DECEMBER 14th

DECEMBER 14th

• Thought/story: "A Christmas Miracle"

• Scripture: Luke 2:42-49
Event: Christ in the Temple
Jesus Christ was taught when 12 years old

• Recipe: Four layer dessert (also known as Mississippi Mud)
Ingredients: 1 c. flour, l/Z c. chopped nuts, 1 stick soft. Butter, 8 oz. Cream cheese (softened), 1 c. powdered sugar, 1 c. cool whip, 6 oz. Packaged choc. Pudding, 3 cups milk.
Instructions:
1st layer: Mix flour, walnuts and butter to form a ball. Press into 9x13 pan. Bake this at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
2nd layer: mix cream cheese, sugar and cool whip. Carefully spread on top of first
baked layer.
3rd layer: mix pudding according to directions w/3 cups milk and spread on top.
4th layer: dab remaining cool whip on top and swirl.

• Tradition: As you're wrapping your Christmas gifts for other immediate family
members, try leaving an opening at the top where on a slip of paper each person can
write a gift that he or she is going to give to the Savior for the coming year. Examples of "gifts" are service, helpfulness, kindness, love, honesty, etc.

• Small gift idea: Bath get away gift box or bag. Put several different soaps, a bath
pillow, a magazine, shampoos and lotions together. It would be fun to wrap it up in a
new towel!

• REDUCING CHRISTMAS STRESS - Shop till you drop - just once Set aside one whole day to tackle the bulk of your gift shopping. If you've pared down your gift list - giving teachers and coaches the same thing, instituting the one-per family gift exchange with siblings or cousins, substituting simple homemade gifts for friends, buying fewer toys for children - it's entirely possible to do it in a day.
Arlington, Virginia mom Kathy McKinless favors a Wednesday in early December,
and she and her husband both take the day off. Together they polish off presents for
their four children and also treat themselves to a leisurely, just-us-two lunch. Even if a few items elude them, she said, "I feel much happier when I know the big parts of the shopping are done. "
(From Parenting)

A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE
by Barbara Barrington Jones

