Our Christmas Cactus Bloomed!

I didn't take any pictures, though, because I was trying not to take too much time blogging during finals. And now all of the blossoms are gone.

However, I really enjoyed the blossoms while we had them. I've had the plant for 3 years, and this was the first time it bloomed. They were gorgeous flowers. I've taken the liberty to lift a few pictures from this blog post because I want you to see how pretty the plant was.

Each blossom was attached to the end of a little "leaf" on the cactus, like this.


It was amazing to see how beautiful these blossoms were! The petals of the flower would turn up while the flower hung down from the cactus leaf. So this blossom is actually upside down, and you can see the petals turning up (down in this picture).


I didn't have this many blossoms. I had about 12 little buds come on at the beginning of November, but because I kept picking up the pot to have a closer look and fiddling with the plant, I caused most of those to fall off before they could bloom! Only about 4 or 5 of them actually bloomed.


I am excited to keep my cactus growing, and maybe I'll post some blossom pictures next year!

Thanksgiving

We had a WONDERFUL time in Arizona for Thanksgiving. There was lots of food, lots of playing games, and lots of kids! All of my siblings were there, with their spouses and kids. At one point we were all there, except for one of my brothers-in-law. I think that's the first time we've all been together like that in a LONG time.

I loved eating all of the Thanksgiving food! Dave and I both felt like we ate too much, but it was so good! Especially the green olives! :D

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving with family or friends, and that you're getting into the Christmas spirit!

I'm a bawl baby!

Tonight, for Family Home Evening, I read a talk by Elder James Faust. It was a talk in the December 2004 Ensign. In it he quoted a story told by a U.S. Marine posted in Nagasaki a few months after the atom bomb was dropped. It was a story about surviving Japanese Christians, and a Christmas concert they put on for the U.S. Marines stationed there. The music emphasized the power of the Savior to bring peace to our lives. My plan was to talk about Christmas music and its power to bring the Christmas Spirit to people, and then invite the group to go Christmas caroling. When we began the lesson, the group was small, just three other girls. I was a little disappointed at first. But as I read the story I started to cry. I felt the Spirit really strongly testify to the four of us. And I was glad that I didn't have to cry in front of any of the guys in our group! And some of them showed up in time to come caroling with us, so we had some deep voices and high voices blended together. We went to sing to the firemen at the fire station just down the street, but they were already having some kind of Christmas program! So we ended up singing outside of the local grocery store to a few passing shoppers. I hope it brightened their night!

Because of this beautiful FHE experience, I've decided that I'm going to read a Christmas story from the Ensign every night in the month of December. I may share the stories with the blog or people around me from time to time. I almost certainly will cry regularly at the stories that touch my heart. And I hope that it is a good way to prepare myself to celebrate the birth of my Lord.