FATHER'S DAY

 

NOTE:  Today is Father's Day 2025.  

When I opened my computer a few minutes ago to write a letter, I saw this little blurb detailing some background of this commemorative day.  Though I knew how Mother's Day began, I don't think I ever heard anything about how the celebration of Father's Day came about.

Click on the links to find out some additional information about the details associated with this special day. I think you will find them interesting.

And in spite of the fact MY father-in-law was negative and vocal about Father's Day being just another way for  merchants to take something out of thin air and commercialize it (to the point it kind of wrecked our kids' enthusiasm to fete him), I think celebrating our dads is a great way to let them know they are important in our lives!  I loved making this day special for my own father and for my husband who was the father of our children.

FATHER’S DAY

 

Each June, stores roll out their Father’s Day best — sales on ties, watches, and barbecue grills. But when Father’s Day was first created, a much smaller token was given out to dads: roses. Flowers aren’t as heavily advertised for Father’s Day now as they are for mothers in May, yet the link between dads and the delicate blooms comes from the earliest American celebrations of the holiday. The first known Father’s Day is tied to the West Virginia mining community of Fairmont. On July 5, 1908, the town held a church service honoring the lives of fathers in their community, many of whom had perished the December before in what is widely considered the worst mining disaster in U.S. history. However, the church event was held just one time, and another city propelled the holiday into national view.  In 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd launched her campaign to honor fathers from her home in Spokane, Washington. As the daughter of a Civil War veteran and widower who had raised six children, Dodd believed fathers deserved recognition for their roles. Within a year, she had drummed up community support, and on June 19, 1910, Washington became the first state to celebrate Father’s Day. Dodd’s first festivities included an exchange of roses; children gave red roses to their fathers and pinned color-coded buds to their shirts — red for living fathers and white roses in honor of the deceased. The activist even rode through the city, handing out flowers and gifts to fathers who couldn’t leave home. Over time, the tradition of giving roses to dads faded away, but the holiday stuck around. After years of rallying, Father’s Day became a federally recognized holiday in 1972.

MAY DAY 2025

NOTE:  I "minister" or administer "watch care" for seven women in our congregation who currently choose not to attend meetings.  However, they have indicated they would accept some contact with the members--just "not up close and personal".  So, I try to think of sister-to-sister ways to interact with them.  

In previous years, I have left fresh flowers or a small plant on their doorstep to celebrate May Day.  However, this year I wrote the following message, and I left it in a festive bag on their doorstep with a packet of blank notes embellished with beautiful flowers on the front of each card.  It was an invitation for them to "pass it forward" in a way.  

I hope they found opportunity to do that and scatter LOVE in a variety of directions.

_________________________________________________________________

       

Sing a song of May time.

Sing a song of Spring.

Flowers are in their beauty.

Birds are on the wing.

May time, play time.

God has given us May time.

Thank Him for His gifts of love.

Sing a song of Spring!

May 2025

Early European settlers of the Americas brought their May Day traditions with them.  You may remember making those same kinds of traditional small baskets in school, filling them with flowers or treats and leaving them at someone’s doorstep to find after you rang the bell and ran away.  I recall it was a fun activity and even more fun later to dart away before someone opened their door to find the surprise I had left for them.

Though that tradition has faded in popularity, I truly enjoyed the May Day celebration when we lived in Sweden several years ago.  It included dancing around the Maypole and crowning the Queen of May.  I liked it so much, in fact, that when I found a handmade music box with colorful wooden figures weaving ribbons around a pole as the music box played and the figures danced in circles, I immediately purchased it and brought it back to our home in America.

When my younger daughter got married, I gifted that little music box to her, as it was a favorite decoration on the bookshelf in our family room.  She still displays it in her home where her children now enjoy winding the key and seeing the dancers weave their ribbons around the Maypole.

This May Day, though, I’m surprising you with flowers of a different sort, some that you can share long after the first of May.  These “flowers” are an invitation for you to send a loving note to individuals who need a little “Spring” because of illness, sadness, or perhaps just a cheery “Hello!” 

 

In John 13: 34, Christ said:

“A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Let us take as our motto during the month of May with its surprise baskets of flowers and treats, “LOVE AT ALL TIMES!”

What a wonderful way to thank God for His gifts of love to us—usually given through others—in May time and always!

LOVE,  From your friend in the neighborhood—

Swedish music box   1981

Biking Adventures

 NOTE:  Our grandson Jeremy Nichols is serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Everett, Washington, area.  He recently wrote that he had been transferred to an area where the missionaries ride bikes to their appointments, etc. instead of being assigned a car.

His letter brought back memories of our own Nichols Family biking experiences, so I decided to send him a short little treatise of our experiences long ago in the 70's when biking first became more of a sport in Colorado than an occasional bike ride for fun.) 

Hi, Elder Nichols--

 I read your email a couple of weeks ago with interest because bicycles played such a big part in the life of the Nichols Family during our early years.  This was before your dad was born and we lived in other parts of the world.

 

When Grandpa Ross and I moved to our first house, Harold was not quite two years old and Brice was just one week old.  Not long after we got there, my parents came to visit and brought all my stuff from the home where I grew up in Rawlins, Wyoming.  Dolls.  Toys.  Fancy dresses.  Scrapbooks. School memorabilia.  The desk my dad made for me out in his garage workshop.  And the heavy metal bike I got from Santa Claus when I was in the third grade--a very coveted Hiawatha.  Oh, that was a cherished possession!  It meant that I could go farther afield than just walking to school and around the neighborhood.

