Letters to Elder Maki

Sister Maki received an email from a family where Elder Troy Maki is serving asking for friends and family to email her letters to Troy from home. She is hoping it will be a nice surprise for him for Christmas. If you would like to email her your letter she will print them off and give them to him. Her email is redrockmomma@yahoo.com put in subject line Elder Maki. Help make his last Christmas in the mission field a special one and write him a letter! Thanks!

Christmas Family Home Evening

Here is a quick FHE idea. This is fun for all ages! We have played this activity before several holidays such as Christmas and birthdays. The kids LOVE it and it's a good reminder of why we give and receive gifts. It also helps remind the children to say "thank you" when they do receive gifts.

It might be a good lesson to have after you have reviewed the story of Christ's birth found in Luke 2.

Discuss why we give and receive gifts for Christmas.
Review the story of the three Wise men in Matthew 2.
We give gifts to represent the gifts the wise men brought to the Christ child after his birth.

Matthew 2
1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judæa in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense , and myrrh.

Discuss the gift of the Savior that Heavenly Father gave to the world.

John 3
16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Discuss some gifts we could offer the Savior this Christmas season such as service to others, sharing our testimonies, gratitude, etc.

Heavenly Father gave us the greatest gift we could ever receive. We should be grateful to him and grateful for all the gifts we receive for Christmas and all year long. It is important to express gratitude to each person who gives us a gift and tell them thank you.

Activity-
Give each person in the family a brown lunch bag. Take turns having one person be the receiver of gifts. Everyone else is a giver. Have each giver put some random item in the brown bag to be their gift. The receiver opens each gift one by one and must say thank you to the giver of the gift along with something they like about the gift. It is important to discuss with the family that we may not always like the gift we are given but we should always say thank you and remember why the person gave us the gift. If we are grateful, then there is always something we can find that we like about the gift. For example-it may be their favorite color or it may be something they need etc.

For example, the receiver may open up the gift to find a used toothbrush. They may say something like, "Thank you, blue is my favorite color." Or, they may open a baby rattle. They may say, "Thank you, I can use this to play with my baby sister."

The kids will get very creative in the gifts they give which makes the receiver get really creative in finding something they like about the gift!

After the activity remind the children how important it is to say thank you for each gift they receive this Christmas.