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Dad and Christy kept up the tradition this year after last year's charity contest was so succesful.  They send us $100, ask us to make it "grow" and then give it to a charity of our choice.  This year we all put our heads together and decided to ALL contribute to the American Heart Association in honor of Dad and his recent heart surgery.   We Smith's decided to once again sell hot chocolate in the neighborhood.  We sent fliers and emails around (and I facebooked our endeavor).  We made just under $100.  The boys LOVE this activity because it feels so good to be making money so that we can give it away.

We sold the cups for $1.00, but any donations over that were rewarded with a homemade sugar cookie.  The boys loved giving donors a sweet surprise!

Today was the first official day of the holiday vacation – no school.  It started out good – a trip to the UPS store and then the park where we shot hoops and visited with neighbors.  Then it went bad with Jacob beating Caleb up and Jacob being sent to his room for the rest of the day (that's not an overexaggeration – it's reality).  And it sent Derek and I into a tail-spin – questioning everything about our parenting and our approach and our ability to do this job well.

But then tonight we had a simple dinner.  And we sang together by the piano.  And we watched a short movie about the nativity.  And we popped homemade popcorn and we watched another short movie called Mr. Krueger's Christmas (which just makes your heart happy).  And it ended well.

And tonight while Jacob and I prayed together and talked about the events of the day, I told him what was in my heart.  We're family.  Family isn't perfect.  Family isn't always pleasant, even.  But family is worth it.  And when it's not perfect or when it's not pleasant we take a few moments (or hours) and collect ourselves.  And then we try again.  And we keep trying until one day, hopefully, we get it right.  And it will all be worth it in the end.

And that I know, for sure.

We took the big boys to see the musical version of Dr Seuss' "How The Grinch Stole Christmas".  What fun!  We headed downtown for dinner at Cowboy Chow (I fell in love with the Navajo Indian bread dipped in honey).  And then we went to the Winspear Opera House for the performance.  We sat WAY up high in the nose-bleed seats, but enjoyed it nonetheless.  One funny thing was when we sat down and a huge chandelier was blocking our view of the stage – that was a little concerning.  But then at showtime the chandelier slowly floated up into the ceiling which was very cool.  Fun to have a night out with our two oldest.

As the 1st counselor in Relief Society I was assigned to be over all Relief Society meetings (during the week).  With the new direction from the top, there was a lot of leeway for each ward to determine how often, when, and what these meetings would be about.  As a presidency we decided that in 2010 we would have a RS meeting every month, with some being BIG and some being small/minor.    I prayed about and orchestrated (with the help of the RS Mtg Coordinator, Anne) the following meetings (sidenote – I was called to this responsibility in January but was exempt from putting together meetings until AFTER trek in March!):

April – RS b'day celebration about "Women in the Scriptures"
May - a daytime and evening class in Julie Sivley's home – bread making
June – a "Summer Survival Guide" – classes on home organization, scripture study with kids of all ages, and fun things to do around town
July – a Relief Society temple day
August – a homemade jam class at the Risdon's (taught by Quinn!)
September – a daytime "date night" class suggesting ideas and emphasis on date nights with spouses; the General RS meeting
October – an evening entitled "Genuine Pearls" – it was all about the temple and the parable of the pearl - we used a video of a talk by Elder Scott and a song called "Faith" to illustrate the need for seeking inspiration, truth and self-worth in the temple (dinner and cake served) – each sister was given a pearl to take home
November – a service project for Hope's Door, a women's shelter – sisters volunteered to make homemade/special desserts for their yearly auction/bake sale (the response was amazing!) and also brought personal hygiene items to donate
December – a Christmas program using the "3 Levels of Christmas" program – the Activity Girls helped serve dinner and sang and their leaders made ornaments for everyone (I made 120 oreo/peppermint cheesecakes for the dessert)

This calling is a LOT of work but it is one of my very favorites ever.  I have such a testimony of the work of Relief Society – the women's organization of the Church.  It is not a place to go on Sundays – it is a living, breathing entity that we belong to.  When united, our influence can be and should be immeasurable.  I loved providing meaningful meetings and learning opportunities for the sisters.  With Derek as the bishop, he has felt it best to release me from this calling.  I will dearly miss working with Kim Enlow (president) and Linda Smith (2nd counselor) – they are dear friends and beloved sisters to me. 

Last night Derek and the boys were all at my Relief Society Dinner – helping and playing roles in the program (more on that later).  After staying to help clean up, Derek drove the boys home (about 9:45 pm).  While headed north towards our home both Derek and Jacob saw what they describe as a "big flying ball of blue fire!".  They were very animated about it when I got home a few minutes later.  I was too tired to pay them any mind.  But today as I was looking at local news on-line I saw viewer submitted pictures of the Geminid meteor shower. Turns out what the boys saw was a REAL meteor!!  How cool is that?!

Here's one of those viewer photographs.

The view from where I sit at the dinner table – cute men and pretty tree.

Watch out!!  She's on a roll!!

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These sweet friends all met me for breakfast at my favorite spot – 5th Street Patio Cafe – on my birthday.  

 
And these sweet friends met me for lunch the next day…

 
Derek was called to be a bishop on the night of my birthday – President Alleman and President Dotter came to our home (and sang to me on the doorstep!).

I am so happy and feel so blessed.  35 is already a great year!

Jacob and Derek attended the Stake 11-year old campout on 10/15.  Jacob will have TONS of campouts before Scouts is over, but since is the first I thought it worthy of documentation!  Courtesy of Derek's Iphone:

Pops (Steve) is such a cool grandpa – always wanting to find cool treasures and take the boys on fun outings.  In October, Pops took Caleb and two of his friends (Luke and Ashton) to Main Event – put cash on their game cards, let them play laser tag and took them out for pizza.  "Heaven" is how I think I remember Caleb describing the evening!  Funny thing – he found another friend to play with at Main Event and included him in the group. Good ol' Caleb – he's a good friend.