Christmas 2008-- Christmas with No gifts

This Christmas without gifts was an amazing experience. Our plans to Mexico were halted by the Bishop there that called and said it is unsafe with all of the violence right now. We had to quickly come up with Plan B. Jake and I both came up with a similar idea: we would go down to Bonanza where you pick up the Mexican workers and get a list of children in need. There is one worker who we knew. When we got to the designated place, we asked for Miguel. The “otro Miguel” called him on his phone. We announced we would bring them gifts. We also got a list of six other families we would help for Christmas. The people seemed gracious. In addition, we had two families that we would help from the Spanish ward. We had all of the names and ages for this family as well.

We took the kids with us on a shopping spree. We looked for toys that were on sale and that were fun for the kids. We started at Toys R Us, then Target, and Walmart. Then we went to Deseret Book to get each family a picture of Christ, a DVD of the testaments and also a Book of Mormon. Jake was able to type his testimony in Spanish in the back of the book.

It took several hours to wrap all of the gifts. Jake called the home of Miguel and Jake asked if we could come on Christmas morning. Miguel asked if there was anyway that we could come that evening. We told him it would be late but we would be there. We did the nativity with the family which is part of our rich Christmas tradition and then we were off to deliver gifts.

We first went to the “otro Miguel” home. They had a few presents under their tree. He had three children. There was also a woman there from the Phillippines. They seemed very grateful. I was also impressed to hear Jake bear his testimony as he gave the picture of Christ and explained about the DVD and book of Mormon.

The second stop was the best of the night. We went to Miguel’s home. He lived on Fremont Street in a hotel that you rent the rooms for one week. He was waiting outside for us when we got there. Apparently his friend Miguel had called him. When we went into his studio apartment there was a bed there, but no tree and no presents. The home was bare and had just a bed and kitchen table. My heart went out to them. Now I know why we were to go there that night. He had no Christmas gifts for his children. He had one child who was asleep and a two year old girl who was still awake. His son slept in his jacket and the little girl also wore her jacket in the home. The home was chilly. The girl was overjoyed with all of the gifts. We got her a beautiful dress. This is something I felt particularly impressed to buy her. I hadn’t planned on buying clothes but this and a dress for a baby was specific in my purchases. We also got her a large baby doll, balls, a musical toy, and a stocking filled to the brim with other items. They were very happy and very grateful. Jake again gave his testimony as he explained about the Hymns in Spanish that we gave this family along with the picture of Christ, DVD, and Book of Mormon. We also gave their children a Children’s Book of Mormon in Spanish.

The last home of the night was for Pablo. He wasn’t home but we were able to leave gifts for his two girls in Mexico. There was also a one year old baby next door. The man of this family came over and we gave him several more gifts as well. Apparently his wife was very ill and pregnant with her second child. We also gave some gifts to the room mate for his children. We had felt impressed to bring boxes of Miscellaneous gifts and this is one home where we used them.

We then were happy with our accomplishments and set off for home. Tomorrow as to bring another day of delivering gifts.

On Christmas Morning, we awoke around 7 a.m. We had Grandpas famous French Toast. We had the night before left a note for Santa to leave nothing for our family. While the other children were basking in Santa’s gifts, we were on to deliver more gifts.

We began at the home of Marcos. He had four grand children. He told Jake that his wife was a member of the Church. He had requested some information in Spanish on the church and we provided some for him as well as the Hymns. He brought two other men over who also had children. We got from our extra gift boxes and gave them many many gifts. We didn’t give them all though, I wanted to save some as we didn’t know what lie ahead for us. Marcos was very appreciative and talked to Jake more about the church.

The next home was another highlight of the trip. We knocked at the yellow house around 9:30 a.m. We were not able to reach them by phone and were unsure if we could connect. We knocked and knocked but could get no one to answer. We went back to the car and loaded the gifts and just then the mother poked her head out of the door. We then unloaded again and brought the gift inside to the surprised family. The small boy Brian was about 2 years old. He was adorable. He opened up a car that we got him and he loved it so much. We watched as he played with the car. We also got their baby a warm sleeper and a beautiful dress. For the older boy Luis we got him some Legos, and a Diego race track. He loved it. Out of the hallway came two more children. We confirmed how many children where in the house and I was back out to the car to get additional gifts. The family offered us some drink like cider with fruit inside. It was warm and we drank quite bit of it. We said goodbye and were off to our next home.

Max was the next receiptient. He had just one daughter. He was waiting for us outside and we gave him the bags. He told us his wife had taken his daughter for a walk. Regardless, we happily left the gifts and moved on.

We went to go and see the Abuela but she wasn’t home. So we planned to return to her later.

Our final home was the ward members. I had saved many special gifts for them. There were four boys. We had over 12 gifts for their family. Including a castle, two soccer balls, risk, dominoes, race track with two cars, two MP3 players. It was delightful. The boys kept on saying this is AWESOME. This rocks!

We told many our Christmas Tradition with no gifts. Connor said to me, “I think I will remember a couple of Christmases with gifts but I will never forget any of our Christmases without gifts.”

