A Walk Through Bethlehem

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

For the last few years our stake has combined with the Poway stake to set up a “Walk Through Bethlehem” experience. It was an amazing experience from the start but each year it just gets better.

For the last couple of years Lisa and I have volunteerd for one of the evenings. Last year I was a wise man and Lisa was an angel. This year we were both shop keepers. I had a vegetable stand and Lisa sold spices. I kept caller her a “Spice Girl”.

The experience started as you walked up to the front door. They had signs with quotes from the churches statement on the “The Living Christ”.

You then entered the front door and were led directly into the gym where they had hundreds of Nativities set up. They called them “Creches” but since that sounds like a made up word I’m going with Nativity. They were amazing. Perhaps my favorite was one from Africa. I think Alycia and Trevor should get one of these.

After spending an hour in the gym, we were then led out the back door into the village of Bethlehem. You walk into the Bethlehem market place filled with shops.

When Lisa and I were there it was packed and I was trying to sell people my vegetables. We were encouraged to keep our voices low so it would have a reverent atmosphere. I may not have done a great job of that but it was fun.

Here is a picture of me with the Spice Girl. Those are her spices in the background. She had these weird looking little goards that we figured someone picked up off their lawn because they looked cool. Before the night was over Moms curiosity got the better of her and she finally broke one open. It smelled amazing. She googled it. They were dried black limes. Knowing that, they smelled like limes. I’m not sure what the shop keepingers in ancient Bethlehem thought of her cell phone.

They had a lot of shops. The ones I can remember are, basket maker, bakery, candle maker, flower shop, grain, and then of course, my vegetables and moms spices. There were more though.

They even had centurions walking around who kept harassing me for my taxes. Mom buttered them up though. The kid next to mom is Zander, my buddy Jeffs kid.

We then left Bethlehem and watched Mary sewing something when suddenly the Angel Gabriel came and told her that she would become the mother of our Lord.

From there we went to Persia and saw the wise men looking at the new star, they knew the prophecies a new star would appear in the heavens as a sign of the birth of our Lord. They decided to follow the star.

And then it was back to some shepherds just outside of Bethlehem who were watching their flocks at night. An angel suddenly appeared to them and told them of the birth of our Lord.

We then went back to Bethlehem where we saw Mary and Joseph with their new little baby. Do you see the donkey just outside the stable? There were many live animals including chickens and goats. I didn’t see any sheep. I guess they couldn’t come up with any sheep.

From there we were led to a reception area where they had a video and hot chocolate and cookies. 

It was an amazing experience.

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Experts have long wondered why American poductivity has been higher than European productivity. They came to the conclussoin that it is due to the lack of air conditioning in Europe.

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Eyes

Friday, December 12, 2025

Last week Alycia commented in the Family Chat that she looked up Junes eye color and learned that they are called “sunflower eyes”. Blue eyes with a yellow-brown center around the iris. The next thing we know, Alex posted a picture of his eyes and asked what kind of eyes they are.

Kira then posted her eye and she figures that she might have “sunflower eyes”.

Justin then posted his eye and he figures his eyes are blue. If you look to the left of Justins iris you can see a small vertical line. Apparantly he had surgery on his eye when he was young.

So now we're on a roll.

Princess Lisa posted next and it was unanimously decided that her eyes are hazel.

Queen Lisa shared her eye next. We all agreed that she has blue eyes.

Lisa then took a picture of my eye. I’ve always said my eyes were brown but Lisa insists their hazel. I have no idea what the difference is between brown and hazel.

Alycia started all of this but it took her a while to post.

And then Sarah.

Ben has this interesting little dot in the lower right corner of his iris. He loves to call it his “eye freckle” or his “Jupitor dot”.

And finally Brandon. He made sure we could see as much of his eye ball as possible.

So in case you were interested, that is everyones eyes. At least everyone who shared them.

At one point during the whole exchange Alex said, “Can we talk about how eyes are so freaking cool? I love how cool eyes look”. I agree completely, eyes are cool.

