Happy New Year!

My life seems to go in cycles, roughly equivalent to school semesters. I suppose that might have something to do with the fact that 5/6ths of my family are either students or teachers. Fall semester always seems to be the craziest and most stressful for me, thanks in part to the holidays and four family birthdays. Since I realized this a few years ago, I've made a concerted effort to simplify my life and reduce stress between September and December. I have not yet completely succeeded, but I think I did better than ever this year. Yay me! It helped me this year to think of all the Christmas activities in terms of another birthday celebration--for Jesus Christ. That was inspired by this quote from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf in the December 2010 Ensign:

"Let us all make this year’s Christmas season a time of rejoicing and celebration, a time when we acknowledge the miracle that our Almighty God sent His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem the world!"

We enjoyed Christmas at my parents' home this year. It's not very fun to haul Christmas stuff, but it was great to spend time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We also enjoyed the annual Packer family Christmas party with Jeff's extended family on New Year's Eve.

I suppose it's time to think about New Year's resolutions and all that, but I haven't had much time to slow down and do anything that resembles introspection. As soon as most of the festivities were over, it was time to get our Primary ready for the New Year. I expect chaos on the first Sunday of the year, and I think that is turning out to be a good strategy. I was pleasantly surprised when everything came together fairly well today, with only a few minor glitches. (I am VERY grateful for a counselor who can fill in when a music person doesn't show.) We'll make little adjustments as we go, but so far, so good. I love the scriptures and I am so excited to focus on them in Primary this year!

My kids go back to school tomorrow, which is a good thing. Two weeks ago I was glad to have them come home and not have to deal with the normal school routine. Now, after too many late nights and too much TV and video games, we all need the routine again. Maybe things will even calm down enough for me to set a couple of realistic goals. One of them might be breakfast related. We are all tired of cold cereal, so I'm looking for quick, easy, and nutritious breakfast ideas for school days. All suggestions welcome!

Happy 2011!

More gingerbread fun

Jeff brought some cookies cutters home from Berlin last spring. They are in the shape of Ampelmänner, the dinstinctive crosswalk lights that are found in the former East Germany. So we made Ampelmänner gingerbread cookies. This photo isn't great, but don't they look festive too? (We also did a few normal gingerbread men as well. :-)

Gingerbread fun

I wanted to do something fun for Christmas for my friends that I do Crossfit/lift weights with every week. I decided to play with gingerbread men, and they turned out great! Thanks to Jeff for sharing his long years of mutant gingerbread men expertise, and to Gary B. for the photo.


I have so much to do still to get ready for Christmas. I decided to devote today to finishing up the baking. I put on some Christmas music and stayed in the kitchen all day. Normally that isn't my favorite place to spend lots of time, but it was nice today. No shopping, no crowds, no stress. Just making treats for friends and neighbors. My best day so far this month!

Merry Christmas!

Make My Life a Bethlehem

No matter what I do, it seems like the last quarter of each year is busycrazyhecticstressful. Throw a Primary sacrament meeting program and other Primary president responsibilities into the the normal mix, and this year is no different. I keep telling myself that I am going to plan ahead and be better prepared and better able to enjoy the spirit of the holidays. Let's just say that so far I am an expert at wishful thinking. But there is one thing that saves me from complete Grinchiness. I am a sucker for beautiful Christmas music.

This evening my friend and visiting teacher, Alexis, called and invited me to Christmas in the Grove, an annual Christmas concert performed by members of the Grove Creek Stake (I think I got that right). It was wonderful! The director, Kathryn Laycock Little, was amazing and energetic and has fantastic taste in Christmas carols. Some people are talented. She is. Some people are able to pull talent out of others. She does. No average children's choir, youth choir, and adult choir from an average LDS stake could sing so beautifully without someone like her teaching and inspiring them to do so. Their performance was filled with the Spirit of Christ. I told Alexis that I couldn't have enjoyed the concert more unless I had been singing in it.

The final song in particular spoke to my heart. I wasn't familiar with it, but it's one of my new favorites:

Make My Life a Bethlehem
Lyrics by Pamela Martin, Music by Craig Courtney

Make my life a Bethlehem, a manger of my heart.
Let me hear the angels sing and let the music start,
May I fall in simple faith and wonder to my knees,
In the manger of my heart let Christ be born in me.

In my life there is a place that's scattered with the straw
Of every disappointment, each regret and every flaw.
In this dark and dismal place my beasts of burden lie.
Weary from the heavy load they long to lay aside.

Make my life a Bethlehem, a manger of my heart.
Let me hear the angels sing and let the music start,
May I fall in simple faith and wonder to my knees,
In the manger of my heart let Christ be born in me.

