Since When is Christmas Too Religious?

Kelcey had her Christmas program at her preschool last Friday.  They sang "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and "Frosty the Snowman."  All cute songs, all perennial favorites, but not one religious song in the bunch. 

Which honestly surprises me, because the preschool is run by the Baptist Church in Knightdale, and they have chapel every week, and teach bible stories as part of the curriculum.  So it's not like they're trying to be politically correct, or anything. 

So why is it weird to sing religious songs at Christmas, all of a sudden?  They can sing "Happy Birthday," to the baby Jesus at the end of the program, but "Silent Night," is too loaded with meaning, somehow? 

Although, to give them the benefit of the doubt, they might do it that way because they think that the kids know the popular songs better.  And, thank heavens, at least they aren't singing Mariah Carey songs in the chapel any more. 

'Cause I don't care what religion you are, that's just wrong.  :o}

So here's Kelcey in her program this year.  She's the cute blond one in the back who's just mouthing the words, because she didn't want to stay, and mom had to bribe her with promises of candy from Target as soon as it was over.  Yup, I am that mom, the one who stoops to petty bribery to get her children to cooperate.

I'm pro-marriage, but not anti-anything

Well, readers, if you are like me, (and who knows, you might not be like me at all, but we'll pretend for a minute, shall we?) you have had a bit of a hard time trying to explain about the Church and the gay marriage issue, especially in the face of Prop 8 and the aftermath. Although, granted, we didn't have as much brouhaha on this side of the country (thank heavens for Southern Baptists, huh?).

Anyway, I was reading in Mormon Times, the LDS section of the Deseret News that is published every Sunday. There is a series of articles that is running now, by Linda and Richard Eyre, about LDS parenting that I am very much enjoying. They have been talking about why Mormons have a positive view of sex, why we need to help our children understand that, and how older kids can wait for the right time, with the right person.

One of the latest articles had the most fantastic explanation for why we don't support gay marriage that I have ever read, and I thought that I should share it with you. Just in case you're like me.


I've included the text of the article so you can read it, but I've also included the link, in case you'd like it. Use spiritual message to share same-sex marriage beliefs Mormon Times

So, here ya go:

We don't want our column to be thought of as always being about sexually related subjects (click here and here for the last two editions about the distinctive Mormon paradigm regarding sex), but there is one more related topic that has to be mentioned in this context.

Gay marriage.

Because we travel and speak with as many people as we do, and because people generally know we are Mormons, and because they know about Prop. 8, the subject comes up a lot. Sometimes it comes up in a hostile way: "How can you be so intolerant and insensitive?" Sometimes it comes up curiously: "Why does your church get involved in the gay marriage debate?"
Here's what we've learned: Political arguments or "historical" answers don't work!

You can talk till you are blue in the face about how marriage has always been between a man and a woman, or about how we should honor the California popular vote, or about how kids could become gender-confused, and you will just sound more narrow and prejudiced and homophobic than ever to your opponent.

The only answer or explanation that works is a spiritual one.

We've taken to just saying, "Let me just spend a minute telling you about a spiritual belief that I think will explain our position." Then we say something like this:
Mormons have a highly family-centric theology, believing that God is literally our Spiritual Father and that we lived as spirit persons with our heavenly parents before coming to this earth. Marriage and procreation provide the physical bodies that allow additional spiritual siblings to come from the spiritual pre-life into mortality. And we believe that families can continue to be together in the hereafter.

In this context, marriage between a man and a woman, and having children together, lies at the center of God's plan and is a core purpose and reason for this earth and our life on it. Hopefully, understanding that Mormons have these beliefs makes it easier for you to see why we want to protect the institution of marriage as the union of a man and a woman, and for you to understand that our church is not anti-gay but pro-marriage.

We always try to mention that we view all people as our brothers and sisters and we add our personal belief that we favor full-rights-giving civil unions, and that it is the divine and eternally purposed concept of marriage that we are trying to protect.

Making a spiritual statement like this usually ends the debate. It doesn't win the debate or convert or even interest people in our beliefs, but it raises the conversation to a level where at least people can agree to disagree. Whether someone is intrigued by the belief, or whether he or she thinks we are crazy, it's hard to go back to a political argument after you've made a spiritual statement, and in the context of what we believe about the purpose and plan of mortality and eternity others can at best respect us, and at worst at least grasp why we have to try to protect traditional marriage.

And here's another benefit of taking this approach: If you make this kind of spiritual statement, what you have done is essentially share your testimony about the Plan of Salvation and about the central part that family plays in that plan. And that is a good thing!

Beautiful Girl

I forgot to include these when I posted the pcitures of us at Topsail, but then I thought that they were so fantastic that they deserved a post of their own. 