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- Half of your brain is dedicated to your vision

- 80% of your memory is from what you see

- Babies can only see in black and white

- You can't sneeze with your eyes open

- Your eyes don't grow, your eye is the same size when you die as it was when you were born

- If your eye was a camera it would have 576 megapixels

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The To Do List

Thursday, December 11, 2025

While Lisa was enjoying Arizona, I was working on a very long “to do” list. Let me share it with you. In addition to all the jobs I got to cross off, I also started on the steps to the deck but I quickly saw that it was going to be big job and I wanted to knock off as many of these little jobs as I could. I find a lot of satisfaction checking off a to do list.

Friday evening, the day Lisa left, was our ward Christmas dinner. Whoever put together the program for the evening decided it would be fun if the Bishopric put on a little skit. That was way out of my comfort zone and it was the first time in my adult life that I did any kind of acting. I guess I did OK and it was kind of fun. Here is the script. I think Nick Sexton actually wrote the script himself. I have the text recorded in my journal but for my blog I may as well share the video.

The Spirit of Christmas Bishopric Skit

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZmIS2m2juE4nVKhpw541uNs67ohTyGLE/view?usp=sharing

I was quite nervous going into the skit but I think we did OK.

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A growing body of evidence suggests Sacagawea might have survived into old age — which would entirely change the story of America’s most iconic Native forebear.

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Millennial Choir & Orchestras

Wednesday, December 10, 2025

Four weeks ago Lisa and I drove to Arizona to watch Evan compete in the America’s cup.
Three weeks ago I flew to Arizona for the iTrade Show.
Two weeks ago Lisa and I drove to Arizona to be with the kids for Thanksgiving.
Last week Lisa flew to Arizona to watch Kira play in the Millenial Choir & Orchestra Christmas performance. I was sad that I couldn’t go but I have people in a factory waiting on me to send them CAD files of the smoker I’ve been developing.

In this picture you can see Kira standing with her Orchestra buddies. Mom and Ben took many pictures but I picked this one because Kira is doing her “broken neck” pose. It is something she has done as long as she could pose for pictures. It bugs her that she does this, but I love it and I think it is cute.

Mom flew out early (we got up at 4:15) and spend the day with the Palmers and then they all headed to the concert. Saturday morning Mom had breakfast with Bens family and I’m not really sure what she did the rest of the day. Sunday she went to church with Kira’s family and then she came home to me.

Mom had two very cool experiences last week. For the last few weeks she has been very focused on finishing up Christmas Stockings for Bens older girls. Since M is the only one technically living with them, she was only going to make her a stocking but when she thought about it she realized that Z is there every weekend and that wouldn’t be cool for M to have a stocking and not her, so she was going to make two stockings. We have only met their younger sister L a couple of times so we don’t know her well but she is at Ben’s house a lot, so in the end Lisa made three stocking for the three sisters.

She focused on those stockings ignoring everyone and everything else for a few weeks and really wanted to have them done to take to Arizona with us for Thanksgiving. She made it happen. Ben and his family were gone for that weekend but we drove over to his house and left them where Sharely asked us to.

Last week on the Friday Lisa arrived in Arizona, Z was at the house and was going through a tough time. She was complaining to Sharley about how she didn’t belong anywhere, everybody at the home hates her, she has no friends and she doesn’t know why she’s even alive because nobody wants her. She said that Ben and Sharley say they love her but she doesn’t know why and then she said, “I don’t even have a Christmas stocking”.

Sharley then told her to go look under the tree and she would find a gift wrapped with her name on it. Go get it and open it. The timing couldn’t have been better.

Just before Lisa left for Arizona last week she was going through her calendar for some reason, and noticed that Z birthday was coming up. Lisa just happened to have a great gift for her and she wrapped it up the day before we left. Lisa had breakfast with Ben’s family on Saturday morning to celebrate Freddies birthday and when Freddie was done with his gifts Lisa said, Z, don’t you have a birthday coming up. She then gave her the gift that she had wrapped just before she left San Diego. Sometimes Lisa is very inspired and these two gifts for Z made a huge impact on her.

