The most exciting thing happened!!! My second daughter decided to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
She was called to serve in the Mexico Mexico City Southeast Mission for a year and a half. For the first six weeks of her mission, she was in Provo Utah at the Missionary Training Center (MTC), where she learned how to teach the gospel, and began learning how to speak Spanish. We took her to Utah on December 11, so she was going to be spending her first Christmas away from home in the MTC. It was an awesome experience for her!
Once I realized she’d be gone for Christmas, I started thinking about the first package we’d send her – a Christmas one. I wanted to make her a memorable stocking, yet a humble stocking, and this is what I came up with.
It actually turned out super cute and now I want to make one for everyone in my family, with different quotes/scriptures on them.
First step was to choose what I wanted it to say. For a missionary “Called to Serve” was a pretty good choice! But I was also debating using her favourite scripture “Trust in the Lord” (Proverbs 3:5).
I got my artistic daughter to write out the words and I copied them in pencil on to the drop cloth. Yes, the stocking is made from a drop cloth (what you throw on the ground to protect your floor while painting!). That’s pretty humble fabric!
Then it was simple embroidery in dark brown floss over the letters.
I lined my stocking with the green plaid fabric because I didn’t want the embroidery floss to get snagged when Santa stuffed the stocking.
I lined up my fabrics and sewed them together, overlapping the green over the front of the stocking at the top.
Then with the right sides together, I sewed my stocking together.
I added some gathered eyelet ribbon and a piece of jute string to hang it with.
The final touch was this light brown ribbon/lace trim.
Love how it turned out – and it didn’t cost me a cent. Made it all from stuff I already had.
Santa stuffed it full before shipping it off to her.
Our missionary unpacking her Christmas package – it got to her before Christmas!
Next Christmas her companion is going to have to fill it!
Our missionary’s first Christmas, with a Charlie Brown tree.
Perfect for one who has been Called to Serve the Lord!
My daughter Min is serving as an LDS missionary in Mexico City for 18 months. I wanted to send her an advent calendar to help her enjoy the Christmas season. Shipping to Mexico isn’t the easiest thing, so I wanted an advent calendar that would fit nicely into a large envelope, rather than a package. Another brilliant missionary momma (Teri) had this great idea to make one out of baseball card holders. So I borrowed her idea of the card holder to make my version of an advent calendar.
Mac holding the finished product.
These are the three separate page protectors for baseball cards. Each page has nine slots. I just cut Christmas scrapbook paper into the right sizes and copied a scripture advent calendar on each one. This advent calendar is based on one that was printed in the New Era magazine in December 1989 called Come, Let us Adore Him: A Live Advent Calendar. I just copied the scripture reference and the hymn. If you click on the picture, it should enlarge it enough to be easily read.
This is the advent calendar we do at home every Christmas, so I thought it would be nice if our missionary was reading the same thing as us each day.
The back side isn’t looking to fancy to start with . . .
Also in each little pocket I included a gospel picture. Where possible, they correlated to the scripture of the day. So the idea is that she puts the gospel picture in the front of the pocket of each day once she’s read the scripture.
By the time Christmas arrives, she’ll have a page of lovely pictures of the Savior and other gospel items that she can have up in her apartment all year (or at least until June when she comes home!)
I tied jute string at the top. But the knots were a little bulky and made my package bigger. If I was doing it again, I’d use a smaller string, or ribbon or yarn that wouldn’t make the postal workers need to measure my envelope!
To attach the three pages to each other, I simply used clear packing tape and taped across the back side of the pages. Worked great – holds it tight and is still easy to fold up to pack into that envelope, and later, into her suitcase!!!
I also tucked a little Christmas quote or story for her to read in each day too. I was planning to put a balloon in some of them too, with Christmas messages for her to blow up and get, but forgot to do it when the family was all together. We’ll save that for another package.
And there it is. I mailed it on September 22 in hopes that she will have it by December 1st.
Simple, inexpensive, but fun for my missionary!
