Family Home Evening

Family Home Evening at our house is always a learning experience of some kind or other. Sometimes they are learning experiences we hope we've learned from and never have again. Sometimes they are very sweet and we have a great time as a family. Last night was an interesting combination of events. We learned lots of things.

1) It is possible, on occasion, to have a very pleasant afternoon and dinner with no sarcasm or name calling that leads right into the opening of Family Home Evening.

Since it is the Monday before conference we had our usual "hang-the-pictures-of-the-First-Presidency-and-Quorum-of-the-Twelve-Apostles" lesson. The idea being that we get a semi-annual review of who all those great men are.

2)We learned that with all the changes this year, no one could remember who was in what order anymore. Thank heavens for the pictures in the middle of the last conference edition of the Ensign. What great examples of knowledge the parents of this family are!

3) We also learned that Mom had forgotten (in her defence, she was a little busy packing and moving right after the last conference) that there had been an addition to the Twelve, so we are currently short 1 picture. She will shop tomorrow.

During the conversation while hanging pictures, the pre-teen males in our family informed us of some very important bits of teenage wisdom.

4) It is very cool to have "pit hair" and the more the better. (It is also cool to count each one when you are a pre-teen, even if you need a magnifying glass to do so.)

5) "Pit hair" is the glory of a teenager.

6) Chest hair is the glory of a man.

Aren't you just filled to the brim with the spiritual undertones of our FHE so far? After the lesson portion we played 20 minutes of Trivial Pursuit: The Star Wars Edition. Again, we learned important things.

7) It's been a long time since we have seen Star Wars movies. Oh, the disgrace at the lack of recall!

8) Some of us are very good at identifying Darth Maul when his face is so pixelated that it's basically a light stripe between two dark stripes.

9) Spencer knows the names of more types of Star Wars spaceships than I ever realized they had.

10) Our boys created a "Star Wars Victory Dance" when we lived in New Hampshire and they still remember it.

If the purpose of FHE is to have a most solemn gospel discussion, we failed miserably. If the purpose is to spend time together, have real (sort of) discussions, learn about the gospel, and have fun, then last night was a total success. If nothing else, we created a memory that I know will make me chuckle for a very long time.