"...filled with sunshine...."

We are readying things for the McCall family reunion and I can't believe what we feel is necessary to take with us!!  We are going to have a Thursday night, Christmas in July, complete with decorations and a full fledged turkey dinner plus a gift exchange.  The one where you draw a number, choose gifts in that order and can take someones previously chosen gift.  Does that have a special name?  So there the girls and I were, sorting through the bags of things I bought at 2010 Christmas sales.  26 Santa hats.  26 Christmas stockings.  Christmas treats.  Christmas favors.  Christmas table runners.  Snowflakes for hanging.  on and on and on the bags yielded treasures to make for a fun memory.  We pared the hats and stockings down to the 20 that will be able to attend.  Then started gathering and wrapping the gifts for the drawing. 

We will have Christmas music playing, sing Christmas carols and read the Christmas Story (maybe from my Grandmother Clark's worn out Bible).  We will talk of our beautiful Alaska, where all of our past family Christmases were held.   Maybe I will share the story of the year Terry invited a total stranger to eat Christmas dinner with us.  Maybe we will talk about the snow and cold of those past years, when Alaska had lots of snow.  Maybe we will talk of wintering in and the warmth of the log fire. Maybe we will talk of our primitive lifestyle and our memories of shared life stories.  All of us howling with laughter over what we endured and separate incidences of family lore.  No matter how uniquely different each and every family member is, we are still heart locked because of those shared years, living under the same roof that would spring leaks in thaws!! 

Preparing for this one single dinner, unpacking the tote with Cassie and Tori, and then choosing what we will take and repacking, was such a fun experience for all of us. Truly I was filled with sunshine and I remembered what President Hinckley said.....   

            Stand Strong against the Wiles of the World               

(talk from RS Gen. Conf. 1995) 

by President Gordon B. Hinckley

Now to you grandmothers and great-grandmothers may I say just a word. Tremendous has been your experience. Tremendous is your understanding. You can be as an anchor in a world of shifting values. You have lived long, buffed and polished by the adversities of life through which you have passed. Quiet are your ways, deliberate your counsel. You dearly beloved women are such treasures in this topsy-turvy society. God bless you. May your waning years be filled with sunshine, with the love of those whom you love, and with love for the Lord.