The Twelve Days of Charity

My Mom a few years ago felt really strongly that our family needed to work on developing charity.  Not that we were being super uncharitable, but she was just struck by the importance of developing charity to be more like Christ. So, being the amazing woman that she is, she created the charity project.  She noticed that in Moroni 7:45, Moroni lists 12 attributes of charity.  So she decided to rewrite the words to the 12 days of Christmas to help us remember those attributes.  The song goes like this:

On the first day of Christmas, true love is charity, and charity suffereth long.

On the second day of Christmas, true love is charity, charity is kind, and charity suffereth long.

On the third day of Christmas, true love is charity, envieth not, charity is kind, and charity suffereth long.

On the fourth day of Christmas, true love is charity, Is not puffed up, it envieth not, charity is kind, and charity suffereth long.

On the fifth day of Christmas, true love is charity, seeketh not her own! Is not puffed up, it envieth not, charity is kind, and charity suffereth long.

On the sixth day of Christmas, true love is charity, not easily provoked, seeketh not her own! Is not puffed up, it envieth not, charity is kind, and charity suffereth long.

On the seventh day of Christmas, true love is charity, thinketh no evil, is not easily provoked, seeketh not her own! Is not puffed up, it envieth not, charity is kind, and charity suffereth long.

On the eighth day of Christmas, true love is charity, rejoiceth not in inquity but rejoiceth in the truth*, thinketh no evil, is not easily provoked, seeketh not her own! Is not puffed up, it envieth not, charity is kind, and charity suffereth long.

On the ninth day of Christmas, true love is charity, beareth all things, rejoiceth not in inquity but rejoiceth in the truth, thinketh no evil, is not easily provoked, seeketh not her own! Is not puffed up, it envieth not, charity is kind, and charity suffereth long.

On the tenth day of Christmas, true love is charity, believeth all things, beareth all things, rejoiceth not in inquity but rejoiceth in the truth, thinketh no evil, is not easily provoked, seeketh not her own! Is not puffed up, it envieth not, charity is kind, and charity suffereth long.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, true love is charity, hopeth all things, believeth all things, beareth all things, rejoiceth not in inquity but rejoiceth in the truth, thinketh no evil, is not easily provoked, seeketh not her own! Is not puffed up, it envieth not, charity is kind, and charity suffereth long.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, true love is charity, endureth all things, hopeth all things, believeth all things, beareth all things, rejoiceth not in inquity but rejoiceth in the truth, thinketh no evil, is not easily provoked, seeketh not her own! Is not puffed up, it envieth not, charity is kind, and charity suffereth long.

So every year, we are assigned one of the twelve attributes of charity to study and report. We usually just report our thoughts on what it means to us or how we've been able to apply that specific principal in our lives over the past year. Sometimes we give out a little visual aid to help our family remember in the future.  This year we mixed it up a little since we were all over the country for Christmas, my Mom had the idea of making a calendar for the twelve attributes and we each got to design one month of the calendar for our charity attribute.  That way we are really reminded to be charitable all year round!

This tradition has been one of my favorite Christmas traditions because it helps us stay closer to Christ and remember the real reason for the season of Christmas.


Here are the calendar pages we made this year.  This was our first year, so it's a work in progress, but I love it! Tyler made February and I made June.  (More like Elizabeth made them and we just told her what we wanted :) ) I think December might be my favorite though. We definitely have to endure all things!

Life of a Baller

I feel like basketball has kind of been taking over these days! I love it, so I don't mind! But it's been a while since I've been in the basketball scene!

For date night this week, we went to a Wright State basketball game.  Tyler has been wanting to go to a game for a couple of weeks because he gets free tickets as a student, but this game had free t-shirts! So we totally went!! Free t-shirts? We are SO there! Our friends Kyle and Ashley came with us too, since Kyle is also a WSU student. 

Wright State put up a good fight, but they ended up losing.  Nice try boys. 

I haven't been to any other college games other than BYU's, and it was kind of different.  I love the energy and enthusiasm of BYU students at games!!! The students at the games had a lot of fun props and were dressed up, but not as many cheers and chants. They also served beer, which took some getting used to also.  I still had fun though. :) 

I spy Tyler....

I love this cute husband of mine <3

Just being at college ball games (with free t-shirts) is fun even if they do lose!

After the Wright State game, we went and got ice cream at Graeter's then played some 2 on 2 of our own at the church building.  We decided Kyle and Tyler could totally be on the WSU team.  They've got some sweet moves.  But my team lost both times (I think) with Tyler on my team and Ashley on my team. 

Saturday afternoon our YW had a basketball game (I'm the assistant coach). More ball!! We have a really young team, so we're still working on a lot of skills. Like all of the skills. Needless to say, we lost.  Worse than Wright State.  But we scored one point in the last ten seconds of the game! And that's way cooler, right?? And if fouls were points, we TOTALLY won! :)

 It's hard for me to just watch and scream from the side lines because I want to get in there and play!!! I guess I already had my turn....

