Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! We hope you have had a wonderful year. Here’s what we have been up to:

January- We made some New Year’s Resolutions that none of us remember.

February- Katie and Jeremy celebrated their 1 year wedding anniversary. Mike turned 29. Sam went to Gatorland and sat on an alligator.

March- Jeremy turned 24 and Barb turned 30 a couple weeks later. Grandpa Creer unexpectedly passed away at the age of 76- miss you Grandpa!

April- Mike and Barb celebrated their 25 years of marriage and they are still very much in love. We gathered in St. George and celebrated Easter. Katie graduated from BYU with a Bachelor’s in Sociology- she loves to study people.

May- Katie and Jeremy went to San Francisco for a week to see all of the sights. We got to talk to Sammy on Mother’s Day- what a treat! Mike and Barb headed to California for a fun get-away.

June- Riley got his 1^st real job- at a carwash. Jeremy took the DAT and applied to Dental School. Katie tried broccoli… and still hates veggies.

July- We went to Huntington Beach for the 4^th of July and caught an Angel’s game. We went to Seven Peaks in Provo for a family reunion. Sam turned 20 and celebrated with a fun family in Florida.

August- Barb and Katie went to Seattle for a wonderful wedding. Sam hit his 1 year mark on the mission in Florida… and he is doing AWESOME! Riley turned 18 and went skydiving to celebrate (he got Mike to go with him). Jeremy started his last year at BYU.

September- We went camping at Bryce Canyon over Labor Day- we hiked, ate s’mores, and made boondoggle key chains. Katie turned 22.

October-Katie took the GRE and put a blonde streak in her hair- that wild child. Sam sent pictures and one was of a gator in his bathtub!-(it was only three feet long).

November- Riley applied to Stanford (and BYU). We met our good friends in Park City and ate at a restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner (talk about a stress free holiday). Katie started applying to Marriage and Family Therapy graduate programs.

December- We are preparing for more festivities and looking forward to talking to our favorite missionary on Christmas. We love celebrating Jesus Christ’s birth and the selfless life he lived.

May you all have a great year filled with lots of love and laughter!

Much LOVE- The Creer Family

Christmas Day...

Christmas Day...
a nice relaxing day

The highlight ... to talk to this cute boy!
He is doing fabulous!

Christmas Eve...

Another Christmas Idea...

...that could simply the season and bring the true meaning of Christmas!

By Nancy W. Gavin from Woman’s Day; December 14, 1982

It’s just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past ten years or so.

It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas--oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it--overspending... the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma---the gifts given in desperation because you couldn’t think of anything else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.

Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended; and shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler’s ears.

It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford. Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn’t acknowledge defeat.

Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, “I wish just one of them could have won,” he said. “They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.” Mike loved kids - all kids - and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That’s when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition--one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on.

The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.

As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn’t end there.

You see, we lost Mike last year due to dreaded cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning, it was joined by three more.

Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing to take down the envelope.

Mike’s spirit, like the Christmas spirit will always be with us.

My favorite missionary....

...sent some pictures! Makes my day!
In 8 days I get to talk to this cute boy!!

Christmas Card Time...

I love Christmas Cards.
I love getting Christmas Cards.
I love the newsy Christmas letters.
I love the pictures.
I love hearing about friends and family.
So I send Christmas cards because I love to get them.
I am grateful that Katie writes my letter,
and designs my card...
I do put the address and stamp on, and then mail them.
I used to think that they had to be hand signed and hand addressed,
but then reality set in.
Better to get a card with an address label than no card at all.

Merry Christmas!
Enjoy reading the Christmas Cards you get...
I will be enjoying those that make it to my house this season.

Christmas thoughts...

...been thinking alot about keeping Christ in Christmas
and the true meaning of Christmas.

I get a link to this from a friend.

made my day, there is hope in the world.

Then I found this great quote...

"Inspired by the knowledge that the Christ child received just three gifts, one brilliant mother decided to simplify her Christmas giving. She began by researching the meaning behind the three gifts.

Gold was a gift for a king, celebrating the baby’s royalty.

Myrrh, a common incense used for cleaning and for burial, was given in remembrance of His humanity and foreshadowed the importance of His death.

Frankincense, and incense used in the temple, represented His divinity.

After studying at great length, this mother decided her gift giving would follow this same pattern.”Already on my quest to fill Christmas with Christ, here was a way to simplify and bring meaning to our gift giving. It is a tradition that continues in our home today. On Christmas morning each of my children receives a gift from Santa, and then three other gifts inspired from the gifts of the Magi—

one that is joyful,

one that is needful,

and one that is meaningful.

This gift-giving idea has simplified our Christmas mornings and allowed us to really focus on what we are giving, and why."

So there you go, you can simplify your Christmas

and bring in the true meaning of the gifts!!

So kids, next year - 4 gifts on your list

one from santa

one that is joyful

one that is needful

and one that is meaningful!