Tom and Debbie's Mission Blog: 01/05/23

The Christmas season brings many different emotions. We want so much to sit and ponder the birth and the life of our Savior and always remember the reason for the season. However, our calendar quickly gets filled up with decorating our home, parties, performances, family traditions, service and gift exchanges. Individually, all of these activities are meaningful, but we do not want to crowd Jesus out of Christmas.

One of our many nativity sets that are throughout our home during the Christmas Season

After completing most of these activities, on December 20 I discovered that greater joy that had been happening all along the way. The following came from my journal:

"This morning as part of our Christmas Come Follow Me study of the topic “I rejoice in my Redeemer” we reviewed the talk from President Russell M. Nelson about joy (from 2016). Even though I had read and studied this talk before, today I gained new insights. . . .”Joy is a gift for the faithful. It is the gift that comes from intentionally trying to live a righteous life, as taught by Jesus Christ . . .

He taught us how to have joy. When we choose Heavenly Father to be our God and when we can feel the Savior’s Atonement working in our lives, we will be filled with joy. Every time we nurture our spouse and guide our children, every time we forgive someone or ask for forgiveness, we can feel joy. . .

Every day that you and I choose to live celestial laws, every day that we keep our covenants and help others to do the same, joy will be ours.”

As I have reflected about the last few weeks of Christmas activities I have recognized many special feelings of joy. I share a few of them:"

What now follows is some of those items that I identified in this journal entry and others that occurred later in the season. This gave me a greater peace about our many Christmas activities and a special Joy that Jesus Christ provides to us when we strive to do what is right.

Joy in our family Christmas party, Beckie took us through a different nativity experience. She asked us which person that we identified with in the Christmas story. We then met in individual groups for the person that we identified. That group shared their thoughts and then someone from each group shared those thoughts with the others. There were many cool messages from our posterity. Lamoni chose Joseph. His comment was that as he was a new husband this year he related to Joseph and wanted to get it right. Those in his smaller group gave him encouragement, “You can do this!”

Lamoni sharing his feelings about Joseph

Joy in Christmas gift exchanges between grandchildren. All were joyful, but our favorite was the special interaction between 3 year old Owen who was giving a present to 1 yr. old Haivyn.

The first gift exchange at our family party. It was precious!

Decorating Christmas cookies - Debbie decorates cookies with as many of her grandchildren as possible. During this time, we get much more individual interaction with them. When we were decorating with Beckie's kids, Abbie commented that since Christmas was on a Sunday, she did not want to open presents until after Church, since she wanted to give Jesus a present first by going to Church. Happily, their family followed through with this idea.

Decorating cookies with Beckie and her children. Abbie is on the far right.

Decorating Christmas cookies - Additional Joy - When Pollyanna brought her girls over to decorate cookies, one year old Hayvin, went right into our parlor and started playing with the children's nativity set, which we put on the floor for that purpose. It couldn't have served it's purpose better. We always love to introduce our young grandchildren to the nativity story. This touched our hearts.

Hayvin playing with the nativity that was set up for that purpose.

Teddy Bears and the love of Jesus - Debbie bought enough small teddy bears to distribute to each of the grandchildren to during our Christmas party. When everyone went home, we found the bag of bears still undistributed. Our back up plan was to give the bears to each grandchild when we give them their Christmas gift. The first ones were to Dan and Amy's children on Christmas Eve, since they invited us to spend Christmas Eve with them. Their boys absolutely loved the bears and embraced the message on each bear "Jesus Loves You So Much!"

Dawson, enthralled with the bear and the message

Extended family Christmas Party - We were in charge of the party this year. Many attending were the posterity of my two brothers who have passed away. My niece Spring told me that on the way to the party she had been talking to her sister about how happy they were to be included and remembered by their uncles.

About half of those in attendance at the party for the posterity of my parents were descendants of my two deceased brothers.

Christmas without Mom - This was our first Christmas without my mother. That made our extended Christmas Party that much more important. As part of our activities, we played Family Feud, Christmas Version. Each winning team was able to go to the display of memorabilia, DVDs, Christmas Decorations, etc. that had belonged to my mother. Eventually, everyone had the opportunity to claim memories from their grandmother or great grandmother. We also had additional jewelry from my mother. We were able to share it with our grandchildren as we visited with each of them during our Christmas cookie decorating activities. Not only did this clean out many boxes of stuff in our house, it felt great that all were able to have a remembrance of a special lady in their lives.