Come and sweep this stable clean and swaddle it with light,
And let the Child be born in me upon a starlit night.
For though He’s born a thousand times in far off Bethlehem,
Until the Savior’s born in me I cannot worship Him.

Make my life a Bethlehem, a manger of my heart.
Let me hear the angels sing and let the music start,
May I fall in simple faith and wonder to my knees,
In the manger of my heart let Christ be born in me.

I found a fairly decent video of it on YouTube, but it's with two other Christmas songs, so skip to 4:38 if you don't want to take the time to listen to the other two:



My goal for the next two weeks is to try to better make my life a Bethlehem and my heart a manger for Christ--and send the Grinch packing!

Catching Up

I have some thoughts running through my head that I really want to blog about, but I have some catching up to do first.

Many thanks to Jeff's parents who took our kids for three days before Christmas so we could have an anniversary get-away. It was so nice to have some down time, just the two of us. We raced a snowstorm up Provo Canyon to the Homestead Resort in Midway. I shouldn't say we raced, because we actually drove very slowly and carefully, but it was a race to get up there before the roads got too bad. It snowed most of the time we were up there, so we just hung out at the resort and didn't do too much exploring out in the treacherous winter wonderland. Still, we really had fun. Since we moved back Utah County, we've gone back to some of the places that were significant to us when we were dating/newly-married. We've discovered that you just have to hang on to those memories, because it's pretty hard to relive them. It's better and more fun to make new memories. Our new favorite memory? Hot-tubbing in the snow! It was a blast!

I told Jeff I'd make a snow angel if he'd go back to our room and get the camera. I wasn't going to do it without a way to prove that I'd done it! He said he'd make one too if I would go get the camera. So I put my boots and coat on over my wet swimming suit and hiked back to room for the camera. It was worth it--and it was COLD! But then the hot tub felt better than ever!



While we were hot-tubbing in the snow, the boys were seeing the Christmas light display at Willard Bay, building a gingerbread train, sledding at Happy Hollow, and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows in the snow. Thanks Grandma and Papa!



We had a nice Christmas. Santa was good to us, as were grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. We enjoyed the gifts, but mostly we just enjoyed the family time. Jared wrote a cute note to Santa that I had to take a picture of:


He did get his robot. And here is Dallin playing with one of his favorite gifts:


Our New Year's was extremely uneventful, but we made up for it on the 3rd when Ryan was baptized. He and two buddies from his Primary class were baptized in the same meeting. After the baptism we hosted 30 family members for lunch at our house. I am so thankful to live close to family again, so that we can celebrate important events like this together. We are proud of Ryan for wanting to follow Jesus Christ, and for preparing himself well. He has a strong sense of right and wrong, and a great desire to do what is right. We are blessed to be his parents.


And finally, Jeff really outdid himself for my birthday this year. He has been reveling in the fact that he has set new birthday gift standards for husbands everywhere. :-) He says he hasn't scored this many points from my friends since he brought me flowers at work for no particular reason. I knew I wasn't getting any gifts because the camera I got for Christmas was for my birthday too. So I wasn't expecting the large envelope Jeff handed me, full of cards and letters and gifts from good friends, and the new blog he created for me, full of more birthday wishes and kind words from people I love. I was in tears reading them all. What a great birthday present! To all of you who participated, thank you, thank you! And if you are reading this now and feel bad because you didn't know about it, that's okay. Jeff contacted as many people as he could get in touch with, but he didn't have access to all my e-mail addresses because I hadn't finished updating my address book. (Now that my birthday is past, he's complaining that he's not getting any interesting e-mail anymore.) Still, it was overwhelming to hear from so many people, and to think of the many more dear friends I didn't hear from this time, plus the ones I've lost touch with (hopefully temporarily). I am rich with friends! Thank you!

A couple Christmas photos

This one is for my cousin, Kim, who has this exact same Santa picture at her house in Iowa, with the exact same number of cotton balls glued to it. :-) It's only Dec. 19th. We can still catch up!

Jared hesitantly agreed to be a shepherd when the Primary children sang for our ward Christmas party. Isn't he cute?!

Yes, Ruth, it's high time for an update...