We were the "rainbow" team....playing the "swag" team.  Not sure why we weren't just our ward names, but ok. 

I guess it's a good thing I can handle losing, since I've had a lot of it this weekend. But as all losers know, losing can be awesome. And this weekend, it was. 

<3 <3

Snowy Days Galore!

This year we were supposed to go back to school January 2 after Christmas Break.  I was not very happy about that because a. that is not a very long break and 2.I needed a couple days to recover from vacation.  Well, luckily Ohio agreed that January 2 was way to early to start school and sent a lovely polar vortex our way! Hahaha. We got a lot of snow and FREEZING cold temperatures! We didn't end up starting school until January 9! That's 5 snow days in a row!! It was awesome! Tyler was still on vacation from Wright State, so we got to spend a lot of time together! I found out though that he gets a little stir crazy being at home all day for too long.  Even when it was like -26 degrees, he was determined to run errands so he could get out of the house! (And not because he was sick of me....I don't think ;) ) Funny boy :) By the time we went back to school, I had recovered sufficiently and was ready to start school again!

My poor hubby had ice in his eyebrows when he was out shoveling the driveway! Brrr!! 

On one of the nights, we went out on a double date with our friends Ashley and Kyle. We went to Outback Steakhouse (thank you gift cards!!) and then went and saw Ender's Game. Dinner was really yummy, but we went to a Dollar Saver movie theater and we're pretty sure they turned the heat off and the AC on because that theater was FREEZING!! We had our coats on the whole time and my glasses fogged up every time I would breathe! :/ It was a really good movie though, and we had a lot of fun so it was worth it I suppose. :) 

One of my New Year's Goals is to read AT LEAST one book every month.  I was so excited to graduate from college so I could read for fun more often but I've found that I have a hard time finishing books these days! So I'm going to try and be better about it! (If you have any good recommendations send them my way!) Some friends and I decided we wanted to try and have a book club to keep ourselves motivated and the first book we picked was The Help.  I already finished it and it was a really great book! The author switches the perspective of the narrator throughout the book which helps it move along pretty quickly. So that was a good start to my new year goal! (All those snow days sure helped with time to read!) 

Kristen visits Ohio!

The last 5 years I lived in Utah, which was pretty far from most of my family so I didn't get to see them very often.  Well, now that I'm in the same time zone as all of my sisters and within a days drive to my parents and oldest brother, I have seen A LOT more of my family members and I LOVE it!! It has kept us really busy though! I feel like we are out of town every other weekend! We are getting pretty pro at packing for the weekend :)

So Tia (aka Kristen) was going to come see Elizabeth and I in December, but it didn't end up working out.  Instead she came the second weekend in January to party it up with us Ohio sisters. I hadn't seen Kristen since my wedding in May and we weren't sure when we would see each other next so we all thought a visit was a necessity :)  She flew into Columbus where Tyler and I picked her up after I finished with work. Elizabeth had to work till 7, so we played at her house for a while then took a walk to the store to buy some pizza for dinner and say hi to Elizabeth at the hotel where she works.

Tia makes a great horsey! 

I love my little Clarky! 

All bundled up and ready to roll!

Looking so professional and lovely!

The cool hotel lobby

He had his arms stuck out like this- it reminds me of a Christmas Story. "I can't put my arms down!"

He found that apple in the lobby and wouldn't let it go.  He thought it was so fun to carry around and say apple! Hahaha That kid is so stinkin cute!! He is so smart too! Right now he loves to identify letters and he knows y, s, o, m, r, and probably more! And he's not even 2! Such a smarty pants! 

Yummy pizza dinner

Saturday morning we decided to go play some church basketball.  We all loved played basketball growing up, but it'd been a while since any of us had played! Luckily, we weren't too horrible and our team ended up winning like 30-14 or something.  That may have been because we had a former BYU basketball player on our team, but who knows? ;) It was so fun to play again!! Sadly Elizabeth came out of it with a jammed finger :( (a true church ball experience!)  I just realized I don't think I've ever played on the same team as my sisters since I'm so much younger than them! I think we could have had a future as a family basketball team ;) 

Saturday afternoon we went around town running errands, seeing Elizabeth and Andrew's new chiropractic office, and eating yummy food! We got ice cream at Jenni's (the most unique and yummy ice cream I've ever had!!!) and then had dinner at this random authentic Mexican restaurant that turned out to be really good! 

We played this awesome game called Morphology.  It's like pictionary except you use objects to describe words instead of drawing them.  It was really entertaining! 

