Christmas Stories from the Friend & New Era Magazine 1982-2003

 Here are some great stories to read as a family during the Christmas Season!

1. 1982-  Aaron's Christmas Tree

2. 1982-  Sandhill Christmas

3. 1983- The Offering

4. 1983- The Most Wonderful Gift

5. 1984- Worst Christmas, Best Christmas

6. 1984- Boots

7. 1984- The Curious Christmas Deer

8. 1984- Sara's Christmas Program

9. 1984- The Gift

10. 1985- The Little Wise Men

11. 1985- The Answer Tree

12. 1985- Completely Christmas

13. 1986- A Drizzly, Merry Christmas

14. 1986- A Christmas Gift for Jesus

15. 1987- Bryan's Gift

16. 1987- Christmas Kitten

17. 1988- One Last Time

18. 1989- The Christmas Baby

19. 1989- Gift to Remember

20. 1990- Brother Consky's Moldy Walls

21. 1990- Christmas Puppy

22. 1990- Sarah Moseley's After-Christmas Gift

23. 1991- Grandma's Red Wagon

24. 1991- Christmas Prayer

25. 1991- Mistletoe

26. 1991- Because I Love You

27. 1992- The Christmas Gift

28. 1992- Skateboard Christmas

29. 1993- Gifts for the Poor

30. 1993- Redheaded Stranger

31. 1994- Flip-Flops and Mitten Socks

32. 1994- Iced Bridge (by Lynn A. Thomas)

33. 1995- Beneath the Christmas Tree

34. 1995- Christmas Box

35. 1995- Christmas Cans

36. 1996- Stacy's Year Round Giving Tree

37. 1996- An Older Brother's Gift

38. 1997- Christmas Family

39. 1997- Miguel's Gift

40. 1998- Signs of Christmas

41. 1998- Feliz Navidad

42. 1998- Nothing for Christmas

43. 1999- Christmas Lesson

44. 2000- Nathan's Gift

45. 2000- Wooden Skis

46. 2001- The Chocolate Covered Cherry

47. 2002- Love, Rachel

48. 2002- Song for a Prophet

49. 2003- Christmas Gift NEW ERA STORIES 1. 1982- The Ugly Orphans 2. 1982- The Christmas Letter 3. 1983- Burrito Christmas **3. 1984- Charity Christmas by Alma J. Yates 4. 1984- Missionary Christmas 5. 1986- Even unto Bethlehem 6. 1987- Who needs Christmas 7. 1987- Green Stamp Christmas 8. 1987- The Christmas Project 9. 1988- The Christmas Call 10. 1989- A Voice in the Fog 11. 1989- A Mighty Fine Christmas Message -yates 12. 1990- I was a Teenage Grinch 13. 1990- Father Christmas 14. 1991- Harry's Carol 15. 1992- Star 16. 1993- Why Didn't You Wake Me? 17. 1993- Santa's Helper 18. 1994- Filling the Manger 19. 1997- Gift Exchange 20. 1997- Wanted: A Guy for Christmas 21. 1998- Trimming the Tree 22. 1998- Picture Perfect Christmas 23. 1999- Snowed In 24. 2000- Returning the Gift 25. 2000- The Stranger by Alma J. Yates 26. 2001- Wrapped up in Myself 27. 2002- Sweet Solutions 28. 2003- One More Stop

3 Take Aways for Family Work

After listening to a podcast called "3 in 30", I thought about what 3 tips (or take-aways) I could give other moms for getting their children to be helpful with the family work.
1- ORGANIZE/PLAN the work. Make routines and assignments.
This is so helpful in avoiding resistance- your children know what is expected- it's not just your whim at a given moment and they know it's fair.
(Some ways I have currently organized the family work are:
a. FOOD- everyone plants and cares for a section of the garden + everyone helps with harvesting
-everyone plans+ prepares meals- each person has a dinner night and a breakfast day once a week
-everyone helps clean up after meals (each person has a day of the week that is they are in charge of loading the dishwasher, next day wash dishes, dry dishes, wipe table, sweep floor, wiipe stove/counters.. they earns extra snacks by cleaning up after meals (They each have a snack shelf)
b. CLOTHES- everyone has a laundry day- they do their own load that day and earn $2 towards clothes/hygeine
c. HOME/YARD- everyone does a large work job on Sat morning before play (we call it "Saturday Suds") and they rotate each week. They earn $6 towards clothes/hygiene. (Mow(winter=repair job), Edge(winter=deep clean), Floors(Sweep,mop,vacuum), Bathrooms(all 4), Vehicles(inside+out)
2- REWARD/PAY them for their work and have them use the reward to meet their NEEDS/Wants.
They can learn young that their are rewards for work. (Food, Play, Clothes, Money)
They can learn to budget their money- especially if they have needs they need to pay for themselves so that it can't just be wasted with no negative effects on them.
3- TRAIN/TEACH and work with them.  Be willing to put in the time and patience to teach them to fish and not just fish for them.  It is an investment that will pay off in the long run- they will have more skills, be better prepared to serve their current family, future family, and others.