...but here's why I haven't gotten around to one lately:

Oct. 31--Halloween
2 weeks later--Dallin's birthday
2 weeks later--Adam's birthday & Thanksgiving
3 weeks later--Ryan's birthday
4 days later--our anniversary
3 days later--Christmas
1 week later--New Year's
3 days later--Ryan's baptism
1 week later--my birthday

And that doesn't include Christmas parties and choir concerts and pack meetings and presidency meetings and shopping and visiting teaching and laundry and cleaning and decorating and baking and dishes and grocery shopping and, sigh, all the rest. Oh, I realize that many of these big family events at this time of the year are mostly my own doing, but it's a little late to change any of them. :-) (What was I thinking?!) So look for more blogging from me in January, maybe, when I can breathe again. I do have some things that have been on my mind to blog about, when I get around to it. Here's a teaser you can ponder until I get my thoughts written down: How do you lose yourself in service, without losing yourself?

Christmas Fish

We had a good Christmas. The kids woke up to find that Santa had, with Mom's and Dad's permission, brought them a fish tank. They also got coupons from Mom and Dad to go buy fish at the Animal Ark in American Fork, since it's too cold for Santa to keep tropical fish at the North Pole, of course. (Not to mention the water in the tank needed to be filtered and conditioned for a few days before the fish arrived.) Adam chose two orange swordtails, Ryan picked out two porkchop fish, and Jared chose three zebra fish. So far, so good. None of them are dead yet. Mom might get a couple powder blue gouramis for her birthday, if we determine they will be friendly with the others. This was a big step for us, as Mom and Dad are not pet people. But the fish don't shed, they don't poop or pee on the floor, they don't bite or scratch, they don't eat much, and if we take care of them they shouldn't smell either. And it's actually fun and restful to sit and watch them swim--kind of like watching the flames of a campfire.

Christmas Letter 2007

Dear friends and family,

Season’s greetings from the Packers! We look forward to this time of year when we get to catch up with our favorite people all over the world. We look forward to your cards, letters, and pictures in our mailbox and inboxes, and feel inclined to return the favor. Even though miles and years often separate us, we treasure the memories and associations we share with you, and hope that you and your families are doing well.

2007 has been a year of dreams come true for us. After two great years in San Angelo, Texas, Jeff’s hard work finally landed him the long-sought-after tenure-track teaching job. He is now the German professor at Utah Valley State College (soon to be UVU) in Orem, Utah. This was a blessing we hardly dared hope for—a permanent position close to our extended family. In August we bought a rambler with a basement in Pleasant Grove, just north of Orem at the base of beautiful Mt. Timpanogos. Although the house itself has given us a few more projects than we anticipated, so far we love the location, the neighborhood, the schools, and the community. The last several months have been consumed with settling in to what we hope will be our home for years to come.

Jeff has his work cut out for him, trying to revive and build UVSC’s German program. He is very busy, but happy. He continues to stay in shape by cycling the 6 ½ miles to work and back, weather permitting. In September he reached his goal of 10,000 miles on his bike in five years. In his meager free time Jeff plays with his boys, flies his radio control planes, follows his fantasy football team, and occasionally sits down with a good book.

Adam, who just turned 9, is doing well in 3^rd grade. He misses his friends in Texas, but is very excited about using all his new snow gear. Last spring he was Mr. Consistent on his machine-pitch baseball team, with a .765 batting average. He also enjoyed a couple weeks of swimming lessons again before we moved. Adam earned his Wolf badge in Cub Scouts and is now starting on his Bear. He recently joined the school choir and is looking forward to Christmas performances.

Thanks in part to all-day kindergarten in Texas last year, Ryan, almost 7, is head and shoulders above most of his 1^st grade classmates (academically, not literally!). He brings home beautiful pictures that he has colored after his school work is done. It’s just a good thing he’s not inclined to misbehave when he’s bored. He is a voracious reader and has to be told almost nightly to “put the book away and go to sleep!” Ryan also made good progress in teeball and in swimming lessons this year. He loves sports in general, if you can tear him away from cartoons and computer games.

Jared, 3 ½, has yet to reach his pinnacle of cuteness. He learns new things daily and it’s just fun to watch him figure life out and then tell you all about it. He’s becoming a big boy, and I love the fact that he has pretty much mastered potty training, but hasn’t completely given up naps. Jared is also Mommy’s helper and enjoys doing little chores around the house. (Don’t worry, I know it won’t last.)

Dallin just turned 1, and it’s hard to believe how fast the year has flown. He started walking a few weeks ago and gets around pretty well now, with only a few bumps and bruises. He is still an easy baby with a sweet disposition and lots of smiles, particularly for his brothers who like to entertain him. Dallin loves to explore and get into EVERYTHING, especially things that aren’t toys. This promises to be one of those years when we only decorate the top half of the Christmas tree.

