DECEMBER 19th

• Thought/story: "Christmas Memories"
• Scripture: John 14:26-27
Event: The Good Samaritan
Jesus Christ was kind

• Recipe: Better Than Sex Cake II (Lowfat, non-chocolate version, but still good)
Ingredients: 1 yellow cake mix, applesauce (as according to box directions to sub for oil), 16 oz. Crushed pineapple, undrained; 1 pkg. Vanilla instant pudding, 8 oz. Fat free cream cheese, 8 oz. Cool whip lite, 1 egg (according to box directions)

Instructions: Prepare yellow cake mix according to box directions, except substitute
applesauce for the oil in the same amount as indicated on the box. Also, substitute egg whites for eggs - two whites for each egg called for. Let cake cool. Poke holes on cake top with a fork. Dump pineapple and spread around. Mix pudding according to
package directions and add softened cream cheese. Spread over pineapple on top of
cake. Spread cool whip on top. Optional: garnish with nuts, coconuts or fresh
strawberries.

• Tradition: Tips for presents/traditions:
"We have five children and at Christmastime have had difficulty with lost gift tags. Now, we (Santa) assign different-colored paper for each child and for Mom and Dad (this obviously doesn't include gifts from other people). We don't have any gift tags at all. From the time they are about two years old they know what color paper is theirs. I keep a chart with child's name and a sample of their wrapping paper so we don't get mixed up." (Vicki, Carson Ciry, NY)

"We have nosy people at our house during the time before Christmas - always shaking
and rattling the packages with their name tags - and often they actually guess what's in them. I have decided to use different names on the packages so whose is whose is a mystery on Christmas Day. For instance, this year I used the names of Santa's nine reindeer, and last year, I used the names of the seven dwarves. No one knows whose package is whose, but I keep a key so that I will know on Christmas. Numbers are letters on the alphabet can also be used." (Beverly, Campbell, CA)

• Small gift idea: Don't forget that food supplies can make great gifts and are simple for you to put together. All it takes is the item and a little imagination on your part. You could use items that you dry packed at the cannery, such as the soup mix, put into your own container and dressed up a little bit with extra noodles or something with a tag that reads "Have a Soup-er Christmas" or "You're a Soup-er Friend". This is an especially nice idea for someone who doesn't live in the area and might not have access to the cannery. In this case you might want to see if you could afford case of wheat, flour or sugar. This gift would certainly be very much appreciated!

CHRISTMAS MEMORIES
by Dennis Lythgoe

Christmas is not only for family, it is for good friends.
When Marti and I and our two little ones first moved to Massachusetts, we missed our families greatly. So we spent our first Christmas away in Washington, D.C., at the home of my sister, Mary, and her family. We traveled the last half of the 500 miles in a gruesome snowstorm as the well-lit speed-limit signs on the New Jersey Turnpike steadily decreased until the acceptable speed was only ten miles per hour.
When we reached Washington, we almost got stuck on an off ramp, then really did get stuck about three streets from my sister's house. Needless to say, it discouraged us from making this trip again the following year.
The second year we flew home to Salt Lake City to spend the holidays with Marti's parents. Our children renewed acquaintance with their grandparents, we recreated family traditions, and everyone had a great time. Negotiating extra luggage on the flight home was the only down side. A Playskool house filled an entire lumpy suitcase.
Both of those years were fun, but as airline fares rose and more children arrived
in our family, traveling became a luxury we couldn't afford anymore. So we developed our own traditions. We toured the dynamite Christmas-tree lane at Jordan Marsh department store in downtown Boston. We rode the train, visited the exhibits, and enjoyed the lights at the Edaville Railroad, built on an isolated cranberry bog in South Carver, south of Boston.
Every year we looked for a family who, like us, needed to share the spirit of Christmas - a family who had just moved to Massachusetts from the West, were newly converted to the Church and needed a sense of belonging, or whose extended family members had moved or passed away. Then we invited them over on Christmas Eve to
share our traditions.
We always had the missionaries who were working in our ward, and they blended very well into our family. They enjoyed the meals, the activities, and the small gifts we gave them to open while they were experiencing that undeniable touch of homesickness. (Even the best-adjusted missionaries are homesick at Christmastime.)
We had a major turkey dinner with all the trimmings, a tradition we borrowed from Marti's family. It was so impressive in itself that our kids will never accept another turkey dinner at someone else's home as being legitimate. No one makes gravy or stuffing or rolls the way Marti does - and her pies are in a class by themselves. There were always recipe exchanges and cooking lessons to follow.
Afterward, we produced a nativity pageant with everyone, including guests, who were obligated to participate in some way, wearing robes and headgear, while I left the narration portion to myself. I could show off my golden throat-and I didn't have to
dress up.
All who came each year were always good enough sports that they freely donned old bathrobes or specially cut sheets and placed dish towels on their heads while they played out the religious story. Someone always wore my Russian-style furry hat with jewels plastered on the front to emulate one of the wise men. Some people dressed as angels, and the whole house was littered afterward with tinsel. There were always
volunteers to play the important roles of Mary and Joseph, who usually had to place a baby doll in a makeshift manger made from the upside-down stepping stool we had around the house for little kids to use in the bathroom.
Sometimes sunglasses or some other ill-conceived item turned up in the final per-formance, usually the result of one of our kids' crazy ideas. The montage
was not always perfect, but it was never sacrilegious. In fact, it was always
emotionally moving.
Then we had a program in which members of our family performed musical numbers or readings - and we invited our guests to do the same if they wished. Sometimes they did, and sometimes they didn't.
Two of our sons played the piano. One year our oldest son and daughter did some sensational musical lip-synching demonstrations that had nothing to do with Christmas, but did help people to feel comfortable with each other. It was such a hit that we tried to duplicate it for several years after that.
Marti and I kept our crowd-pleasing duets going, the most memorable of which was "Tis The Holiday Season," complete with elaborate gestures and choreography.
We always ended with a series of Christmas carols, sung with gusto, and dessert, eaten with genuine appreciation.
There was a relaxed atmosphere and loads of good feeling.
As planned, the evening ended early, so that everyone could return to their homes and have that family time required of all responsible adults on Christmas Eve. After all, there was still a lot of work to do before the dawning of Christmas morning.
The friendships formed through that Christmas Eve bond were enduring and warm. Many of the people, we found afterward, had a special need to experience a more expansive family spirit. They were usually feeling lonely for various reasons, and were grateful to be included.
On Christmas night each year we alternated having the Twomey family from Marshfield to our house and going to their house. As native New Englanders, they had an abundance of family, but all of their gatherings were fortunately scheduled on Christmas Eve. So we cultivated a deep friendship with them that extends to our children. That unmistakable sense of genuine family the mark of true friendship - has remained. Their children seem like our own, and vice versa.
The most memorable of our traditional gatherings was one cold winter night when our pipes froze, one of the hazards of forced-hot-water heating systems, and we sat around all evening wearing coats. The warmth of the relationship relationship was still there.
After spending twenty fruitful years in Massachusetts, we moved back to Utah, where we once again have a solid family network. That means Christmas activities and traditions are now familyoriented, as they used to be.
When we realized that our Christmas Eves were likely to be different, we were surprised at the required adjustments. We have adjusted, of course, and appreciate the fact that our own family members are so inherently warm and likable in their own right.
But we're also glad for those w:arm memories of New England Christmases- when we shared the Christmas spirit with caring, grateful people whose friendships we still treasure.


Dennis Lythgoe, former chairman of the Department
of History at Bridgewater State College near Boston,
is now a featured columnist with Salt Lake City's
Deseret News. He is the author of The Sensitive
leader and A Marriage of Equals.