved President Card and daughter of President Brigham Young called it a Sewing Club, and it was. Out of scrap bags brought with them from Utah, these mothers and their older girls extracted an amazing variety of things—bits of silk, satin,...
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