(Edited to add: She finally received it on January 19 – too late for Christmas this year, but it can be used forever!)
We have two Christmas trees every year. We refer to one of them as our “Nativity Tree”. It’s got white lights and lots of gold and silver on it, and all ornaments somehow remind us of the Savior.
Under the tree are some small gold and silver boxes – one for each person in the family. On Christmas Eve we all take a bit to time to think of what gift we will give the Savior this year – some way to help us grow closer to Him and to improve ourselves. We write this on a piece of paper that is in our box – and also look back on our past “gifts” to the Savior. It’s a good time for personal reflection!
One year I thought that it would be neat to receive “gifts from the Savior”. I didn’t mention it to anyone in my family, so they were a little surprised to wake up on Christmas morning to find gifts under the Nativity Tree! (All our gifts go under the colourful tree – the tree with the other types of ornaments you collect over the years and that the kids have made!)The gifts under the Nativity Tree are all wrapped in plain paper and they each have a scripture or saying on it that is pertinent to that person, or to the gift. We always take time to read the scripture before opening the gift.
I usually buy the gifts from a church bookstore, but that can get pretty pricey. With this year being a house-building year for us with not a lot of extra cash laying around, I decided to make gifts. We might not have had cash laying around, but we did have plenty of wood laying around!
For example . . .. . . this is what my guys gift started like! It’s a chunk of solid oak that was cut off the bottom of a newel post on the stairs. What would you make with that?
Now before I started any projects, I asked everyone what their favourite scriptures or quotes were, and their favourite colours, so I could make something meaningful to them.
My guy likes Mosiah 4:19
“For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.”
This is what I came up with for him . . .. . . a candle holder, with his favourite part of the scripture.
It’s simply words stamped onto cardstock, then distressed and mod podged onto the stained piece of oak. He loves it, even though he wondered if I dulled his drill bit drilling the hole in the top!!!
My gift was thoughtfully made for me by me at my friend’s craft classes – thanks again Kd!!!I love this quote and picture of the temple. I was going to give it to one of my girls, but then I realized “Hey, I want it!!!” And if I keep it, each one of them will be able to benefit from the message!
Elle’s gift was probably my biggest challenge! She liked a really long scripture, and the whole thing was so good, I didn’t want to shorten anything. (You can read it in the pictures!)
Her favourite scripture right now is Doctrine and Covenants 98:1-3.
I decide to make her a candle holder too, but hers was a soft wood and didn’t dull the drill bit!!!I printed out her scripture – one verse per side of the wooden block. Mod podged on scrapbook paper in her favourite colours and glued on the little clothes pins. I like the clothes pins because that way she can easily change her scriptures, or add pictures, or anything else inspiring.
Warning: remove ribbon if you’re going to burn the candle!
Yes – it turned out pretty cute!!!
The next three daughters were easier – they all got long pieces of wood to go over a door or window.
Min got Proverbs 3:5-6 (one of my favourites too!)
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct they paths.”
Jo got Alma 26:12.
“Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak;
therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God,
for in His strength I can do all things . . .”
Lee chose 1 Timothy 4:12.
“Be thou an example of the believers,
in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”
Jen got a picture of the temple too. I printed hers from this site.Then it was simply mod podged onto a piece of 2×6 with all the cute other little details to match her room.
Laying a piece of cloth over the mod podge while it’s still wet (pressing it down and then peeling it off right away) gives a nice canvassy looking finish.
Kat’s gift was actually made by my mom! Thanks mom!!!
Six puzzles to keep me her quiet in church! These are about one inch squares and each side has a picture on it. It’s pretty challenging!
And finally, Mac got a popsicle stick puzzle.
One side has a picture and the other side has . . .. . . a message! And again, mod podge is the secret ingredient!
And the final, finally . . .. . . a picture of the Savior by Liz Lemon Swindle – an amazing artist.
She says of this picture,
“During His ministry, Christ healed a blind man. The leaders of the Jews called the man before them and demanded he renounce Christ. When he refused, they cast him out.