Another Crazy Day at the Fackrells

This morning Ashdon came in my room to announce that his cake was due today!  I knew the deadline was looming, but did not know today was the day. Oh great!  This caused for a very eventful morning.  We whipped up the first cake with no problems.  Luckily I have cake mix on hand.  But then how does he make the mountains for the state of Utah?  Well, the solution was not too difficult.  I have small bundt cake pans and we filled them half full with cake mix and produced 6 bundt cakes.  By then, 8:00 had hit and the other troops were up.  Of course there was a hubbub about who would lick the bowl, which ended with cake mix in Ashdon's hair. We made another 7 cupcakes.  I thought all was well and was quite pleased with my accomplishment.  Then Ashdon added, "The cake has to be frosted when we bring it school and it can't be chocolate."  Of course, with Murphy's Law you know the only kind of frosting I had was chocolate on hand.  So I went to the Internet to find a recipe for powder sugar frosting.  Not too difficult to make, but time was running short.  The cake wasn't quite cool when we frosted it and we managed to make several small bags of blue, green, and red frosting along with all sorts of sparkles for the top of the cake.  My sister Kristen came to the rescue and took the first load to school and then Ashdon in the second load to school. (She is an angel.) Ash got off to school, and I zoomed off to my first major presentation as a PhD student.  All and all it was eventful.  The cake actually turned out great.  After school he was proud to display his cake.  He was also excited that he won for the highest mountains.

That's all I will report on today.

Love

Tam

Never Have a Bad Day Again

About one year ago, I decided to take up the goal of never having a bad day again.  I do this by making a bad ten minutes, not a bad hour and a bad hour not a bad two hours.  I have learned extreme self mastery over my emotions and can self soothe myself about things in minutes.  I have a list of things that I enjoy that help to calm the trouble waters.  Some of these include: taking a hot bath, going jogging, eating ice cream, doing something fun with the kids, going on a date, etc.

So far so good!  I am happy to report I have not had a bad day since I set this goal.  It is amazing how much I can control the outcome of my day.

Join me in this goal and let me know how it goes.

Love

Tamara

Amazing Experience

I was able to sing in the world-wide broadcast for the Relief Society General Meeting.  We learned to sing with our eyes and our faces.  If you see it on lds.org you can only see me in the last song.  I am on the left hand side middle.  You can see my bangs in a lot of the other shots :).  This was a great dream come true for me to be able to sing at the Conference Center.  Also earlier this year I was able to play the organ on Temple square.  That is two dreams in one year.  Kind of fun!

Our director was an amazing woman.  She gave us a quote by Brigham Young, "Let us speak words of comfort or consolation.  When you are influenced by the Spirit of Holiness and purity, let your light shine: but if ye are tried and tempted and buffeted by Satan, keep your thoughts to yourselves- keep your mouth closed; for speaking produces fruit, either of a good or evil character." (Brigham Young Discourses 166).  She talked us about being mindful of leaving good or bad fruit wherever we are.  We all have a presence.  We either add or subtract to the room.  So let's do more to add good fruit into our lives and the lives of others.

Fackrell Family Favorite Toys

Geo Trax has been one of the best toy investments our family has ever made.  It has several different options for tracks and many toy trains to choose from.  We have had hundreds of hours of fun with Geo Trax.  They are a toy that we keep up when we are not playing with them, but the trains that go back and forth are always a winner.

Our second favorite toy is Magnetix.  I buy most of these at Robert's Crafts with the 40% off coupon that comes each month.  Then Target has a great supplement with Magnetix dinosaurs and cars that work wonders with the Magnetix toys.  They are always hit, regardless of the age.

Our third favorite toy is the bug catcher vacuum and bug world, also a Target purchase.  We are able to catch all sorts of bugs with the bug vacuum.  Recently we caught four frogs who lived in the bug world.  We then used the bug catcher to feed the frogs.  The family thought this was a lot of fun.

Please share your favorite toys!

Much Love

Tamara

The Best Play Dough Recipe! Proven for 12 years and running!

Today I was able to make play dough with Presdon.  It is one of our families absolute favorite things to do and I have the best recipe!  I thought I should share it with you.

Large Recipe

4 cups of flour  

4 cups of water

4 tablespoons oil

1 cup salt

1 packet of Koolaid

Small Recipe

1 cup flour

1 cup water

1 tablespooon oil

1/4 cup salt

1 packet Koolaid

Mix all of the ingredients over the stove on medium heat.  Cook until it is not sticky.  (Cook a little longer than you think. Between 10 and 20 minutes.)  The Koolaid gives it a fragrant smell so the smell of salt is not so strong.  It also gives it coloring. Let the play dough cool. Then, use any color of dye to make color variations.  Store the finished product in ziplocks in the refrigerator. It lasts up to two weeks!   Use cookie cutters, garlic press, pizza cutters, potato masher and other kitchen gadgets to make the play dough into many fun and exciting shapes.

If you use the recipe, please report, even if we are not yet friends.

Much happiness to you all,

Tamara

The Accident!

Ouch!  I fell down cement stairs in the dark and my hands were full.  I hit my head and got a gash!  I was in and out of consciousness.  My black eye lasted for three weeks.  Jake and I had to go to the hospital emergency room for his kidney stones and the all the staff asked if his kidney stones were payback for my black eye.  Of course, Jake was nothing but amazing when the fall occurred.  As for Jake, he had to get emergency lithotripsy.  He is doing well now, I am happy to report and everyone else is healthy.