I Spy: "85"

Since most of us now have high-speed Internet it shouldn't be too hard to enlarge the photos. Sorry, Matt and Kimbre, Seth and Lacey.

Two Lonely Little Christmas Stockings

Does this look familiar?

Hey Martha, where'd every one go?

I liked this pictures of two lonely little Christmas stockings. By the end of the week I'm sure they will be joined by (4) Jones stockings and (6) Zirker (Brant and Leslie) stockings. Mom, I think we need a bigger railing. We are looking forward to the visitors. I'm glad we're staying home and it's you who are traveling. Call us along the way so we know where you are.

Friday night Mom and I will pick up Aunt Tami in Lewiston at about 10:00pm. She will be here until the day after Christmas. I am sure Grandpa enjoys having someone there for Christmas.

It has been cold and a little snowy this last week and then yesterday it was sunny and 45 degrees. I would have mowed the lawn except I couldn't find it under the snow. Today was also pretty nice.

Our neighbor said she went out Friday night because their dog was barking at about 12:30am and as she looked up toward our fort there was a huge raccoon hanging on the fort. She was wondering where their three cats has disappeared to and now she thinks she knows. Hurray, I'm on the racoon's side (sorry Kimbre).

Mom's wrapping presents like mad so if yours hasn't arrived yet don't panic. She knows the postal delivery schedule better than they do.

We have a couple in our ward, he is from south Idaho and she is from Hungary. Her mother (a non-member) is here in the states for the first time and is staying with them. We asked the couple to speak today and suggested they give part of their talks in Hungarian or as least bear their testimonies in Hungarian. He spoke first and did a great job and then she spoke and then gave a long testimony at the end. Needles to say there were a few tears in the congregation.

Have fun preparing for Christmas.

Great Segue, Brant

I'm trying to use more of my corporate vocabulary to "leverage" my posts.

Speaking of Christmas giving. My team at work volunteered at the Salvation Army last Wednesday. We helped them to sort gifts that were donated. The donations were received from people that picked tags off giving trees and the like. All of the gifts were then collected and brought to the Salvation Army, where they were grouped by families. Our job was to review the gifts and cross-reference the actual purchases with the requests from the families. If any significant items were missing, or if one child received less than his siblings, we tried to "fill the void" with extra gifts. It was very moving to see the personalities behind the tags. Many families had three, four, and five children. Many were Hispanic. Almost all of them asked for clothing: pants, shirts, shoes, coats. They also asked for games (Spiderman and Transformers), and dolls (Barbies and Bratz, I won't comment on that). One girl received a pair of shoes just like the ones that Raya wears. Like Brant said, it was good to see so many and so much that was donated. It was also sad to realize that there are so many people in need.
Lisa coordinated an activity with the primary this year where they adopted a family. They provided gifts and clothing for everyone. It was a great activity. Braxton and Kanyon understand the concept.

Can you guess which one in the picture is Lisa. Hint, she has two olders sisters and a younger brother.

HO HO HO!

"Santa is clean shaven this year"

This week was Tyler's "holiday" concert. He got a chance to play Santa Claus. The second graders were dressed as Christmas trees and Mr. and Mrs. Claus had to pick out a tree. We got there 45 min early to get a seat and the show lasted 20 mins. Ah, the joys of parenthood. The next day, Ty dressed up as St. Nick again and went around to the Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade classes reading 'Twas the Night before Christmas. I think he had to read the poem about 9 times by the time he was done. He did a good job and Aimee was happy to have her brother come to her class.

Saturday, the primary had a Christmas around the world activity. I shared a little about Brazilian Christmas customs. I spoke about swimming at the beach, the big meal at night, secret Santas, and midnight Mass. To complete my presentation, I went dressed in my swimming shorts. Man it was cold in that classroom.

It has been neat to see the Christmas season through the eyes of church leadership this year. There are a lot of families with needs, which makes me thankful for a warm home and warm food. On the other hand, it is amazing to see the quiet donations that come pouring in. Les, put out an email asking for donations to this year's Christmas baskets. You would not believe the flood gates of giving that were opened. They received some pretty large gift cards to various stores, all given anonymously and quietly.

We look forward to visiting the homeland this weekend!!! See you soon!

Brant

one more thing

trav wanted you all to know that we have in our possession an exact replica of this object in Christmas ornament form:

A German Christmas Tradition

Trav and I have often had lengthy discussions about my (and his/your) German heritage. For Trav, the fact that the Zirkers have some German blood doesn't matter two shakes. For me, being of German descent is very influential in my life (as is the Irish and English- I usually don't feel so connected to my Danish side, however). My great-grandma was off-the-boat Irish, and she married a 1st generation German Immigrant- perhaps the recentness of my family's emigration is why I feel more of a connection to it. Or maybe it's that my grandpa was raised to be a staunch, stoic, emotionless German man, he raised his family the same way, and my mother tried very hard (when my father wasn't paying attention) to do the same. We still eat lots of different types of German food (especially cookies) and sing German songs (sometimes even in German). Anyway. I recently discovered the meaning behind one of my German traditions.

So I have this Christmas ornament in the shape of a pickle. I've had this ornament for years and always wondered why on earth someone would choose to put a pickle on their Christmas tree...and then I would dutifully hang up the pickle somewhere on the tree where it wouldn't be seen very often.

BUT. There is an exciting meaning behind this pickle! Although the accuracy of this tradition has been disputed (some say it's more of a German immigrant thing) it's supposedly a German tradition (I didn't even know it) and this is what happens: on Christmas Eve the family takes out the pickle and the parents hide it somewhere on the the Christmas tree. Then, on Christmas morning, the children hunt through the tree, looking for the pickle. The child to find the pickle first wins a special prize. Cool, eh? So I've decided that next year the Kelly and Travis Zirker family are going to officially begin the pickle tradition. Or rather, Trav will hide the pickle for me and give me a prize when I find it.