I mean really, could she be any more beautiful?  Even with her wonky teeth? I seriously don't know how we got such good looking kids.  I think that Jeff and I are fairly attractive, but somehow our kids ended up completely, amazingly,beautiful.  I just keep hoping that the girls have inherited Jeff's legs, which are much better than mine. :o

Topsail Island

I have had a request for more beach photos, and I am nothing if not accomodating, so here you go!  :o)

Really, I should have had these posted several months ago, but I wasn't keeping up with my blog then, and now I'm very much enjoying it for some reason, so we won't worry about the fact that it's December, and we went to Topsail in July, right?  Of course, right!

And was that a run-on sentence, or what?

How awesome am I?

I spent all morning making treats to give away to various and sundry this holiday season. 

I made peppermint bark (always a favorite because it's yummy AND easy) and I'm even making my Christmas truffles, that I haven't made in over 2 years, because they are so much work and take 3 days to put all together.  Here they are about midway through. 

I just have to cover them with chocolate, but that won't be until tomorrow.  Or the next day. 

Anyway, so the question is, how awesome am I?  I am so awesome that in order to get the treats done, I haven't folded my laundry yet, so there was only enough clothes for the two oldest kids to wear to school.  Which all means that my other children are still in their pj's.  At 3:30 in the afternoon. 

See?  Didn't I tell you I was awesome?  :o)

Evites forever!

I should be doing something productive right now, like doing my budget and putting receipts into my financial spreadsheet (I made it, it's awesome, and I love it, but I still don't do it as often as I should) but Yahoo is down.. . so I can't get to my emails that tell me how much the Christmas presents that I bought online were, so I'm taking a break until Yahoo stops being dumb, and actually writing in my blog.

So, what's the deal about Evites, you ask?  Well, simply put, I am never going to send another written invitation in my entire life, everything will be done by Evite. 

We are having  a big Christmas party next Saturday and the week before Thanksgiving I bought these cute invitations from Target, spent over 2 hours filling them out, went by the post office, bought stamps for almost $17, or something like that, and spent another 20 minutes putting stamps and return address labels on all 31 invitations, which all had clear (I thought) instructions to RSVP to our email address.

Well, 2 weeks later, and only one person had emailed to say whether they were coming or not. (Thank you Jessica, I know I can always count on you! ) A couple of people had mentioned to Jeff that they were planning on coming, but no emails.  Since I am so OCD that I was constantly worrying if people had gotten their invitations, or if no one was coming and we had wasted buying all of that food, Jeff finally suggested that I send out an Evite reminder.

I very much appreciate Jeff's ability to be logical in the face of my anxiety, so I did just that, and sent it out last Thursday night.  WE GOT 3 REPLIES IN LESS THAN AN HOUR.  And we've been getting replies constantly since then. 

I thought that a written invitation would make people feel more welcomed, like it was a bigger deal, but I guess it's just easier in this day and age to reply to an email that is sent to you.  Plus, Evites are really cute and you can keep track of who's coming so easily. 

So, the moral of the story is, save your money, and save your time, and just send out an Evite.  :o)

always close the shower door

This morning (Ok, I lie, it was at 2:30 pm) when I went to take a shower I turned on the water and shut the door (or so I thought), and then went in the closet to put my clothes in the hamper. As I was behind the door I hear the familiar cry of "Moooommmm," so I knew that I only had a few seconds of privacy.

As I come around the corner, I see Benjamin, fully dressed, in the shower, standing in the water. I shriek, "Benjamin!," and then he grins at me, with a completely satisfied expression as the water streams down his face, soaking his clothes, and then pooling into his shoes.

So I did the only thing I could do, stripped him down and put him in the shower with me--destroying any hope I had of taking a shower with a modicum of privacy and getting all the water to myself.

As I look back I thought that I had shut the door all the way, but I must have just done that 'nudge that should be good enough until I come back' kind of thing. So now I have learned a vital lesson that I am passing on to all of you: Make sure the shower door is COMPLETELY closed. And then check again. :o)

As for why I don't have a cute picture to go with this post? Because I don't keep a camera in the bathroom, and I am way too OCD to let him stay in the water with his clothes on while I go get one. :o)

We Moved!!!

I haven't posted in forever because we have been staging our house, then listing our house, then selling our house, then finding a new house, then buying our new house, then packing our old house, then moving to our new house, and unpacking in our new house. It's been incredibly stressful, and I'm not moving again until I'm 85, but we're getting settled, and it's starting to feel like home.

We absolutely love our new home, and feel so incredibly blessed to be here. Seriously, we have daily moments where we just wander around, going, "This is our house!!!!" I was shaving my legs the other morning when I just had to stop, look around this fantastic bathroom, and realize again, this is where I get to shave my legs! It almost doesn't seem possible that we get something this big and beautiful, but somehow, we have. The Lord had blessed us so much; I am grateful beyond words.