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The first sign of civilization in an ancient culture is a femur (thighbone) that has been broken and then healed. In the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.

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Thanksgiving

Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Even though we had been to Phoenix two weeks ago, and I had been there last week as well, we wanted to spend Thanksgiving with family and friends, so Wednesday around noon we packed up the van and headed east once again.

Kira had planned the weekend in great detail and made assignments. We were assigned pie. I made an apple pie

and the crust for Lisa’s pumpkin pie.

Justin’s dad volunteered to make the turkey.

I love how Jusin and his dad have matching shirts.

We got to Kira’s house in the early evening and she gave us our Christmas present. She said we needed it early. It was a beautiful advent calendar that she had made herself and she included several items in the tree that had special meaning. It included an angel playing an oboe, cats, an olive wood nativity, a ribbon that Lisa’s mother had given her, and a few others that I can no longer remember.



Landon was allowed to spend Thanksgiving day at home with his family. Unfortunately he wasn’t allowed to leave his home until 8:00 Thursday morning and he had to be back by 8:00 Friday morning. It would have been much more convenient to be able to pick him up Wednesday evening but we were just glad to have him home.

Kira had breaksfast ready to be cooked so while they were picking up Landon, Lisa cooked a delicious breakfast for the rest of us.

If I remember right, we had twenty two people for dinner. One of the many visitors was Aneaya and her son. This was the first time we met Aneaya in person but Lisa has been getting to know her on the phone for a while now. Lisa has remained close to a missionary who served in our area many years ago. Ever since he met her, Dave (the missionary) has been calling her Mama Leavitt. She really has been like a mother to him. Dave Chappel has been going through an ugly divorce and has now started meeting other women online. He met Anaeya, who lives in the Phoenix area and has been out to meet her a couple of times. Lisa invited both of them to Thanksgiving dinner. Dave was unable to get out here but Anaeya and her son joined us.

After dinner we were serenaded by Piper and her friend Sienna on violins. It was fun to listen to them.

Kira had a full schedule planned and for the most part we were able to hold to the schedule. A beautiful and relaxed hike around the Veterans Oasis Park close to their home was on the list and it truly was relaxing.

The park has a section dedicated to those who served in all branches of the military. I love that they have a plaque for the newly formed Space Force.

In the evening we all went to watch the second half of the movie “Wicked”. It was fun. Mom and I went to a movie a month or two ago and they gave us a free cup that looked like the witches hat. We didn’t think we’d ever use it and we thought Kira would enjoy and it looks like she did.

All I remember from Friday was throwing the football with Cameron and going to the giving machines. Throwing a football with Cameron can be challenging. He is actually a pretty good thrower and can catch a well thrown ball, but he really loves to kick the ball which he is not very good at. That means a lot of running around for me.

Saturday morning we took in a temple session and we bought some stuff at the Home Storage Center. We also stopped and gathered eggs from Bens chickens. Those girls are really producing. I got fourteen eggs. It was early afternoon that we decided we would try and get home at a decent time so we packed up our bags and headed for home. It was a fun trip.

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On Christmas Eve 1971, a 17-year-old German girl, was traveling on LANSA Flight 508 when it was struck by lightning. The plane broke apart in mid-air, and ejected the girl, who, still strapped into her seat fell over 3,000 meters (10,000 feet), into the Amazon rainforest. She walked away, she was the only survivor and is still alive today.

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iTrade Show

Monday, December 1, 2025

We got back from Evans Amercia’s cup competition on Sunday and then Thursday at 7:30 pm I hopped on a flight back to Phoenix. Justin likes to do some of his business by Trade. He figures that he can get more stuff for less than if he worked those same hours for money.

I have eighteen tons of wood pellets sitting in a warehouse in Phoenix that I need to get rid of and one day Justin suggested that I list them on iTrade. Within a week after listing them, a restaurant in Phoenix bought 100 bags of them. That is $2,000 of trade dollars and while it isn’t the same as real money because you are limited in what you can buy, it is less inventory that I’m carrying and what was once a liability is now an asset.

