Dear 12 days of Christmas gift leavers,
One of the sweetest things that happens when generous, dependable saints like you do projects like this is. . . .
The recipient gets to imagine all the people in the neighborhood/ward who might like them enough to bless and compliment them in this way.
I can only think of one family that fits all the criteria of people crazy enough to try to do neatly wrapped and ribboned presents, with double layered red and green poems to announce each day.
If you are the family I am thinking of. . . Thank you it feels wonderful!
Here is the first clue:
This family has one daughter that has grown up and left home and is working, who used to love to change her hair color.
This mother and puppy were seen in front of Braeggar's blowing and raking leaves last week.
This family does more crazy, generous service than any family I have ever known!
This dad was willing to miss parent stake meeting Saturday night because someone from out of town needed a treatment.
This mom knows how to dress up like pi.
This youngest son worries he may have been brain damaged when he made one of the scars on his head.
This middle daughter can visit up a storm. Loves, LOVES puppies, dogs and other living things and wants to get a college education.
This oldest son is too shy to sit in front of the priesthood until his dad has to sit there also.
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I tried not to eat all the cookies too fast but after 3 the first night. . they did not last another 24 hours. I tried. Good thing it wasn't fast Sunday.
=======================2:00p Friday ============================repeat====
argh! Don't you hate it when you spend 20 minutes writing something and then it gets deleted!?
OK, starting over.
This really hurts. : (
Maybe I can be more abrupt and condensed this time. Forget the nice long paragraphs.
-I went late to my singles BoM class lastnight at the PineView Stake Center. I have been attending weekly since about August.
-When it was time for treats I asked if I could make 4 announcements. There were only 9 of us there. 1-I gave one of our teachers a 2L Pepsi as a joke. 2- I asked if anyone liked their drawers to smell nice and gave away the gift and read the poem. 3- I did the same for the silver ornaments. 4- The best one, the hot chocolate and marshmallows went last but each time I read the poem, and I was so proud of how beautifully presented they were! Nothing like what I ever give away.
-I asked Jimmy Young in his dad's truck about an hour ago how his dad was doing. Is he discouraged or depressed? He hasn't visited with me in days, weeks, months. He is ashamed of his new job of 2 weeks stocking shelves at Walmart. : ( He used to be a semi driver with an impeccable record, but he doesn't dare leave Jimmy alone like he did 3 years ago. - - - - - - - - - So I couldn't resist, I took them the big red and gold tied-ribboned boxes of candy canes!
-As you know I ate all the cookies and I also wrote my sister a letter and mailed it in your Christmas Card for the first time in 20 years. So personally I could not be happier. If anything I am doing has hurt your feelings I so want to apologize. I was so discouraged last week and I am having such fun this one.
Dear 12 days of Christmas gift leavers,
One of the sweetest things that happens when generous, dependable saints like you do projects like this is. . . .
The recipient gets to imagine all the people in the neighborhood/ward who might like them enough to bless and compliment them in this way.
I can only think of one family that fits all the criteria of people crazy enough to try to do neatly wrapped and ribboned presents, with double layered red and green poems to announce each day.
If you are the family I am thinking of. . . Thank you it feels wonderful!
As I reread the poems before passing them along they were so flattering! Everyone wants to believe those things about themselves. Or at least to think that someone thinks that about them. Internalizing them is hard. We tend to say, no that's not me, they are just being nice, am I supposed to believe this? But I believe HF feels that way about us. . . so why not try to accept them? Once again. Thank you!
If I have made you lose your excitement, suspense, thrill, joy, pleasure, anonymity I am sorry. But it is even more wonderful to me, thinking I know who actually has a heart this big.
=================================================^Friday^===
Dear Sark Jensen and family,
Sannon
Sridge
Srock
Sriley
Sritton
I rang your doorbell, but just once at 9:25 tonight. Sunday, January 04, 2015
I am not familiar with your daily schedule but I wouldn’t be surprised if it started early. I rode down on my bike after my dog walk with a #10 -3quart jalapeno can and a glass gallon jug of pickled jalapenos. It is the first gallon I have purchased. I am allergic to tons of stuff so I was hoping. . . I could eat them, and I can.
One of the first weeks of December I saw Sark wearing the loudest colored jalapeno tie I had ever seen to Sacrament meeting and he was conducting! I was amazed. Since I had just purchased my gallon I figured I would drop by WalMart and buy you guys a gallon just for fun, FUN! You know me, I’ll do almost anything for a laugh.
By the end of Priesthood opening exercises I realized it was December and the green vines that the multi-colored peppers were growing on were really electrical cords. Those were Christmas lights. And they still are mighty bright!!