SERMON ON THE MOUNT JEOPARDY

I made a jeopardy game for family night this week that reviews the sermon on the mount
(Matthew 5-7). I thought I would share the link
Sermon on the Mount Jeopardy

COVENANT OF PEACE

Lately, we have been trying to establish peace and kindness constantly in our home.
We have each person promise at our evening prayer, that they will be kind all day the next day and keep the peace. They put their name in the jar and if they are kind at the end of the next day, they get a treat for being sweet (usually a bowl of ice cream or a 15 min fun computer game)
It is helping a lot - one day at a time...

GRADING RELATIONSHIPS
Another way we are rewarding keeping their covenant of peace focuses on their relationships between each person in the family.
I decided to cut out friends for a while and focus on family.
I sat down with each of them and graded their relationship was with each family member.
If they have A's and B's with everyone, they can play with friends-home or away
If they have C's, they can play with friends at our house- where I can supervise them
If they have D's or F's, they don't get to play with friends-they need to strengthen their family
- Here's how they move up... if they are kind all morning long, they can move a step (C- to C)... that's only for the people they were absolutely peaceful and respectful towards. Then we repeat it again in the afternoon and evening *(There are 3 grading periods).
-They can move down at any time by being disrespectful- saying or doing mean things... and it can move down more than a step... depending on the severity... I grade at regular times each day...not in the moment when I might judge annoying things too harshly.

-I also link this to phones... To have a phone, you need to be consistently kind to family (the overall qualifications for a phone are RESPONSIBLE + EMOTIONALLY MATURE... see this link:
Cell phone readiness)

Media Minutes

I woke up with a great idea to motivate more reading with my children....
Have them earn media minutes.

The way I set it up is:
1 page read outloud = 3 minutes of media
1 page read in mind= 1.5 minutes of media
So, they come report to me what they have earned and
I put media minute tokens in a jar with their name on it.

They can turn them in for use at any time
if they have all their schoolwork and family chores done.
Media = ipad games, computer games, extra videos/tv, radio, youtube, etc
that is inline with the commandments of God (no swearing, killing, adultery)
So far, they have been very motivated- especially in the car.

21 Day Book of Mormon Reading Challenge

If you want to get into the best habit every- read the Book of Mormon every day.
Here is a list of readings for 21 days (it takes 21 days to establish a habit)

21 Day Book of Mormon Reading Challenge

 _____1. 1Nephi 3:5-7, 4:1-18, ch8, ch11 (Gold Plates+ Lehi’s Dream)

_____2. 1Nephi 12-14 (Lehi’s Dream+Latter-day Prophecies)

_____3. 2Nephi 2 (The Fall)

_____4. 2Nephi 4, 2Nephi 5   (Nephi’s lament + manner of happiness)

_____5. 2 Nephi 9 (The Resurrection)

_____6. Jacob 2, Enos 1: 1-8 (Pride+ Chastity, Repentance)

_____7. Mosiah 2-3  (King Benjamin)

_____8. Mosiah 4-5 (King Benjamin)

_____9. Alma 5 (Pride Self Assessment)

_____10. Alma 17:1-3, Alma 22 (Teaching the King)

_____11. Alma 32-34 (the seed)

_____12. Alma 36 (Alma’s conversion)

_____13. Alma 39-42 (Repent + Plan)

_____14. Alma 24, Alma 53:10-22, 56:47-48, 57:21, Alma 48

             (People of Ammon + Captain Moroni)

_____15. Helaman 3:20-32, Helaman ch5 (Rock Redeemer)

_____16. Helaman 13-15 (Samuel the Lamanite)

_____17. 3 Nephi 11-14 (Savior in America)

_____18. 3 Nephi 17-19 (Savior in America)

_____19. Mormon 8-9 (Book of Mormon prophecies, repent)

_____20. Ether 2-4, ch12  (Brother Jared, Faith)

_____21. Moroni ch7, ch10 (Gifts, Charity, Promise)

Easter Eggs with Scriptures

This year we taped scriptures about Christ on our Easter eggs 

for the kids to memorize before they eat the candy inside.  

I picked a scripture from each topic in the Book of Mormon index 

under the title "Jesus Christ." 

 Here is the link to the scripture list:

Easter Egg Scriptures