Help for Tired Eyes

Recently Russ showed me a fantastic new tool. We often complain to each other about how hard things are to read things on a computer screen, and how often we find ourselves pressing CTRL+ to make the font size on the screen bigger.

If your eyes are tired like ours, you might want to check this out. It's called Readability.

If you click on the link it will take you to the website. On the website there's a little Readability button that you drag and drop onto your computer toolbar. Then, the next time you pull up something to read in your browser and the font size is minuscule, you click the readability button on your toolbar.

Viola. (pronounced "wal-LA.") Your text size will be about 4x bigger. It also gets rid of annoying ads and the junk that is on the screen.

Instead of reading this, you'll be reading this.

One note of caution. To read a blog post using Readability, you need to be in the specific post itself rather than just on the blog. So click on the individual post title, and then click the readability button.

Your eyes will thank you! (And I will thank Russ!)

I Know That My Savior Loves Me

One of the happy things about having been the primary chorister for so long is that often when the present chorister goes out of town she asks me to fill in for her. Since today is the first Sunday of a new year I also got to teach a new song; one that has never been used before in primary.

I wasn't having a great Sunday. The combination of fasting and afternoon church is never a happy one in my body. During sacrament meeting I felt more tired and hungry than anything else. But I was really excited to teach this song to the children. It has a pretty melody, and lovely words.

One of the lines of the song says:

I did not touch him or sit on his knee,
yet Jesus is real to me.

I shared a story about one of my younger brothers. When he was little he was convinced that Jesus was about as real as He-Man, and positive that He-Man was much more powerful than either God or Jesus. I realized then that sometimes Jesus is more abstract than a cartoon character, and it's hard for little kids to understand that Jesus lived as a real person on the earth. I wanted to be sure that the kids understood that Jesus is not real like a cartoon is real—but that he was and is a real person.

We learned sign language for the chorus, and then "sang" through using only the signs several times before I started teaching them the melody. By this time it really should have been the end of singing time, but fortunately the primary president told me to keep going. Pretty soon their sweet voices were all singing the words of the chorus while they signed:

I know he lives,
I will follow faithfully.
My heart I give to him,
I know that my Savior loves me.

I had goosebumps.

When we finished singing, I told them that I hoped that every time they sing this song they will be able to remember that Jesus is real. I bore them my testimony that Jesus loves each of them just as much as he loved those children long ago. It was one of those moments that reminded me again of the paradox of testimonies; that it is often in the sharing of a testimony that it grows. I told them that I knew if Jesus was here with us today he would be so excited to see each one of them, and to hug each of them just as he hugged those children long ago.

In that moment I felt in my heart a powerful certainly of Jesus' love for each of those children. A personal, individual love, not just a generic institutional love. And that was a good thing for me to feel today...

Gingerbread Fun

Normally we make our gingerbread houses in December. This year we decided that we would wait until after Cindy Lynn and Mahon came. As it worked out my brother Ben and his family were also here when we made them today. Ben kept adorable Cole happy while the rest of us worked on our houses.

All three of the little kids had declared months ago that they were making their own houses this year, so Russ was sure his job as #1 gingerbread helper was over. He soon found out that both of the girls needed structural help with their houses.

Mahon had been planning his gingerbread creation for some time...

Josh didn't get his house finished before he left for the dance. I'm curious to find out what it is, and it seems an upgrade from last year's ammo depot.

The table was full of bowls of (decorating) candy.

Everyone worked hard. Rachel made a stable,

Complete with horses in the stalls and peeps Snowmen riding horses in the yard.

Jenna also made a stable,

with some kind of unidentified livestock in the side yard.

Jared made the mines of Moria, and filled the mine with candy. (Smart child!)

After cousin Cali made her own house with Jason's help, she came over the help Cindy Lynn. Cali has never met a stranger, and she's enjoyed hanging out with her cousins.

Cindy Lynn made a castle with towers,

With a 'princess' in the tower!

Mahon was pleased with his final creation.

Can you tell what he made?

And 10 points for anyone who can figure out what mine is!!

Update: Josh's house was going to be a mansion. Jenna's house had pigs beside it. I ate the pig named Big Fat Fred.

Ringing in the New Year — Watson Style

Ringing in the New Year (and the new decade!) with family members is an unusual experience for us. While living in North Carolina we have been fortunate to develop deep friendships and we cherish the celebrations that we share with our friends here.

At the same time, we are always envious of the fun that my siblings and their families have when they get together and party out in Utah. So we were thrilled to end up with two of my brothers here at the same time this week.

After the (flawed) cheese fondue dinner and the (highly successful) chocolate fondue dessert, we played games. Jeremy & Maria introduced us to several new games on their visit here, and are giving us our favorite as a Christmas gift. It's called "No Thanks" and we can't wait for ours to arrive! We sat around and played "No Thanks" for a while, then an old group game called "Hear Me Out," and then we played "Apples to Apples" — Watson style. We decided that everyone got 30 seconds to make their case for their word. Then the person who's turn it was got to pick 3 "finalists" and everyone voted to choose the winner. It was a hilarious way to play.

The top moments were the cards submitted for the word "sultry." Mahon suggested that it should be "audit," and when he asked to 'see the books' we saw auditors in a whole new light. Ben thought a better match was "salsa dancing," and he gave a pretty good demonstration to prove his point!

I had never heard before that the descriptor cards you win are supposed to describe your character. Maybe that's true...

Since Ben got fake, glamorous, sultry, and horrifying.

These are the cards I got. I'm not sure what this says about me!

When it got close to midnight we broke out the sparkling cider and toasted a new year and a new decade. What an awesome party!

Fon-don't

Russ and I had the great idea to celebrate New Year's Eve with a fondue party. Our guests were awesome:

Cindy Lynn & Mahon,

Brother Ben and his cool wife Jenny,

and Brother Jeremy and his lovely wife Maria
and cute little girl Addie.

As you might be noticing from the previous pictures, while our guests were great the fondue had some problems.

It was thick and un-dippable and stringy. Yummy, but not cooperative. Luckily Ben had the brilliant idea of using the kitchen shears to cut it...


S0 much for dipping things!


Fortunately for all the chocolate dessert fondue turned out much better.

The Battle for Middle-Earth

I know you will all be relieved to hear that once again the battle for middle-earth is over and once again Frodo and the Fellowship emerged victorious.

We started watching after lunch on Tuesday and finished late Wednesday afternoon.

We were joined by Ann and her boys and at the very end by my brother Jeremy and his wife Maria. Here is our movie-watching fellowship.

Once again it was a wonderful experience. This year we let the little kids watch the movies with us, with the understanding that when we told them to cover their eyes they'd better do it quick (I still cover my eyes at parts of it!) They were very cooperative, and thankfully no one had any bad dreams afterwards.

I blogged last year about my favorite things about the Lord of the Rings, so I won't repeat that here. (Except to say that I really love Aragorn!) Suffice it to say that I loved it all again--what a fun holiday tradition.

Instead of Blogging

We are...

hanging out with these people

doing strange things with friends

playing this game
(thanks Wells for taking our game play to a new level!)

relaxing a little

and enjoying Russ's time off work!

For the next 36 hours we're going to be spending some quality time with

and

See you later!