Dan and Julie Moss were sitting on the bench right behind the thermostat in Sacrament Meeting today. I touched both their shoulders as I knelt behind them before the meeting and asked when they were Christmas Elves doing the 12 days of Christmas last? They did our family once when my kids were little and they started with a big frozen turkey on the 1st day of Christmas. "And a partridge in a pear tree. . . " Julie would go exercise at 4 or 5am and drop it off on our doorstep first thing in the morning. When Tara Braeggar started her humble, meek, gratitude overflowing, testimony in Sacrament Meeting today I told HF in prayer that hers was mine as well. So blessed we are and have been. When I asked Tami Kalmon as I substituted for my 3rd week in the library ( I texted Eric Yunker tonight, and he said, I wasn't aware of that. Sorry.[we're way ol' buddies]) whose testimony would have been mine today, She guessed right off!
I left the Mosses saying, someone in your neighborhood is still doing it, Dan said, That's good to know. I'll give it some thought.
I smiled a big one. Perfect! They had admitted that since the kids were mostly gone, except Sarah, they have quit. Too hard to run away!
Tami Kalmon and I started TV detective AGENCY last night. Here is the blog I wrote:
Saturday, January 3, 2015
TV d e t e c t i v e AGENCY
TV detective AGENCY stands for Tami and Vincenzo!
I have a partner in crime. Oops, I meant a partner in figuring out who is doing the anti-crime-KIND-deeds in our neighborhood Christmas after Christmas. She kept some of her evidence and I have the current stuff!
I dropped off a bottle of Chablis, an empty package of triple elf chocolate cookies with M&Ms and 18 gold and silver Christmas cards. (I already used 2.) They are all waiting on her doorstep in a double Wal-Mart bag with a GOLD label taped on reading “evidence”.
Yes, I know it is 11:40pm at night. I did not ring or knock this time.
I told her and Jackie the chapter 2 part of the investigation story with the suspect being Wilma Courtney. I prefaced chapter 3 with RS president Cindi Brinkerhoff. My reasoning was that it must have been done by conveyor belt. The poems on red and green doubled construction paper. The gold bows. The red ribbon. The see-through packages. I suspected that I was not the only one receiving them and that it would take assembly line techniques to produce such high quality presents. These daily gifts were elegant! I was darn proud to pass them along!
Tami agreed that her poems, that she kept to use in future years, were double layered as well, with red and green construction paper.
I invited Tami to give me any suspicions she had and I would sniff them out. Jackie got a kick out of that word usage. : )
I suspect it might be the Jensen’s, Tami contributed. O, Ho! That is even better than my chapter 3. We shall see.
And I never even suspect Sark Jensen last Sunday when I clung to his arm so he couldn’t leave until I was done with my story in the choir seats. : )
And Sannon Jensen fits the profile exactly. And helper kids: Sridgette, Srock, Sriley and Sritton! Aha. . . I think we have something here! Can you believe Srock17 and Sritton12 did 37 fast offering envelopes a couple of months ago? I was astounded! And they didn’t even think it was a big deal!
Of course I had to announce it on
Facebook the next time Sannon posted a family picture. “It’s a good thing the Jensen’s are in the ward!” I told them as they walked away with my fast offering. “Right back at ya!” replied Srock. How could I remember it all these weeks later? When was the last time you heard a teenager return a compliment so smoothly? Yeah, now you know why I can still remember!
Tami and her family had not been able to read my blog that I sent her home to google. It was frustrating to her. Guess what? I helped them find it just after 9 tonight. I told her it had been viewed 16 times and none of those were from her and her family? Well, now it will be viewed a few more times.
So Jensen's, whose name I love, I have not voiced any findings but my prime suspects are y o u s! :)
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Jan 4
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Hello good bishop emeritus, Would you pass this along to Tami for me, and browse to your heart's content.
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Jan 5
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Bro. Jensen,
Thanks so much for your email. I'm sorry I missed you last night. I am so glad to have my kids back in school, so I can get to bed at a reasonable hour each night. I was in bed last night when you came by. I'm glad you figured out my tie was Christmas light bulbs, instead of jalapeños. I don't know if I would wear a jalapeño tie? I'll have to think about that.
A good mystery is always fun. We have been the recipient of many anonymous kind deeds since we have lived in this neighborhood. It is fun to have such kind and thoughtful neighbors. I'm glad you had a merry Christmas. I appreciate your wonderful singing voice as you lead the music each Sunday. It helps me to learn the different parts of each song, when you mix in a verse of the tenor, alto or bass lines of music. Happy New Year!
Thanks,
Thanks,
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