The Parable of The Dignitet

For Christmas this year my parents got me a dignitet from Ikea.  It is a curtain wire that you mount on the wall to hang curtains but can also be used to display artwork, etc.  I was really excited about it, envisioning the kids school projects, primary papers, cards, etc. that would be hung from it. 

The kit did not come with any screws so Ben and I had to make a trip to a hardware store to buy some. I brought the kit along with me so I could be sure and get the right size screw.  Once we got home from our errands, about 2 hours later, I couldn't find the kit anywhere and surmised I must have left it in the shopping cart when we left.

I was upset that I would have forgotten to get it out and the thought came to me that I should pray to find it.  I didn't kneel down at the moment to pray, but I had a prayer in my heart that I would find the kit and that it would be found at home.  After checking the car twice it was clear it wasn't at home.  I called up the hardware store and the employee who answered said no one had turned in something left in a cart.  She even went to check the carts in the return section and didn't find anything.  She said she would call if anything turned up.

I needed to pick up the kids from school soon so decided I would run over to the hardware store and retrace my steps.  When I got there I retraced my steps and enlisted the help of two employees.  Within minutes of asking for their help one employee found three pieces of the kit in a shopping cart with a store circular, I found two pieces on the floor by the cart return, and the second employee found the remainder of the kit on a shelf full of furnace filters.  I was overjoyed to have the kit back and surprised all the pieces were accounted for so quickly. 

Had I not gone down to the hardware store I'm sure the pieces would have been eventually found but separated as they were, the employees would have no way of knowing they belonged together.  I would never have seen my dignitet again. 

I was reminded that the reason I teach my children to pray to Heavenly Father when they are sad, need help, or scared is because He is real and listens to those prayers.  It seems silly that I was so upset about losing this kit, but it was important to me.  I am important to Heavenly Father and since the kit was important to me it was also important to Him.  I'm grateful for the gentle reminder that Heavenly Father is aware of me and hears my prayers even when they are about simple, silly things I've lost.  It comforts me to know He listens to my prayers about the bigger things in my life as well.

Christmas Recap

Here are a whole bunch of pictures from Christmas morning and a few words to go along with them.

My sister in law, Eileen, made this little hut for Spencer.  Ben's family tradition is to pick a name of a family member to make a handmade Christmas Eve gift for them.  Spencer loves his little hut.  It's pretty awesome.  The other kids like it as well.  We set it up for Spencer Christmas Eve and after everyone else had gone to bed I peeked in on Spencer and saw his silhouette in the tent with his flashlight.  I asked if he wanted to sleep in the hut and he said "No, I'm just showing Dopey the hut."  He loves his little Dopey action figure.

Lauren has been begging me for some fingerless gloves so I knit up a pair.  I used a wrist warmer pattern I have and then just improvised the finger openings.  It works but the fingers are a tad snug.

Spencer likes Scooby Doo and his favorite colors are green and brown.  Ben found this in his Black Friday adventures.  I asked him to look for one at Walmart while he was there and when he got there everything was gone and a disaster.  He got there about 2 am, by the way.  As he was walking through the store, though, he found this sweat shirt abandoned on a shelf.  Just happens to be Spencer's size and Scooby Doo.  What luck and he didn't need to fight anyone to get it!

Brenna loves her Unicorn Pee Wee.

Spencer and Lauren love their Pee Wees as well.  Last year they asked Grandma and Grandpa Stanley for Pillow Pets and this year Pee Wees.  My kids are such suckers for advertising.

Brenna just looks so sweet in this photo right before we started opening presents.  Never mind the crazed, hysterical, sugared up, over-tired melt downs to come.

Santa brought Brenna a set of Strawberry Shortcake dolls.  She couldn't open the box so she took it over to daddy.  He got the box open pretty fast but all the dolls were tied in and their hair was all attached to these comb things, kind of like some torture restraint.  Anyway, it was slow going once the box was open and Brenna couldn't take it.  She grabbed at the box yelling, "Let me do it!" 

This is the note that came with Spencer's gift he made at school.  Too bad the flash took out all the words.  It said "Dear mom and dad, Thank you for all the video games and toys you will get me."  What a stinker!!!

Grandma Snow made a Big Green Monster for Spencer's 6th birthday.  Brenna really wanted one and suddenly she got a pink one for her birthday.  Lauren felt left out and we thought she'd have to wait until her birthday to get one.  Grandma Snow knew she couldn't wait so here is her blue monster for Christmas.  The minute Brenna saw the blue monster she ran upstairs and got her pink monster so that they could meet.

Angry birds are very popular in our house.  Grandma and Grandpa Snow sent these bean bag ones, Grandma and Grandpa Stanley gave the kids plush ones that fit on top of pencils, and Santa brought cat toy angry birds with a little pouch for catnip because he's so cheap.

Uncle Andrew gave a gift the parents would "love and hate and the kids would just love."  Love it we did.  I  managed to hide it away and eat some alone before I was discovered.  Now they are all gone.  Sadness!  Andrew said he had quite the time finding them after he first saw them and only managed to find one smuggled away on a shelf in the clearance section of Kmart.  Perhaps someone else was saving it there.  Oh well, we enjoyed it for them.

I crocheted Spencer some amigurumi Chu Chus for Link to battle.  Somewhere there is a blue one.

This is a find and seek bag Grandma Snow made for Brenna.  It is full of little pellets that hide all kinds of objects to seek.  Brenna thought it was a pillow at first.  She reads the list like it is a recipe.  "Mommy, let's see what we need first."  Very handy for church.

The gingerbread house was demolished right after church.  Lauren is wearing the dress I made her for Christmas.  Very Hanukkah colorings but I thought they were pretty.

Link barely survived the storm of sugar crazed kids that leveled Outset Island.  The pigs were not so lucky.

Well, that was our Christmas.  Hope you enjoyed the visual journal.