Hope all of you have a great Christmas and a successful New Year.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Karen and Bob Rutledge Family
Hope all of you have a great Christmas and a successful New Year.
Bruce and Ann Van Horn
In preparation for Christmas we were involved with a couple very worth while projects. First off the Cones Family. Joe & Laura Cones and their toddler Van moved into the basement apartment of Rocky Revels' home. Rocky lives at the east end of our street. The Cones have very little in the way of money or temporal things. Prior to their marriage both had a tough go in life. We invited them to Thanksgiving Dinner along with Mark, Amy and the kids. We all had a delightful time and the Cones really enjoyed being with our family. Laura is a member but has only attended Church in the last little while. Joe was raised Catholic on the Arapaho Reservation in Wyoming. However he mentioned to me that he knew alot about the LDS Church because on the Wind Rivers Reservation most of the families were either Catholic or LDS. Joe and Laura were married by a Bishop in Rock Springs, WY.
Joe had been studying about the Church with the missionaries at Thanksgiving time. At our Thanksgiving Dinner he mentioned to me that he was interested in being baptised. The good news is that just before Christmas he was baptised. He asked me to Confirm him the Sunday after his baptism. On Sunday (Jan. 4th) Joe will be blessing his son, Van, in Sacrament Mtg.
Besides the Cones there are a couple of families in the neighborhood that have been struggling with not having adequate income to get by on. These families were asked if neighbors could help with purchasing clothes, food, etc. for them. These families provided lists of things they needed, clothes sizes, etc and the neighbors went to work making donations and purchasing the need items. Ann assisted in the organization of this and I had the opportunity to help shop. This was a great privilege to help provide a meaningful Christmas for some special neighbors.
Dad
Monday, December 22, 2008
Mark and Amy Van Horn 2008 Project
This year we chose to help out with Sara’s 2nd grade class service project and make it ours for this Christmas. Sara’s class was preparing to visit a local nursing home and sing songs, recite poems and bring cheer to the residents that lived there. As part of this project they wanted to give a fleece blanket to all the grandmas and grandpas and asked the families to donate a piece of fleece. As a family we wanted to make sure that all the grandmas and grandpas received a blanket so we bought enough fleece to make 9 blankets. For each blanket we cut fringe around the edges and tied all the pieces to make a beautiful present for the residents. Sara then took all of our finished blankets to school the morning of their field trip. This was something that Sara and Ella had a lot of fun doing. We sat in the living room, each tying an edge of the blanket and talked about different things going on. It was a fun “hands on” service project.
Sara’s comments: Sara thought that making the blankets was fun. Sara’s class got to go all around to hand out the blankets. She said that the grandmas and grandpas were happy, one grandpa even hugged her he was so happy! She was able to sing songs to some of the residents which she thought was tons of fun. Going to the nursing home made Sara feel happy.
Ella’s comments: Ella didn’t think it was any fun making the blankets. But she did make them for the old people because she wanted them to have a blanket and didn’t want anyone to be left out. She felt happy making the blankets even though it wasn’t much fun, because she was serving others.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Jeff and Dana Van Horn Family
Jeff had his surgery on Monday. They gave him a femoral block before he left there so he was pretty comfortable the first night. Last night - not so much. I stayed home from wok on Tues and today. Must go back tomorrow though. Jeff will be fine for awhile and I can call him to take his meds. I will also come home for lunch and Ian gets home at 3:30. Jeff has a friend with a bum femur who likes to come over and play video games anyway:) We will have some major bills and have put off getting Ian's braces until next year. Our insurance is good, but not that good! I hope that all of you are happy and well. We are happy at least.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Jen and Rick Endsley Family
We really enjoyed the opportunity to focus more on others this Christmas and not the consumerism that typically comes with Christmas. It seems that every year we try to scale down Christmas as our family grows because it seems like a good time to calm down and focus on just spending time together. This year each child received only 2 presents: one, a set of pajamas; the other a small gift for under $20. This helped them focus on the meaning of Christmas because they weren't worried about what they were getting. We opened our door to one of Ariel's friends whose family is struggling. She needed a welcome place for multiple weeks to eat a good meal and to feel a part of a family. I once apologized to her for the noise of the little kids at the table but she said that she loved coming to our house to eat with our family. Her family never eats together (her parents do not cook but snack) and she missed being at a kitchen table with happy faces, albeit 8 happy and hungry faces. She enjoyed watching the Christmas from Temple Square program and spending time discussing Jesus Christ. Her family is not active in any religion.
