HAPPY JOSEPH SMITH’S BIRTHDAY!

December 23, 2010 Thursday

We decided a while back that we would take copies of the DVD, Joy to the World, around to people we have given lessons to in the past and maybe a few others. We started with the couple that runs Brumby’s, the bakery that gives us all the bread each Wednesday. Wayne wasn’t there, but Lori was and she was so surprised that we were thanking them for all that they have donated to us over the 6 months we have been here. We drove out to Tony’s, but it looked pretty deserted. Lots of people are heading somewhere else for Christmas. We stopped at Jhun’s. Only their boys were home. We left them a DVD and this month’s “The Friend.” (A little while ago we subscribed to The Friend and The New Era so we would have them to give out when we needed them. The first ones came yesterday. They really are great magazines.) Then we dropped another DVD at Jan Martin’s, the animal carer. She’d told us she’s “not a religious person,” but we decided she could use a Christmas DVD anyway.
We came home and made a batch of caramel corn to take around tonight to inactives. The ones we managed to catch at home were Karen Arkeveld. I felt bad for her—her family had had to put their dad into a care center yesterday because of his Alzheimers disease. Next we hit Alan, the “Jack Mormon” Kiwi. He’s planning on having a couple of other old guys over for Christmas lunch. We gave him a copy of The Testament. He has a good testimony even though he’s inactive. We also gave a copy of it to the Shirley family. They are the inactive folks who run Kimberly Optical. She’s been really friendly the last couple of times we’ve run into her.
There was an article in yesterday’s paper about the house that had won the Christmas Decorating Contest. It’s quite close to where we live. So we drove past and stopped to take pictures. The couple who does it were out in the driveway talking to folks who stopped. They started with one string of lights 15 years ago to please their daughter and it just kept growing. I asked if they bought all the stuff locally, because they had so much stuff that we haven’t seen anywhere in town. They said they get a lot off E-Bay and other internet sights. He pointed out a “fan” of lights that they ordered from the states. They’ve won for two years in a row now. It was really cute. On the roof was an animated light set with Santa fishing from a small boat. In the carport they’d set up a Christmas tree which had a training playing Christmas music running around it. There were several blow-up Santas and one blow-up kangaroo with a Santa hat on it and presents tucked in its pouch. They even had a table in the carport set up with a row of various animated animals that played music when you would squeeze a paw. At the front of it all was a lighted nativity set. They’d put the manger piece up on a bale of hay so it stood out more because it had seemed dwarfed by the shepherds and the camels of the wise men. Their son came out; they said he got to hand out candy canes when the kids from St. Katherine’s orphanage came around. (We didn’t know there was an orphanage in town.) A few minutes later, the local (old) double-decker bus that takes tourists around Broome came down the street and you could hear the kids before you ever saw them. It was so cute.
It’s interesting here. Most people do not decorate outside their houses for Christmas. Just driving around it’s evident that pretty much there’s just one house per street maybe that puts anything outside. Kind of sad. I love the lights at Christmas. They add so much to the fun.

The Big Picture
Santa's pulling the sleigh!
Our favorite!
Look, it has packages under it. We did add a gold bow to the top to look like a star, sort of.