When Jesus heard what the leaders had done, He immediately went looking for this man (John 9:35). I could see the determination on Christ’s face as He made His way through the crowd. I draw comfort from knowing that if He will search after him, He will search after me.”
This 8×10 picture was free during the “Every home should have a picture of Christ” campaign. All I had to do was frame it!
This tradition that we started a few years ago has quickly become one of my favourite parts of the holidays. Tears are often shed and the Spirit is felt as we celebrate our Savior’s birth.
This is a pretty jello to have on the table at Christmas time. And it would be even prettier in something other than a casserole dish!!!
The recipe:
1 small box green jello
1 can crushed pineapple
White marshmallows (you decide how much!)
1 small box red jello
1 can cherry pie filling
Whipped cream for top (optional)
Prepare green jello, but only use 1 cup of water. Stir in the whole can of crushed pineapple (that means that you don’t drain it!). Chill.
When it was still a bit soft, I added the marshmallows. Spread them evenly on top of the green layer. You can make this layer as thick or thin as you want – might depend on the size of your dish!
Prepare the red jello – again only using 1 cup of water. Stir in the whole can of cherry pie filling. When your green layer and marshmallows are completely set, add the red layer. Chill until firm.
If you have room in your dish, you can add whipped cream on top.
I find this jello to be plenty tasty and rich enough without the cream.
This is a never ending battle in my home: I love things in the jello!!!
But usually my guy and my kids prefer the jello plain. So as we’re eating our Christmas jello on Christmas day, I’m watching some of my kids not eat the green layer because of the pineapple. And I’m watching some of my kids pick all their cherries out of the red layer and leave them laying around on their plates looking squished, sad and rejected.
So I made a decision!!! Next year I’ll make the pretty Christmas jello without any fruit in the layers!
I’ll use the full water measurements, and maybe even do a few layers with marshmallows in between each layer – that would look pretty sweet. My kids and my guy will eat it all, and I’ll be about $5 richer.
Now I need to keep my eyes open for a trifle bowl – we’ll let the casserole dish hold something else next year!!!
Sure is a pretty jello though! Maybe someday I’ll get to eat it again with fruit in it!
I think Christmas has more traditions for me than the rest of the year put together!!! Righteous traditions are wonderful and necessary things for our families. The Service Star is a tradition we start on the first day of December. We actually have two of these little wooden stars with our Family Motto (another tradition!) printed on it. One stays on our Nativity Tree (another tradition!) and the other star is put into action.
So we draw names or do rock, paper, scissors etc. to see who will activate the Service Star. That person has 24 hours to do a service for someone in the house and leave the star at the place where the service happened. So dad emptied the dishwasher for Lee and left the star in the dishwasher for Lee to find when she came to do her morning chore. Lee walked the dog for Jo and left the star with the leash. Jo found it and made Jen’s bed and left the star on the bed for Jen to find, and so on, and so on . . . We added a new twist this year: if you haven’t done a service within the 24 hours, you get to give everyone a back-scratch! Unfortunately, we didn’t get any back-scratches!!!
This is just a view of some of the ornaments on the Nativity Tree. In order to be on the Nativity Tree, the ornament must remind us of Christ somehow. I love this gold one and it’s tag that says Keep Christ in your Christmas.
It actually turned out super cute and now I want to make one for everyone in my family, with different quotes/scriptures on them.
I lined my stocking with the green plaid fabric because I didn’t want the embroidery floss to get snagged when Santa stuffed the stocking.
I lined up my fabrics and sewed them together, overlapping the green over the front of the stocking at the top.
Then with the right sides together, I sewed my stocking together.
I added some gathered eyelet ribbon and a piece of jute string to hang it with.
The final touch was this light brown ribbon/lace trim.
Love how it turned out – and it didn’t cost me a cent. Made it all from stuff I already had.
Santa stuffed it full before shipping it off to her.
Our missionary unpacking her Christmas package – it got to her before Christmas!
Our missionary’s first Christmas, with a Charlie Brown tree.