For the past 6 years we have done Christmas Mouse, which is where we choose 4 families with young children (mostly non-member families who are either are new to the area or who are struggling financially) and "visit" their home for 10 days, bringing a special gift with a rapping on the door. We've also taken food to The Gospel Lighthouse Mission, a soup kitchen in Dayton. We decided not to do those this year but to give additional money to our Stake for the Dayton Branch unit, which takes care of so many who are struggling in the downtown area. We also gave bills of various denominations to our kids to take to the Salvation Army kettle and to personally thank the bell ringers for the service they are providing. We encouraged our kids to perform acts of kindness for each other and spend time doing something another wants to do like play a board game with someone who is younger. Before and after Christmas we discussed how we are a family of plenty in things and number, so we could bless others with our belongings. The kids were willing to go through their clothing, finding clothes that were in good condition, and donating it to the local Goodwill along with some of family belongings that would directly benefit the local Bellbrook Family Resource Center that works with children and teens living in our city's government housing project.
Thanks,
Jen Endsley
Monday, January 7, 2008
John and Jessica Van Horn Family
We had a very hard holiday season this year. It started out full of disappointment, empty promises, car accidents/problems, and surprises of the like around every corner. We were very focused on ourselves and how to get out of and around these messes. When Mark suggested we give service to others as our gifts this year, I was very concerned. We didn't know how to donate what we already needed ourselves. Then things turned around. We started doing our family home evenings on Christmas and Christ's birth. We were teaching Breanna about Jesus and how he is so important in our lives, and we started to see that we were looking at Christmas all wrong. We needed to focus on Christ and his life and the example he was and is for us. We stopped looking at ourselves and started finding ways to serve others. When Amy suggested we also donate to the Road Home, we went through our house and found things that we had that we really didn't need. We found all sorts of things that we had in excess that we could donate to those in need. Focusing on others really helped us to have charity in our hearts and through this and focusing on being like Christ, we had a very wonderful Christmas full of fun, laughter, family, and hope. We were really grateful for this opportunity to serve others and give to those who are truly in need. We look forward to making this a tradition not only at Christmas time, but also throughout the year.
Love,
John, Jessica, Breanna, & Brett
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Karen and Bob Rutledge Family
I would like to thank Mark and Amy for the great idea, we had so much fun. I would share pictures, but I lost the card from our camera its somewhere between our house and Bob's parents house. Oh well.
We decided to give to the Loomis Fire Department Toy's for Tots. I had spoken to Bob's Grandma and she said that the little girl she watches after schools mother was saying that she hoped that there would be enough donations this year so that Danielle would be able to receive at least 1 gift. So our family went to our local happy K-mart and purchased around 18 different toy's. Afterward we delivered them to the Loomis Fire Station. When we got there it was nice to see a boy's group donating gifts also. The girls got a chance to talk with the fire chief and visit the new fire station.
Please understand that the city of Loomis is quite wealthy but there is a small area there that is very underdeveloped. It is hard for the kids that barley have food to eat going to school with kids that have everything (driving new BMW's to school) I know that this was always hard for Bob since his family didn't have very much money. We hope that just a little something for those in our little community will uplift those children's spirits and make a difference in there lives.
Hope all of you have an amazing New Year and wish you much happiness.
Love
Bob, Karen, Sonoma, Katelyn, and Olivia