Monday Miracles

Ok so there aren't many good things that go with Monday....Wordless Wednesday, Talk Tuesday, Thankful Thursday....I have seen all of these on other people's blogs but nobody has given me any good ideas for a monday title. All of you quick witted people out there you need to put your head together and come up with a good title for a monday post and get back to me.



One of my friends here has been saying that every good thing that happens that she notices is a "christmas miricle" and now that christmas is over she is still doing it because she is in the habit. The other day I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting at church and I had my own little miricle to be thankful for. I got the call that I needed to give the talk on Christmas Eve, yeah not the best time. Anyway so the events of christmas settle down and I start kind of researching and thinking about what I'm going to talk on because I knew Jackie and Zach were coming on the 27th and I wouldn't have much time to work on it. I was totally stumped. I think I experience the stupor of thought refered to in the Doctrine and Covenants. At first I thought ok I have been working with my missionaries on the atonement of Jesus Christ I will talk on that.....it just wasn't happening for me. So then I thought ok how about Faith.....again things were not coming together. So Friday rolls around and I'm going through topics and still nothing is working out for me. Finally on Friday night as I was thinking after my evening prayer I had the thought that it was close to new years and lots of people would be setting goals and perhaps I could talk about goals. Saturday I started to explore this topic to see if there was anything I could say about goals and all the sudden it just came together. It was my own little miracle. Sunday I got up to give my talk and tons of people came up to me afterwards and thanked me and said they had really needed that topic. I thought...don't thank me I was going to talk on the atonement. It was a reminder to me that Heavenly Father is mindefull of each of our needs and that often he will inspire others to do things that will be answers to our prayers.



The topic was also good for me because I'm terrible at writing down my goals and that was definitly and emphasis in all the research I did. I hope everyone has a Happy New Years Eve. We are having our traditional fondue party...should be fun. As I have been reflecting on all the fun things that have happened this year it has also been fun to look back at the years past and see how things have changed. Here are some old photos I was going through today.

Me & Jackie at Niagra Falls in 2000

After I was set apart as a missionary by President Blake 2001

Before I went into the MTC w/Jackie on Temple Square in Salt Lake City

With the family on Temple Square before I went into MTC 2001

Freshman/Sophmore year roommate Jenny outside our dorm room at Ricks 1999

Christmas Eve and Other Stories

We gifted a few digital picture frames...here are some of the fun older photos we found looking through old pictures

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a great Christmas Holiday. I know we sure had a lot of fun here at the Glasmann house. Christmas day was pretty laid back as we didn't have any young kids and half of our family was elsewhere. Jackie and her family were in Idaho with the other grandparents and Jayme and Virginia just couldn't make it back this year. Josh and I held down the fort here. One of our family traditions is to have a Christmas Eve party with some of our friends and have lots of yummy food and then do some funny little skits or songs. Following the funny songs, rain or shine, we all pile into the back of the pickup truck and go caroling out here in the country where nobody ever comes. Every year has it's memories...there was the first year we began singing "Like a Light bulb" to every place in Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer where you shout something out, hasn't stopped since. I recommend trying this, it's pretty darn fun. Then the year we began singing "O Christmas tree" with only those words....we couldn't remember the rest. That progressed to singing "O Christmas Tree" in every language we could possible think of, which was pretty diverse considering the various places people served missions. I believe we have sung it in English, Cajun, German, Spanish, Danish, Japanese......and that's all I can think of at the moment. And the ever infamous year when we began singing "O Holy Night" on the way to visit Foleys, the longest coldest ride in the back of a truck with four people sitting on you....but well worth it and way fun! Now this is no regular version of O Holy Night; in this version you hold out every place possible until you are the only one singing and you run out of breath and then you move on. This can last for some time. Allow me to demonstrate....." O Holy Night the stars where brightly shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
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It is the night of our dear Saviour birth. Long lay the world in sin and error piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
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neing till he appeared and the soul felt his worth ( we don't hold this one out....we have to draw a line at sacrilege some where)....any way you get the picture. So we continue this. While this may look like you hold it out for a long time it's nothing compared to the chorus. "Fall on you Knees" can last for a very, very long time! I'm talking the soda burp in Elf when you laugh and stop laughing and he is still burping and you laugh again and he is still burping....yep that long.
These traditions just keep piling up on top of one another every year until we have so many funny things to do in the back of the truck we are unbelievably silly before we ever get into the truck. This year we couldn't remember the order of the 12 days of Christmas and one thing progressed to another and we were singing 12 geese a laying 11 geese a laying 10 geese a laying 8 geese a laying.......and one big fat goose in a pear tree! Ok so they were singing and I was laughing.
This year we had the ultimate caroling experience as my dad rigged up a wooden frame around the back of the truck and put lights up around the frame and then plugged it into the cigarette lighter. It was truly awesome. So awesome that a drunk man pulled us over. No you read that correctly he pulled us over. He followed us for a long time and then he started swerving and flashing his lights and turned them off and so we pull over, if nothing else to let this scary driver pass us, and he gets out of his car with a big bear can and says "Man I love what you guys are doing I just think it's so awesome you totally have the Christmas Spirit".....then he walked up to my dad who was driving and gave him a big hug and wished him a Merry ******* Christmas.....we were all a little shocked at that but we sang him We wish you a merry Christmas anyway and then drove off. Ah the memories we have to cherish.

Christmas Eve always makes it feel like Christmas time to me. By the time we are done I'm always in the Christmas spirit, not that I don't have it before hand but ya know I'm pumped by the time the party ends. Christmas day was low key. My dad always booby traps the stairs so we can't get up Christmas morning. This year his back was bothering him so he lined the stairs with all my mom's shoes. and then threw pillows at us as we tried to come up the stairs. It was pretty funny, and harder to get up then you might think. When you step on a shoe it kind of moves out from under you and makes the path slippery. The dog couldn't get down to greet us he was a little disturbed. It was a wonderful Christmas and I hope you all enjoyed your traditions as well. The greatest gift of the season is the chance to reflect on the birth and life of our Saviour Jesus Christ. I teach mission prep in my singles ward here and my last lesson I challenged all of my missionaries to read a slew of scriptures I gave them concerning the atonement of Jesus Christ and to reflect on their testimony of the Savior and then write themselves a letter. Naturally I have to do the challenge too....that's part of being the teacher. As I have been rereading these scriptures it has reminded me of the wonderful foresight of our heavenly father in creating a way to save all who are willing to "look and live". The Saviour is truly a gift in many ways.

I plan to post pictures later and catch you up on all the pre Christmas chaos. Amidst shopping and wrapping, which were all done before Christmas Eve this year (a huge feet for our family) we managed to get the outside room painted and ready for the kitchen remodel.

Happy Holidays to everyone! I'm looking forward to Jackie coming and the new year! I wish I could spend it with all of you, but as distance separates most of us I'm grateful that I can at least read about all your adventures!