Today is National Strawberry Day. One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year was THIS CALENDAR. I love it. It's old fashioned in that it hangs on my wall and I can easily look at it and see the coming days and note which fun and silly holidays are approaching. Had I not known that it was National Strawberry Day then I may not have purchased strawberries at Costco when I was there and I would have missed out on a FUN after school moment with Addie Lu. We had dumped the strawberries into my big orange colander and rinsed them off. I was going to pull out the stems and cut them up for dinner, but then Addie started eating them and we started talking and giggling and I realized that to truly celebrate the strawberry—it all it's heart-shaped glory, with that perfect little stem handle—we would all need to eat them whole. Addie helped me put them in a big bowl. We sprinkled a little sugar on top and then shared them with Dad and the boys when they got home. 

Today, we attended our stake conference, which is a meeting of all the LDS wards/congregations within a designated geographical area. The theme for this conference was Strengthening Our Families. Two weeks ago, we were given several resources to read or watch so that we would come prepared to listen to and act on the messages presented. I am SO GRATEFUL for the time and thoughtful preparation of the speakers, because I was absolutely fed in a profound spiritual way. I am excited to do (try) the following three things in our family ...

I am in such a nesting mood lately. Most years when I take Christmas down, I experience a surge of energy in the organize and rearrange department, but this year, I'm finding an extra helping of FUN in the whole process. Two+ weeks ago on a Saturday, I took the tree down and decided to move the armoire (with our TV inside) from one side of my living room to the other—this single action commenced a cascade of curiosity, so that now when I walk into a room, I'm thinking things like, "Why is that chair or bench or mirror or basket there? What if I moved that over here, or put it upstairs or got rid of it altogether?" As you can imagine, these questions are creating all kinds of exciting possibilities.