The following is a true story. The names have been changed to protect the identity of
the family.
It had been an incredibly difficult
time for the Anderson family, eighteen months of tragic events that seemed to
multiply and never end.
First of all, after more than eighteen years of marriage, Sister Anderson unexpectedly moved out of the home and filed for divorce, leaving the children
with their father. In the wake of the divorce, Brother Anderson was left with a
mountain of unpaid bills. The six Anderson children - two boys and four girls- took their mother's leaving hard, each feeling guilty that he or she couldn't have done something to prevent it. Randy, a high-school student, was especially distraught. He
tried to appear nonchalant, but inside he was sinking into deep depression.
One afternoon he took the family car and drove away without leaving a note or telling anyqne where he was going or when he would return.
When Brother Anderson got home and saw that the car was gone, he sensed that something was wrong and immediately started calling relatives, Randy's friends, and members of the ward to ask if anyone had seen the youth. Randy had taken the car before, but somehow this time seemed different. No one had seen him or knew where he might have gone.
When Randy hadn't returned by early the next moming, Brother Anderson called the police. All that day he and many others searched and prayed. On the third day the car was discovered in a parking lot just a few miles from the Anderson home, but there was still no sign of Randy. Three days later police in a distant state telephoned to say that Randy had been found. He had taken his own life.
The family was just recovering from this loss when one of the daughters, fifteen-
year-old Susan, went into a severe depression and had to be hospitalized.
She was in the hospital for ten days and was helped by some counseling but the bills were only partially covered by insurance. Brother Anderson wondered how much more he could handle.
That fall eight-year-old David began complaining of headaches and pains in his neck. The doctor prescribed a neck collar, and David wore it for a few weekS, but the pain persisted and seemed to get worse. Three weeks before Christmas, he was admitted to a children's medical center, where extensive tests revealed a fracture in his
neck. He had apparently been jumping on a trampoline~ a neighbor's back- yard and had fallen to the ground onto his head. He hadn't felt any pain at the time, so he had forgotten about the fall and hadn't mentioned it to his father or the doctor.
As soon as the diagnosis Was copleted, David was rushed to an operating room where, in, a lengthy operation, a metal "halo" was placed around his forehead and attached to his skull by four metal screws. Extending down from the halo was an apparatus of iron bars and shoulder braces, with a foamrubber "corset" around his rib area to
hold it in place. This would literally suspend his head so the neck could heal without that added weight of his head pressing on it. David's family was told that the apparatus would have to remain in place at least three months and possibly longer, depending on how well the break healed. Such breaks sometimes heal well, but occasiomilly the treatment fails. They would just have to wait and see.
David remained in the intensive-care unit for three days; in excruciating pain
and unable to move without-assistance from the nurses. Ward and family
members prayed for him, and David himself prayed, asking in simple, child- like faith,"Heavenly Father,can you help me get better soon?
A child's body has miraculous abilities to heal, particularly when enough faith is in force. On the fourth day David was released to a private room. That afternoon he was able to sit up and play video games, and by the evening, when his father and sisters visited, he was eager to show them around the pediatrics ward. The next
day his doctor released him from the hospital.
The next day, a Saturday, David got out of bed very early. He suddenly realized that Christmas was just two weeks away-and that he had no money to buy presents for his family. "Can I sweep the snow off the fron walk and clean the bathroom?" he asked. Just being able to buy presents for everyone would make the hurtirig somehow seem worth it. But his father decided that he needed to keep quiet as much as possible, at least for a few days, so he would be able,to go hack to school after the holidays.
One week later was the gala ward Christmas party. Every year the Anderson family looked forward to this special event, but this year, with all the trials they had been through, it hardly seemed like a time for celebrating. Besides, how would ward members, particularly the children, react when they saw David attached to a huge apparatus? Would they ridicule and make fun of him? And would the excitement be too much for him? David really loved Christmas - it was his favorite time of the year-
and he begged his father to take him to the party. But Brother Anderson was reluctant to subject the boy to any more trauma; There would be time for celebrationg later.
Brother Anderson had a strand of bright colored, battery-operated Christmas lights, and that afternoon, just for fun, he twined the lights on David's halo. "All right, we'll go to the party," he said, as he turned the lights on. "And you can wear the lights. Your halo will glow like a Christmas tree." Wearing the lights was fun at home, and David pranced around, showing off to his four sisters. But he was reluctant to draw attention to himself at the party, so he decided he didn't want to wear the lights there.
The family arrived at their ward just in time to sit down for dinner. Afterwards the bishop came over to Brother Anderson and whispered something. Then he picked David up, took him backstage for a minute, and soon came out on the stage carrying the "newest member of the ward"--David, wearing the sparkling Christmas lights on his halo.
This was the first time many of the ward members, who had been praying for David's recovery, had seen him.
Suddenly the whole crowd stood up, many of them in tears, and gave him a thunderous ovation. One of his friends ran up and exclaimed, "Wow! What's that toy on your head?" David grinned from ear to ear. For both older and younger members he was the hit of the party, his recovery an answer to thier prayers.
Since that day the problems of the Anderson family haven't gone away, no life is ever totally free of problems and challenges. But somehow the joy and love they felt that evening extended into the new year and beyond.
The doctors had said that David would have to wear the halo at least three months. But after it was jarred loose in a fall at school, x-rays showed that his neck was healing much better than expected, and the apparatus was removed nearly six weeks early. David could wear a soft-collar brace to support his neck, and the best part was that he could take it off when he went to bed, which had not been possible for the halo. Within a few weeks he was even able to discard the collar.
The other children are also doing well, particularly since their father remarried a special woman whom they all love very much. As a neighbor said not long after that memorable Christmas, she likes to look over at the Anderson home now because it glows with love-glows like Davids Christmas-tree halo!


Barbara Barrington Jones, recognized image consultant and popular speaker, is the co-author of "The Confident You" and "The Inside Outside Beauty Book.