November 22 was an iTrade show where iTrade members can buy a table and sell their stuff. Justin has done this for the last couple of years and offered me his table for this year. Friday Kira helped me load up their truck and we set up our table and then Friday evening they had free food while vendors had a chance to look at the other vendors and get first dibs on sales.

On Saturday the show was open to the public (well not to the public but to all iTrade users) and I showed up early. Justin had friends in town and we both agreed that I didn’t need him and Kira had to deal with children so I was at the show from 7:00 in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon.

I was hoping to sell more, but I did sell everything you see in the picture which is 105 bags of pellets. At $20 a bag that is $2,200 so it was certainly worth the trip. I had more bags in the truck which I then had to take back to the storage unit.

Kira and I both clearly remember her giving me the keys to the storage unit, but when I arrived at the unit I couldn’t find the keys. They were in Kira’s purse so after helping me load the truck she now had to help me unload the truck. We figure that between the two of us, we moved 340 bags of pellets for a total of 6,800 pounds.

Kira is both the music director and chorister for her ward right now and she has a small and struggling choir. Since I was in town that weekend, and the choir was performing, she recruited me to sing in the choir. In the practice there was me and one other man but for the performance she had Justin and Evan as well, plus some more men showed up and she had a full choir. I think we sounded great.

Immediately after sacrament meeting we loaded everyone into two cars and headed to Peoria to visit Landon. It was the first time Kira and Justin have seen him since August. Everyone, including Landon, seemed very happy to see each other. We were allowed two hours for our visit so we headed to a restaurant, had a nice brunch and then headed back to Chandler. Kira dropped everyone off at the house and then she headed to her choir practice. I packed up my stuff and then Justin took me to the airport. It was a quick but productive and wonderful weekend.

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In the 19th Century people had no idea where the birds went for the winter. Very few people even considered the idea that maybe they flew to Africa, and those who did believe that were scoffed. That is until a Stork landed in Europe with an African spear in its neck.

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Missionary Journal - 12 June 1978 Monday

12 June 1978 Monday

Today we went to Brussel again and bought some souveniers in the centrum. We didn’t really see anything new, but I did buy some little things. We saw a museum where a few of Manneken Pis’s clothes are. They dress him up now & then and today he was dressed. Last week a policeman said that the real Manneken Pis was in the museum but today the guy in the mseum said the real one was out on the corner. I’m starting to wonder if anyone knows which is the which.

Tonight we taught Eerdekens. It went alright & we got to talk a bit with Mr. Eerdekens, but he still doesn’t act very interested. He is friendly though and that is good. Mw Eerdekens is quite worried about Luke (her son) who is getting married soon to a girl who doesn’t believe in God very much. At least she doesn’t go to the Catholic church.

I saw an answer to my prayer tonight. Ever since we met that family with 10 kids, I have asked my Heavenly Father to soften the fathers heart and help him to become interested. Yesterday he didn’t listen in on us when we talked to the rest of the family, so tonight we asked if we could talk to him and we planned on asking his permisison to talk to his family etc. When we went there he wasn’t home, but they said to come back later & he would be home.

When we came back he was in the living room and everyone else was disappeared somewhere. We had a good discussion with him & gave a G.T.L. He listened good & it looks like we will be able to give all 8 discussion to him & his family. We will give a G.A. tomorrow. The weather was a little cooler today but not bad.

American Powerchair Football Confederation APFC

Thursday, November 20, 2025

Sunday morning we got up, dressed for church and then headed promptly to Kira’s ward. It was their primary program and while primary programs are always special, this one was even more so because it was Pipers last primary program and so the last one for Kira’s family.

After church we swallowed a quick lunch and then headed to the Ability 360 gym for the opening cermony for the APFC America’s cup.

It was quite the show, and we felt as if we were in a mini-olympics opening cermony. There were six countries competing from both North and South America. The teams all entered from one side of the gymn, made their way around the gym and assembled opposite from us.