As for me, I thrive on being a stay-at-home mom (except, of course, during those inevitable moments when I feel like I’m going crazy). A friend once told me to cut myself some slack for at least six months after a move, and taking that advice is the wisest thing I’ve done all year. I count it all good when I can just keep up with the basics of home and family. I did take a fun Photoshop class earlier this year, and I still enjoy yoga. At church Jeff and I are now teaching the 3-year-olds, something we are getting better at as we adjust to their attention spans (or lack thereof).

We have felt the Lord watching over our family this year. We know he loves all His children and will bless us as we do His will. May you and your family enjoy His peace this Christmas season and always.

Love,

Harmony, Jeff, Adam, Ryan, Jared, & Dallin Packer

Gingerbread Adventures

Making gingerbread houses is one of my favorite childhood Christmas memories. But somewhere in the years since my childhood, my mom lost her recipe and pattern. Last year she finally found them again and made one with my boys at our house before Christmas. I mostly stayed out of the way, but she gave me a copies of the recipe and pattern. This was the first year I tried making one on my own. I baked it and glued it together with the royal icing one night and found half of one section of the roof broken off when I woke up the next morning. My kids almost got blamed for breaking it before I realized what happened. I think I just didn't bake the gingerbread long enough to get it hard enough. After repairs with more icing and an inedible piece of cardboard, we rescued it, decorated it, and used it as a centerpiece for our ward Christmas party. I thought it turned out pretty well, after all. Here's a picture:


About the same time we needed to do the gingerbread house for the ward party, Adam had an assignment in 3rd grade to make a model of an American symbol. He chose to do the Liberty Bell. His teacher said if they made their models out of something edible, the class could eat them after their presentations. So after our gingerbread house, we ended up making a gingerbread Liberty Bell. Jeff was the mastermind behind getting the circular layers of the bell cut to the right diameter to shape the bell. (I was in awe of his math skills, which are usually pale compared to his verbal skills. There's a reason I keep the checkbook in our family.) We only had to smooth it out a little with the icing. There wasn't room for the whole inscription, but we did what we could. Adam did very well on his presentation also, and got an A for the whole project. Here is the finished product. Not bad, huh?

Gearing up for the holidays

I think I'd better not leave my blog on the sour note of the last post for too long. The kids survived me "losing it" with them and I got over it too. I'm sure it will happen again, but for now things are good.

Last Saturday and Sunday Jeff's parents took the three older boys so we could do some Christmas shopping without them. It was wonderful! If Grandma and Grandpa are agreeable, I could make this a December tradition. :-) The boys had tons of fun, even if they did miss most of Saturday morning cartoons. (Which was fine with me--they aren't what they used to be.) Grandma had crafts for them to make and they got to go sledding and out for pizza and to see some Christmas lights. We got a lot done--it almost made shopping bearable for me. We got stuck in IKEA for a couple hours--that is quite the store--but escaped eventually and actually bought a few things to put under the tree. We're not done, but putting a big dent in it all at once and having Jeff there to help make decisions was really nice. We also got to go to the Saturday night and Sunday sessions of stake conference with only one kid--that is almost heaven!

Early this week I sat down and wrote out everything I could think of that I need or want to do in December. (A few things were put off to the January list, thank goodness.) I just knew I wouldn't make it through the month with my sanity intact if I didn't get myself organized. I made sure I put some service things on there, because it's the season of giving after all, and I've been feeling the need to make sure I'm not just focusing on me and mine. After I wrote down everything, I divided up all the tasks into which week in December I am going to try to get them done--1, 2, 3, or 4. Now I'm slowly plowing my way through the Week 1 tasks. Well, I have been anyway--blogging is not officially on the list. Call me neurotic, but it's the way I function. Does anyone else have to do things like this to survive? No, I don't usually finish everything on the list, and I do plenty of things that never get on the list (unless I add them after the fact, which I've been known to do, just so I can cross them off :-), but the list at least gives me the illusion that I have a handle on it all.

Even though I roll my eyes when stores start putting out Christmas stuff the day after Halloween, it occurred to me today that I would be better off if I too started preparing for Christmas that early, at least mentally. I know, a little late for this year. It's not like I let it sneak up on me. I had good intentions of getting my Christmas cards mailed before the end of November, for instance. But somehow it always gets away from me and I find myself feeling unprepared and rushed, just when I want to be savoring the joys of the season and focusing on the spiritual importance of what it's all about. It doesn't help that our anniversary and three of our four kids birthdays are between Halloween and Christmas too. But then it could be argued that we did that to ourselves. Oh well. It all makes for a very busy and very happy time of year. And if you don't get a Christmas letter from us until Valentine's Day, you'll know why.