It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

My favorite Christmas scripture is John 18:37 "...To this end was I born..."
Here's a scripture about Christ's Atonement from Alma 42:24
"...mercy cometh because of the atonement..."
Elder Gibbons taught about the Atonement in his FHE lesson on Monday. 

As we left our morning/afternoon shift at the temple, we walked out onto the front lawn to see the Nativity set that was put up the day before.  They were putting the palm leaf roof over it.

Walt surprised me by having the tree mostly decorated when I came out from catching up on e-mails, blogs, and fb.

During refreshment time, we ended the FHE with Elder Gibbons' tradition of watching the 30-min original "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" that he always starts his Christmas season with by watching with his grandchildren.

Elder Gibbons taught us some insights about the Gospel from the Old Testament, Leviticus, Chapter 1 explaining how the sacrifice of the animals head, inwards, front leg, hind leg, and fat correlate with today's Doctrine & Covenants 4:2 in serving with our mind, heart, strength, might, and the blessings that come.
Head = Mind
Inwards = Heart
Front leg = Strength
Hind leg = Might
Fat = Blessings


We gathered at 6pm for our weekly FHE--this Monday at the Gibbons apartment. Hermana Gibbons gave a fun Thanksgiving poem that her Mom always told their family, plus a fun action story about Thanksgiving on the frontier.
THE LOST TURKEY
Turkey lay there on the table
Turkey big and round and fat
But when it came time to cook him....
We didn’t know where He was at.
We looked all through the kitchen
And searched the pantry well.
We asked Jim and John about him...
and even Annabelle.
And even little Mary
and she said "Tourse I do.
Poor turkey didn't feel well
Because he lost his head,
So I put my nightie on him
And tucked him in my bed!

Hermana Kitley took the photo below since Elder Kitley had chosen to stay at the apartment to get some things done.

A little later, after driving to the Ace Hardware, the rest of us gathered at "La Gran Via" mall to have lunch at Shaw's before grocery shopping at the Wal*Mart complex.

The Walls decided to walk over to the Malls to do some shopping. They didn't plan their "look alike" shirts for the day.

We thank the Thompsons and Hermana Kitley. It was Hermana Thompson who volunteered to put the lights on and Hermana Kitley jumped right in to help.  What great neighbors we have!


Our missionary friends came on P-day morning and put the lights on the tree. This really helped Walt get in the Christmas spirit by not having to do his most dreaded job of the season.

Still seems strange eating out on the terrace patio surrounded by beautiful green trees, some with bright red flowers, when it's the end of November. We gather each Sunday for our potluck dinner.