101. Today I am grateful for my FHE group

Family Home Evening (FHE) is church program that encourages families to set aside Monday evenings to spend with our family that includes a gospel lesson and an activity. Being that I am in a Young Single Adult (YSA) ward (congregation) were most of the members live away from their families, we are broken up into family home evening groups. There are two leaders (male and female) for each “family” group. Both of my leaders are really young but they are great! I had a lot of fun at our FHE tonight! We played silly games with a Christmas theme, such as playing charades, acting out Christmas songs. It’s nice to have an FHE group where we can get to know people more in a smaller setting. I’m looking forward to getting to know those in my group more.

100. Today I am grateful for the First Presidency Christmas Devotional

The first presidency Christmas devotional is something that I look forward to every year. I love the messages the leaders of the church share to members and others attending worldwide: Their reflections on the Christmas Season, testimonies of the Savior and their encouragement to viewers on the things that we could focus on or do for others.  I also love listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing!

Tonight I was with other members of my ward at our Bishops house, where we had planned to watch the devotional after our potluck. However, due to technological difficulties we were not able to watch the broadcast. When I got home, I put my pyjamas on and crawled into bed with my laptop and watched the devotional from lds.org. I usually go to a church building to watch it and really enjoy watching it in a church-setting but it was also kind of nice to watch it alone and reflect on the messages given without any distractions around me.

 Watch, listen or read the talks from this year’s First Presidency Devotional.

During his talk Pres. Eyring announced the Church’s “gift to the world” – Bible Video’s showing the life of Jesus Christ. I am really excited to watch each of these videos as they become available and hope that they will help all who view them come to better know Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World.  

99. Today I am grateful for a successful bridal shower

In a couple of weeks, one of my best friends will be married and I feel privileged to be one of her bridesmaids. Today me and the other bridesmaid held a bridal shower for her at my place which I am really glad turned out well. It seemed that people had a lot of fun and enjoyed the shower, including the bride-to-be. It was also fun to have people over. Besides the Thanksgiving dinner we had, we haven’t really had too many people over to our home.

Also, I am grateful for all the yummy food that Tiffany (the other bridesmaid) bought and for help from Tiffany and my roomates with decorating. When your short, it's hard to reach high places to put up things like streamers. hahaha. Good thing Tiffany is super tall!

98. Today I am grateful for Christmas concerts

Tonight was the Institute Christmas concert and I just felt so excited on my way there. It was really good with a great variety of music. I really liked some of the different types of songs such as the African ones which we typically don’t hear in church but it was really cool. I just love Christmas time and this was a great way to start off the various Christmas events that will happen throughout the month.

97.Today I am grateful for earning flex time

Today was our third and last day of parent/teacher meetings. It meant long days and getting home late but it also meant earning flex time (overtime) hours. I am grateful for this because it will allow me to take off some time at Christmas in addition to my Vacation days so I spend some time at home for the Holiday's.  I am really excited because I will be taking 2 weeks off, spending one week in BC with my family and another week in Utah with my sister and her family. Her new baby is due Dec. 29 and I will be there Dec. 30, hoping to meet him!

96. Today I am grateful for this Gratitude ad:

95.Today I am grateful for a little Christmas tree

It seems that Christmas is in full swing now and everywhere I look I see beautiful Christmas trees. I really wanted a Christmas tree but didn’t want to spend a lot of money on one. I also only have a few ornaments so if I bought a big tree I would need to buy more ornaments too. Well, I went to the dollar store today and bought a little tree for a dollar. I then went to Michael’s and bought a little star to put on top. I took it home and decorated it and put some ribbon around it. I love my little Christmas tree!