Most in this photo were the posterity of my brother Mike, playing Christmas music with bells. The area in the back of this photo held the memories of my mother. Most had already been selected when this photo was taken.

Sharing Christmas Joy with our neighbors - This is always a major effort, but is also very rewarding. We have so many special people in our ward that we consider to be dear friends. We struggle to limit our sharing, because we care for so many of our neighbors. After we spent Thursday night, December 22, making deliveries, we came one item short, which was for the secretary in the Sunday school, my dear friend Gary Allred. The next day, Debbie found the missing item and I was able to make a Christmas visit to Gary, who had been very sick during the week. This became one of my greatest feelings of joy, to share time with such a special friend.

Boxes of small Christmas remembrances for our neighbors. This represents lots of work and creativity by Debbie and a little effort delivering by myself.

Watching grandchildren performances - We watched a piano recital (Ellie), a dance recital (Evelyn), a school musical (Jacob) and a choir concert (Joshua). Not only were the performances exceptional, we saw joy in the hearts of each of these grandchildren as they developed talents and confidence. These are some of the greatest gifts that they can receive.

Elie with a special award for piano playing that has taken her three years to accomplish

Evelyn in her first dance recital

Jacob in "Newsies Jr." in his first year at middle school

Joshua in the amazing high school choir presentation

Giving Gifts to the other side of the veil - With all the activities of Christmas and all that proceeded those activities in November, I had not been able to do any Family History for some time. Finally on the night of December 22 I was able to put at least 15 of Debbie's direct ancestors into Family Search from information gathered on our May trip to Germany. The next day, our grandchildren were able to perform these and other baptisms in the temple. This may have been the best gift that any of us were able to give this Christmas season.

After performing 30 baptisms and confirmations on December 23

Time with our Single Sons - We were invited to spend Christmas Eve with Dan and Amy and their boys and we accepted. This changed our normal Christmas Eve activities with our single sons. Instead we had a Christmas Eve Brunch and game playing with Sam and Jacob, perhaps a new tradition. We arranged to pick Ben up to go to Church with us on Christmas and open his presents. Instead he texted me and said he would spend Christmas with a friend who had no one to spend Christmas with. This is so much like Ben. We had time with him a few days after Christmas. Moroni came with his daughter Tiare on Christmas Day and shared his presents with Tiare. More than these Christmas moments, we were pleased to have meaningful conversations with each of them during this season, much more important than gifts.

Ben with his Christmas stocking, three days after Christmas

Memorizing the Articles of Faith - During the summer Debbie gave a challenge to all of her baptized grandchildren to learn the Articles of Faith. Each would be invited to an ice cream party and receive one topping for each Article of Faith that they had memorized. Some grandchildren that live out of state had celebrated earlier, but December 31 was the date identified to finally have the celebration for our Utah grandchildren. A few were sick, but we still had 10 grandchildren participating. Some memorized more than others but all put forth effort and now know more than they did previously. This turned out wonderfully and gave us great joy.

12 toppings, lots of ice cream and . . .

ten happy grandchildren

A New Year ordination - On New Years Day we were blessed to participate in the ordination of our grandson Ashton as he received the Aaronic Priesthood, ordained by his father. In 1 John 1:4 it says "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth". This is fulfilled when we see our children raising their children in righteousness.

Our son Dan and his son Ashton, right after his ordination to the office of a Deacon

As we reflect on this season, there are many meaningful moments that have contributed to our joy. As we visited with the sisters that we minister to and received a visit from our ministering couple, we count ourselves blessed to associate with such consecrated individuals. I had opportunities to give priesthood blessings to two sons and to my wife, assisted by my brother who was visiting from California. We were blessed, as missionaries, to receive a daily email from the Temple Department that included meaningful quotes from Church Leaders and magnificent musical videos. These added inspiration and joy to us daily.
Perhaps my greatest joy has been doing all that I do with my sweet wife. She has continued in her recovery during this season. By Christmas, she was mostly recovered and played a major role in all of the activities mentioned above. Her gratitude and love that she has expressed to me this year has given me indescribable joy. I have learned much about being a caregiver during her recovery and have cherished every opportunity to assist her. Together we form a partnership that brings us joy each and every day.
On Christmas Day we sat in Sacrament Meeting and listened to a beautiful program put on by our Ward Choir, including my sweet wife. As I listened to them sing "O Holy Night", the Spirit spoke to my soul and reminded me of the reason for this joyful season.

Other Photos of our Christmas Season Activities:

Nativity Sets in our home:

Our collection of nativity sets from around the world are our favorite Christmas decorations. It helps us focus on the reason for the season, our Savior Jesus Christ.

