030: Thanksgiving Leftovers

Click here to listen (right-click to download)

1. Don't forget to shop at our Amazon store for all your holiday gifts! Thanks to those of you who have already shopped there!!
2. Visit our recipe site for new recipes this week (especially those Maddox rolls!)
3. Have you bought your copy of Lion House Christmas yet? It's FABULOUS!!
4. What is the lion house?
5. Link to primary program songs for next year
6. Whit is setting up another website with links to church talks in MP3 format!
7. THANKS to Vickie for her marvelous poem (below). HERE is a link to The Girl In a Whirl (complete with cool pictures!)
8. Whit has been hanging out at the Deseret Book Message Base.
9. Didn't you love hearing about the invention of the dishwasher? Click for more info! (gosh we love Wikipedia!!)
10. The beautiful Christmas music was performed by Julie's cousins, The Alston Family! Their album is out of print, sorry!!

'Twas the Day After Christmas
by Vickie Gunther

'Twas the day after Christmas. The house was a pit.
The toys were half-broken. The clothes didn't fit.
The stockings were strewn all around here and there,
And chocolately dog throw up gleamed on a chair.

The boys played new video games on their beds,
While visions of Mario danced in their heads.
Their sisters, with make-up and brand new perfumes,
Were practically glued to the mirrors in their rooms.

I'd stayed up all night with the presents to wrap,
And was settling down for a much needed nap,
When out in the front there arose such a clatter,
I sprang up to witness the car windshield shatter!

And what should my wondering eyes chance to see,
But my husband up high in our sycamore tree.
My lively mind figured it out in a flash--
His new Christmas chainsaw had fallen and crashed!

I surveyed the scene with a shake of my head,
Then thought I'd get up, since my sleep now had fled.
I walked through our house in a sleep-deprived haze
And viewed the destruction and mess in a daze.

The boxes! The wrappings! The trash overflowing!
The mountains of Christmas-feast dishes, still growing!
The oven so greasy! The table so sticky!
The leftover chocolates, half-bitten and icky!

The toys heaped in piles! The presents unending!
The stacks of receipts from the credit card spending!
It all had seemed great, but the whole thing was done now.
It had been exciting, but wasn't so fun now.

The spirit of Christmas I'd wanted to be there
Just didn't seem present in any degree there.
My Christmastime hopes that I'd worked on since fall,
Had dashed away! Dashed away! Dashed away all!

I then realized somehow we'd missed the whole reason
Of this time of year and the true Christmas season.
Our being so busy and carried away,
Left no time for Jesus, I thought in dismay.

What good was it all and how much was it worth,
For us to have "fun," but no joy in Christ's birth?
Next year will be different, I silently vowed,
And thought about Christmas, my head humbly bowed.

I sat down and wrote out this plan I would follow,
So next Christmas Day-after wouldn't seem hollow:

More service and selflessness,
More carol singing;
More sneak-to-the-door-and-leave-needed-gifts bringing.
More time with the family,
More time with the lonely,
More time spent on Jesus,
And not presents only.
More time to reflect on my daily behavior
for what I might change as a gift to my Savior.
Less time spent on things
And less time at the mall.
More time on the birth of the Lord of us all.

My heart filled with hope and my soul felt inspired--
We could have the Christmas that I had desired!
Though this time it seemed to have totally missed us,
From now on, we'd always keep Christ in our Christmas!

And I felt to exclaim on that Day-after night,
"Happy Christmases come when we keep Him in sight!"