Josh's elf, Sarah, went missing for a few days after his friend Wesley
"accidentally" touched her.
The note says "Sarey Sara obot what hapind. Love Josh and Wesly." I'm assuming that Josh wrote it since Wesley's name is misspelled. I originally thought she'd only be gone for a day but then got too lazy so she was gone for quite a few days. The day of the above picture, she was taking a bath in some peppermint marshmallows. She's also been found sitting on top of the chandelier, hanging out in Josh's stocking, ridding Mike's ugly golden pheasant (no offense Mike) and decorating our Christmas tree with socks.
This pic is from today so Sarah is no longer on there and the socks have
been moved and rehung countless times since I had put them there. I, by which I mean Sarah, had originally only put up the white socks when at the last minute I added a few more black socks to give it variety. It was a good thing too. Josh figured out that Sarah had made a 'countdown' with the socks. There were exactly the same number of socks as days left until Christmas. Hmmm, I had no idea. Good thing I was picky about having variety:)
Today Josh found her in the kitchen hiding in my plant.
We were in charge of last dessert Sunday and Josh made the dessert almost all by himself! He was so proud. It was hard to stand back and let him do it himself because it took him so long! It was fun to watch though because he appointed one of the hershey kisses to be the leader and then all the other kisses had to follow and obey what the leader told them to do. It was pretty interesting listening to his running commentary on it.
Earlier this week I made some sugar cookies for Mike to take to his home teaching families. I had some dough left over and just stuck it in the fridge. Josh came to me on Saturday asking what he could do and I remembered the dough. Perfect. So I let him roll it out and pick his favorite shapes and he was able to get 9 cookies out of the leftover dough. He decided to do Santas and Reindeer. I helped with the cookie cutter part because the dough tends to get stuck in all the little spaces. Turns out it wouldn't have matter since by the time Josh was done frosting them most of the Santas were down to one leg and this reindeer didn't even make it out with half it's legs intact! He did frost and sprinkle them all by himself though and was very pleased with the way they turned out. He brought one to me and after I told him it was delicious he hugged me and said "Yes! Yes! I did it! I made some good cookies, huh?"
FHE
Last night for FHE we did something a little bit different. Josh's Great Grandma Meservy had sent a Christmas letter with a check for $30 saying that we would know how best to spend it. I thought about using it to get a present for Josh but it just didn't feel right. I knew he would be happy to receive a gift but at the same time, I didn't feel like it would make a lasting impression. I've also been concerned about his lack of service for others but wanted it to come from his heart and not as a requirement or a chore from me. So this is what I came up with.
We sang "Count Your Many Blessing's" for our opening hymn and then I read Great Grandma's letter to Josh. When I finished I asked him to tell us a couple things that she said in the letter. He said something to the effect of "she said that we'd be blessed through the year and I really feel like that is true." It was pretty sweet. Anyway, I added that she spent most of her time in the Temple and then asked him if he heard the part about the money. He said he had and then I pulled out a wad of 30 one dollar bills and told Josh that this was the money she was talking about. His eyes lit up! We counted it out together and then started talking about what we could do with it. I wanted to let Josh feel in charge so I let him lead the conversation. He immediately said that we could split it up and then we'd each have $10 to spend. So I split the money up and he recounted everyone's pile to make sure that we all had $10. Then we started talking about what we could spend this money on. He said Christmas shopping and then he got all excited when he realized that he could buy this app for the kindle that he's been talking about for weeks. It cost $7. I acknowledge that idea and then started talking about how Mike and I could put our money together to buy a game and then we could buy something bigger than if we kept it separate. He didn't think that was fair but when I asked if he wanted to put his money in too, he refused. I could tell that he had already made up his mind that this money was going to buy him this app so I was relieved when Mike stepped in and said that Great Grandma spent a lot of time doing service and that she would probably want us to do service with this money too.
I asked Josh if we NEEDED this money. He kind of quietly said no. I asked him if she hadn't sent us this money if we would still be happy, if we would still have food to eat and clothes to wear. He said yes. Then Mike talked about how other people don't have everything that we have. He asked Josh if he knew of anyone that might need this money more than we do. Josh said he didn't know so Mike asked him about our neighbors Sammy and Oakley. We talked about how their mom and dad aren't living together right now and how they're probably pretty sad about it. I asked Josh if $30 could make their mom come back home to live and he said no. Then Mike told him that maybe we couldn't bring them back together but that maybe we could give them a gift that could make them happy for a little bit. Josh thought it was a good idea and quickly counted out how much money he could give them and still afford his app. Darn it! He handed me $3 and said that we could use that. So we talked a little more about serving others and how we'd be blessed and then I put all of my money on the ground in front of us and said that I was willing to spend all my money on a gift for the girls. Mike did the same thing. Then Josh, with his eyes starting to fill with tears gathered up his other $7 and put it into the pile too. I didn't want him to feel tricked or cheated out of his money and told him that I didn't want him to put his money in if he didn't want to. With tears in his eyes he said "I know it's the best thing to do." I opened my arms and he came and sat on my lap and I held him as he cried. I again offered him a way out saying he didn't need to do it if he didn't feel good about it. He just kept crying but said that he wanted to do it. I had tears in my eyes as I rocked him. We talked about how this was a hard thing to do and we expressed how proud we were of him. He calmed down a little and then I asked if he was ready to go and help find some presents for the girls. He said yes, and so off we went.
We went to Kmart and after looking at games, movies and toys, he decided on a Tom and Jerry Christmas movie, Hungry Hungry Hippos, and a pac-man video game. We checked out and Josh handed the cashier the money without a complaint. We stopped at McD's to get an icecream cone on the way home and then wrapped up the presents. Josh told me that at school when they do the Ghosty Grams, that kids put a question mark under the 'from' if they don't want the person to know who gave it to them. So when I wrote on the tags, I put a question mark under the 'from' spot. Then we all bundled up and went into the snow storm and watched at Josh put the packages on their porch, rang the doorbell, and ran. We ended with a prayer and Josh prayed that Sammy and Oakleys mom would come home so that they could be together as a family. I was so proud of Josh last night and for that decision that he made.