Kristen really wanted to come check out our neck of the woods in Dayton, so after church on Sunday they came on over.  We showed them around town a little bit then had a SUPER YUMMY dinner Anisa made. ( It was a bacon covered meatloaf. Super delish!) Then we played Morphology again! It was a great night! 

We sure love Kristen and we are so happy she came to see us! Feel free to come again soon Tia!! 

<3 <3 

The Best Christmas Present Ever

 Even though we were supposed to stay in Ohio for Christmas this year, my sweet husband gave me the gift of going to see my family in St. Louis two days after Christmas. I've never been away from home for Christmas and I was having a really hard time not being with my family.  Lucky for me my husband is so sweet! We had to get a rental car though because our check engine light was on in our car and it was making all sorts of weird noises, so we had to take it to the shop. St. Louis is only about a 6 hour drive from Dayton, so it's close enough for us to drive there for a couple days! 

I gave Tyler a haircut before we left. He really doesn't like getting haircuts, especially at home, because he doesn't like sitting in our hard wooden chairs for a long time. ( And it takes me a long time to cut his hair!)  However, he was a good sport and let me do it to save some money and to give me more practice cutting hair.  Isn't he so handsome?? :)

Goodbye Ohio! Leaving one arch for another! 

 On our way! 

We made it to my favorite  city!!

We got to go with some friends to see Elf: The Musical at the Fox theater.  It was fun to be at the Fox with the Thomas's, Zengers, Lisa, Julia, and Rock, however, I would suggest that you save your time and money and see a different play if you ever get the chance.  The movie is way better. We found out later though that Buddy, the main character,  graduated from Wright State University! Kind of cool! 

I was trying to take a picture of the bride behind Tyler and captured this gem of my hubby. hahaha

What's a trip to St. Louis without Ted Drewes! Yum!!

My grandma, Annie  Paul Erekson, wrote a memoir of her life so far and gave it to her kids for Christmas.  I really enjoyed reading about her life! 

Monday morning we pulled together a last minute breakfast with some of my dearest friends. Michael had Tom Crockett over and I invited Clarissa Thomas and Kaitlin (Neurohr) McClure with her husband Conner and their soon to be daughter Lina! ") 

So fun to reconnect with old friends! 

I had to take a picture of these chips because they are some of my favorite chips in the whole world!! We get them at a restaurant called Canyon Cafe, and I have to go when I go to St. Louis! They are just so yummy!!

I always love seeing Greg and Lisa and their sweet kiddos!! 

We went to Greg and Lisa's new house for Family Home Evening on Monday also. We played games and learned that OWL stands for Own Will Less and Lord's Will Only from Mom's part of the Charity project*! She is so clever! 

*The Charity project is a big part of our Christmas celebration.  My mom rewrote the 12 days of Christmas to the 12 days of Charity with the 12 attributes of Charity that are mentioned in Moroni 7:45.  So every year we are assigned a trait to study and report to the rest of the family.  It is wonderful! 

Michael thought the buttermilk was eggnog and had a rude awakening.  It was pretty entertaining for us, but he will not be making that mistake any time soon! 

We saw a film on Jerusalem at the Omni Max Theater at the science center.  It was very interesting! 

Tyler standing on the over pass over Highway 40

We celebrated New Years Eve at a YSA Roller Skating party.  My parents were called to serve in the YSA branch earlier this year, so we got to go with them to ring in the New Year in style! 80's style! It was a fun party! I won't post a picture of  my parents per request, but they were pretty dolled up also! They are so fun!  Roller skating took some getting used to, it definitely wasn't Michael's cup of tea, but Tyler was doing really well with it! Hidden talents I tell ya what! 

I love the start of a New Year! It's fun to look back at what has happened in a year, and look forward to what will be happening in the coming year!  This last year was certainly a doozy for me! I got engaged, got married to my best friend, finished teaching 2nd grade, graduated from BYU, moved 3 times, moved across the country to Ohio, started a new job, and all sorts of craziness in between! I can't wait to see what adventures 2014 holds!! 

Sadly, we had to leave New Years day because I had to go back to work on the 2nd. Tyler and I were both pretty tired from the late night partying from the night before, but there was a storm coming later that night so we had to make it back to Ohio fairly early.  Luckily we made the trip fairly quickly and safely despite being tired. 

My cute Mom packed us a whole box of things to do to make our drive go by faster.  One of the things she gave us was some yarn for me to crochet! She is so considerate and kind! I love her so much! 

It was so fun being home, even for a couple of days! I just love being with my parents and feel so inspired by their example of how they live their life! I want to be just like them! I also feel so grateful that my husband was a good sport and gave up time with his family so we could be with mine!! 

Luckily for me, the first day back to work got cancelled because of snow!! So I got one more day to recover and catch up on the blog! Hooray! Happy New Year to me! 

Goodbye 2013.  You've been great.  Welcome 2014!!