The Ability 360 facility is amazing. It is cool to see what they can do when they construct a building that from the ground up is made to accommodate handicapped people. I checked out the bathrooms, the showers and even the dressing rooms. The dressing rooms have a ledge with a water proof mattress on it where the athletes can be dressed.

Back to the opening ceremonies. Jayden carried the Canadian flag but Evan was asked to hold the back of the flag to keep it unfurled so that it would show better.

Once the teams were all assembled facing us, they then turned around and faced the presenters and they had slide shows, speaches and an amputee sang several songs. He was good.

Following the opening ceremonies, all the teams left the floor except for the two playing in the first game and the competition was underway.

Evans first game was with Uruguay at 5:00 Sunday. This was a team that they should have been able to beat, but the coaches seem to think that they are still coaching little league. I suppose this would be tough for them, because they have only coached in regular games which are all about inclusivity. In fact, the entire concept of power soccer is inclusivity. I am forever grateful that Evan has been able to play power soccer since he was seven years old when a player let him try out his power soccer chair. The picture above is Evan and Jayden on team Canada and here they are when they were seven.

While that is all true, and we should never loose track of what power soccer is all about, it seems to me that once you get to the level of competing for the world championship, you should be doing all that you can to win. These coaches still have the attitude that every player should get a chance to play. If they had put their five best players on the floor for the entire game I think they would have won. Instead, each of their seven players. Got a chance to play. To make matters worse, the coach pulled their two best players at the same time. In any case they lost their first game.

It was a round robin so they had a chance to play each of the six countries for a total of five games. Game two was against Brazil at noon. This game went much like game one and we lost this game as well.

Game three was Monday at 3:00 against Argentina. The top three teams will move on to the world championship next September and the undisputed best team in the Americas league is Team USA. They have the most money, they pay their coaches and they have the largest pool from which to pick their players. The second best team would be Argentina who also have paid coaches. No one expected us to win this game. These are the kind of games where you can put your second string on the floor. If you’re clearly going to win or clearly going to lose then give those guys a chance to play. We lost so now we were 0-3.

Lisa had to get back to work and I also had a deadline of sorts, so we headed home after game three. Game four was against the USA Tuesday morning at 9:00. It was no surprise when they lost that game. Our last chance for a win was Tuesday afternoon at 1:30 against Mexico. That was a close game and at the end of regular time it was 0-0. After double overtime it was still 0-0 so it went to a shoot out. I wasn’t there and I don’t really know the rules but I think each player gets a chance to take a penalty shot.

A penalty shot is pretty much a certain goal unless the shooter really messes up. He shoots from so close that if he can hit an empty spot he is pretty certain to get it in. After the penalty shots it was 3-2 for us. While I am admittedly biased, Evan is the best player on the team in any position which also makes him the best goalie on the team. He has been playing longer, has more experience and has played in more competitions than any other player they have. This meant that Evan was the goalie. While all his saves were amazing, one of his saves was truly spectacular.

The goalie parks in the middle of the net and isn’t allowed to move until the shooter hits the ball. Normally they move the chair forward or backwards to block the ball, but this time, as soon as the shooter touched the ball he circled his chair around and smacked the ball away.

Check out this link.

 

So that was the tournament, our 1-4 record really doesn’t represent how well we played. In any case, it was a great experience.

And Canada definitely had the biggest and best group of fans.

While the purpose of the trip was to watch Evan play, we did have our day with Bens family on Saturday and celebrated several belated birthdays with Kira’s family.

The sweater that Cameron has is a funny story. They were at our house one day and Cameron found this sweater of Lisa’s. He thought it made a wonderful cape and wore it the whole time he was there. He did not leave it behind willingly. Mom decided it would make a good birthday gift and he loves it.

----------trivia----------

The human mind isn't meant to be awake after midnight. It is thought that evolution has caused us to be suspicious, uneasy, restless and paranoid after midnight. That helped us to stay alive when we were hunted by nocturnal predators. 

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