Thursday, December 30, 2010

year's end

Last posting for 2010 and a recap of our Christmas week-end seems in order.  The mission party on the 24th really was fun.  (For those of you have been concerned about which skirt I wore - white linen won out.)
We arrived a little before 10 am and there was already a crowd.  The Herbert's were busily making popcorn and putting it in large plastic cups and setting out bowls of candy.  These were for watching a couple of movies with.  Several other Sr. sisters were helping get the meat hot and ready for our Mexican Haystacks lunch and the younger mishes were all chatting and rehearsing their skits. 

Before we got started officially a woman wandered in off the street and wanted food.  Poor Sis. Hendricks was just undone because it is so hard to say no, but she was untirely unsure we actually had enough to feed the missionaries and she knew if she fed this lady she would have half of Kingston sitting down with us. 

We started with a carol and Bro. Herbert reading T'was the Night Before Christmas and then Pres. H. talked about the history of that poem.  Let me interject here that when I was a little girl every Saturday my mother would shampoo my hair and then roll it in curlers (in those days rather primitive contraptions).  In the curler box was a newspaper clipping of that wonderful poem and she would recite it to me while I got curled.

After that we watched the old Grinch Who Stole Christmas and Mr. Kreuger's Christmas with the aforementioned treats.  Sometime before the movies a couple of elders serenaded us on their guitars.

After lunch we had skits which were really very creative.  One Maori group did the squating, clipped chanting and that was a huge hit.  One group gave us the "actual version" of what happened Christmas Eve.  Mary was one of the native Jamaican elders as was baby Jesus also.  One of the "blind" shepherds exclaimed, "see, I KNEW  he was black"  Herod was a too cool dude with sunglasses and a cell phone ordering "hit men" when he realized the wise men had dissed him.

The Sr.s did a version of The Twelve Days of Christmas written by Elder Schaefermeyer.  Part is as follows:
On the first daily visit my Elders taught to me
A life with no ganja or tea.
On the second daily visit my Elders taught to me
two year missions...
On the third daily visit my Elders taught to me
Three Nephites...
On the fourth daily visit my Elders taught to me
Fore-ordained...
On the fifth daily visit my Elders taught to me
Five golden plates, four standard works, three hours of church...
On the sixth daily visit my Elders taught to me
Sex not til marriage...
On the seventh daily visit my Elders taught to me
Seventh day's no sabbath, six days to labor...............two meals to fast and a life without ganja or tea.
On the eighth daily visit my Elders taught to me
Eight's when you're baptized............six days to labor, No golden calves........
On the ninth daily visit my Elders taught to me
Nine is when Church starts (spoken in a dramatic voice) "It;s really 10:00 but we tell them it's 9:00 so they'll be there on time"........Seven steps to repent................for-ty day flood, three realms in heaven.......
On the tenth daily visit my Elders taught to me
Ten percent tithing, Nine is when Church starts (spoken) "Unless you're in a building that has two branches", eight special witnesses.........
On the Eleventh daily visit my Elders taught to me
Eleven's not a quorum, still ten commandments, Nine is when Church starts (spoken) "It will probably start ten minutes late anyway."......
On the twelfth daily visit my Elders taught to me
Twelve year old deacons...................seven times forgiven..............And a life with no ganja or tea

After the skits Pres. Hendricks was "inspired" to bring us all back to the importance and solemnity of the celebration and spoke to us about the spiritual reality of Christmas.  It was beautiful. 

We then had ice cream, cookies and presents.  Pres. & Sis. Hendricks gave everyone a T-shirt with a stylized picture of an ox and a paper with it's symbolism in Israel (a favorite topic of his).  The mail was distributed and we had to part.

Christmas day we fixed a good dinner - for those of you who don't know Jack made his first batch of rolls and his famous twice--baked potatoes.  The sister missionaries came for dinner and long talks with their families.

Sunday I gave three piano lessons after church and on Boxing Day (Monday) we got permission to take the sisters down to Treasure Beach for pizza.  That was a real party.  There were a lot of people just enjoying the holiday, eating,, playing soccer on the grass, music blaring.

OK, SORRY about that laborious description.  I have just one more thing .  I HAVE HAD IT WITH LIZARDS.  Last Sunday night Jack typed and printed our weekly report.  I took it, stuck it in the three hole punch, gave it a good hard whack, pulled it out and a tiny lizard was sitting there on the paper as if by  magic.   I live in fear of the next sighting.

Sorry I did not include these picture where they belong but Jack was asleep and I was , obviously, on a roll.

Happy New Year to you all.  We love you so much.  Frannie















This week's Signs of the Times.Right now there are a lot of signs for All White New Year's parties.  That is not what I thought it was.  It just means everyone wears white.  Ricardo Mullings and Allison were obviously amused at my assumption.

1 comment:

  1. Read your comments about lizards and it brought back memories of where we found them as we served in Indonesia and then South Africa. We always tried to remember that they kept down the insect population and they really were there before we were.

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