Our set from Israel, just above the nativity set for the grandchildren to play with

We moved several of our nativity sets to the curio that my mother left behind. This included our nativity sets from the Philippines, Germany, Ghana and Nigeria. We added to that many of the nativity sets that had belonged to my mother.

Our downstairs Christmas Village and nativity sets moved into our parlor

Our Curio in our parlor is full of nativity sets from many countries around the world

Our outdoor decorations include a lighted nativity for all to see that enter into our community.

Our Family Christmas Parties:

We held these parties at our Condominium Clubhouse.

First, for our own family gathering which had 46 individuals present. We are grateful for the extra help given by the families of Dan and Amy and Jason and Beckie who took charge for much of our family activity. Dan and Amy came early to set up and took over the food presentation. Beckie organized the activities and the gift exchange. With Debbie still in recovery mode, this was the only way that this could occur this year. We are grateful to them and others who stepped up and helped.

Decorations and Set up primarily taken care of by Dan and Amy and their family

The whole crew enjoying dinner together

The representatives of each of the nativity individuals. This activity was just amazing.

While the adults shared their impressions about the nativity figures, the young children drew pictures of their impressions and then shared them with all of us.

Beckie organizing the gift exchange with all of the grandchildren

The grandchildren loved playing the bells to the on-line videos. They got really quite good.

We couldn't get them to quit. What a joy to see their happiness in this activity.

One of the bags of the teddy bears that reflect the love of Jesus. We forgot to share them at the party but enjoyed sharing them when sharing Christmas presents.

Finally, it was our turn to host the extended Rueckert Family Christmas party which we also held at our Clubhouse six days after our own family party. For this one, our son Jacob provided exceptional help in setting things up and helping with the presentation of the food. Our son Ben joined us an hour before the party and was also a great help. My sister-in-law Kendra had just returned from her mission in Alaska 3 days previous, so all of her posterity were represented at this party. As mentioned earlier, it was a joy to provide this party for many of my parent's posterity who don't have a living patriarch of their family.

Jacob helped set up accommodations for up to 75 individuals. In the end we had about 55 participating.

Making Christmas Cookies with and without a stove and Santa's Workshop:

As Debbie was scheduling making Christmas cookies with our grandchildren, our oven died on December 7. We immediately went shopping for a new oven and found one that we were happy with. It was able to be delivered and installed one week later, December 14. The first cookie decorating was done on December 9 with purchased sugar cookies. Not ideal, but it worked. The second cookie decorating was in Hyrum on the night of December 15. Debbie made the cookies ahead of time with the new oven and we were back in business. The following are some more of the photos from the Christmas Cookie activities and our new Christmas Present stove:

First Christmas cookies on the 9, store bought sugar cookies, home made decorations. It was for Dan and Amy's kids while they were at the temple.

Our new stove with a Christmas bow

First cookies in the new oven were Chocolate Chip for Tom, testing the new oven out on the 14th.

Cookie decorating in Cache Valley for the Hyrum and Nibley grandchildren

With the Jamie's kids, ages 7 through 18

With Pollyanna and her four daughters right after their pajama party day at school

finishing up with Sophia and Giovanna

Gift Exchanges:

I purchase the gifts for our 51 grandchildren and 17 children and their spouses. Since most of this is on-line, the greatest effort is wrapping which falls on Debbie. This year our kitchen turned into a Santa's workshop, featuring gift wrapping, neighbor gifts and Christmas Cookie activities. We figured that Debbie wrapped over 160 gifts. Just a few of the photos of these gift exchanges:

Santa's workshop, boxes of gifts that have arrived, waiting to be wrapped

This box went to Gina's family in Texas

A box for Texas and another for Melanie's family in Pennsylvania

Around the Christmas Tree for married couples and their kids. Each family has their own wrapping paper which is essential to keep them straight.

By our fireplace for the single sons and their children and Debbie and I

We watched them open presents in Pennsylvania . . .

and in Texas . . .

And in person, staggered throughout Christmas Day . . .

by family . . .

In both rooms, dad and

daughter . . .

The next day, Hayvin enjoying Grandpa's gift from her parents, a Ute Beanie

in the following days (a Wok for Ethan) . . .

including a family game for each family which arrived from China just two days before Christmas

Kind neighbors:

We had a kind neighbor drop off a very special gift. This is an angel, representing our daughter who passed away in November, looking over us this Christmas. We were very touched by her kindness.