 

However, when I saw that bicycle in the back of my dad's truck that summer day at my new house, I couldn't help but ask what in the world was I supposed to do with it?  My mother wisely replied that it just might come in handy if I wanted to take my little boys around the neighborhood for a ride.

 

So, the next summer Grandpa Ross and I splurged and purchased a new 10-speed bike for him and two bike seats for the kids.  By this time Brice was big enough to sit up and handle himself in the bike seat behind me.  Harold was heavier, so he rode on the back of Grandpa Ross' bike.

 

That began a real adventure for our little family.  Every Saturday the four of us would go on a bike ride.  First to the nearby park, and then, as the weeks went by, up to the train tracks, then later we ventured up Highway 72 into Coal Creek Canyon to Plainview.  That was a long, hard trip on my heavy bike with a kid on the back.  Grandpa Ross would bike ahead of me and circle back over and over as I slowly went up those steep hills.  (I thought he was the BEST biker in the world—until I got my own 10-speed bike a few years later and found out it was all in the bike's weight and the gears!)  Then to assuage Grandpa Ross' desire to bike on Sunday, we began biking to our chapel which was down in Golden and quite a long way from our house in Arvada.  

 

As the years went by, Harold and Brice learned to ride their own bikes, and Burgandy and Jeremy then occupied the child seats on the back of the bikes.    And because we didn't have a second car, that was still our family's main mode of transportation.  We either walked or rode our bikes—or didn't go.  To Church (our chapel was then quite a bit closer), to piano lessons, to soccer practice, and just for fun.

 

It wasn't always easy to bundle up little kids into snowsuits and bike in the cold—and sometimes snowy weather.  I rode a skirt when I went to Relief Society and we biked to Church, which people thought was really odd.  But when we lived in Europe and saw women all over riding bikes wearing skirts, I realized I had just been living in the wrong country all those years!  

 

People would stop us and remark how fun it would be to ride bikes like that everywhere we went. " Oh, how lucky the Nichols Family is!" is what they used to say.

 

And I would think, "Right.  We are sooooo lucky to HAVE to ride bikes most of the places we want to go."  And I thought of all the effort those people never had any idea was part of that fun-looking "adventure" they saw.

 

Eventually we moved to Virginia where your dad was born, and the family biking experience pretty much came to an end.  But, as time went on, I finally realized that riding bikes all those years was a blessing of health, endurance, adaptability, and, yes, pleasure at being outdoors and not stuffed into a car all the time.

 

Thanks for sharing your biking experiences.  On the days you would rather NOT ride a bike if you had a choice, think about all the treasures that assignment/activity has already brought to you, and give thanks for your healthy body and your bike that gets you where you need to go!

Love, Momma G

 

EASTER 2025

 

HE IS RISEN!

Jesus Christ performed many miracles, but on the third day after His death and burial came His most important miracle of all. The Son of God rose triumphantly from the tomb, victorious over death itself. His Resurrection means every person on earth will live again.

“And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.”

—Matthew 28:5–6

I have spent years collecting Nativities for Christmas, displaying them, and bearing testimony of that "ONE WONDERFUL NIGHT".  That has been a worthwhile endeavor with many blessings for me and for my friends who have shared this holiday tradition with me.  I have loved that experience every December.

But this year as Easter approached, I decided to spend more time contemplating the END of Jesus Christ's mortal life, much like I do to celebrate the beginning of Jesus Christ's mortal life.

President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gave an Easter Season message shortly after Christmas this year and invited us to prepare for an Easter celebration reflecting the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ culminating in His resurrection--the most glorious event in history.  His invitation was that we study Christ's teachings and establish Easter traditions, especially at home with our own families that reflect the universal truth that blesses everyone:  HE IS RISEN! 

I have done that.  And along with the studying I have done to remind me again of this important doctrine and poignant part of our Savior's mortal ministry, I decided to showcase an Easter creche.  It is a simple little display of Christ in front of the open tomb with the stone rolled away.  Some of His friends are nearby, one kneeling at his feet, and worshiping Him as they realize He is risen.  It has been a daily reminder for me of this miracle of miracles....  And it has made a difference in my Easter celebration.

HE IS RISEN!

BUNDLE OF JOY

 

April 2, 1977

Jeremy Todd Nichols was born during a "Springtime in the Rockies" blizzard on a Saturday afternoon following a harrowing ride to the hospital in the old 1968 Mustang Fastback--including a stop at the gas station where we happened to meet one of Ross' former colleagues who seemed bent on a friendly visit--before we safely made it to St. Anthony Central hospital in Denver, Colorado, where Jeremy made his entrance into the world.

It's hard to believe it's been 48 years!

Here are a few special moments in his short life before that beautiful summer morning 10 years later when he fell 25 feet from an old Cottonwood tree and died the following day--at St. Anthony Central hospital in Denver where he had been born.

July 18, 1987

(Sorry about the portrait presentation instead of landscape--I tried and tried to rotate it but without success!  The pictures are still great, though, depicting some of his short life.)

195th YEAR OF LOVE, INSTRUCTION, AND WITNESSES OF JESUS CHRIST!

 

195TH ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE

of 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

April 5-6, 2025

When I was reading in the Book of Mormon the other morning, I came to the part of the Nephite history where King Benjamin addresses the people and gives his famous sermon which includes the well-known quote …”when you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are only in the service of your God.” 

King Benjamin had previously sent a proclamation throughout all of the land that the people gather themselves together and go up to the temple to hear the words which he was going to speak to them.  The record says that there were so many people by that time that they couldn’t even be counted.  But go to the temple they did—"all the sons and daughters, and their sons, and their daughters, from the eldest down to the youngest, every family being separate one from another.”

“And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which King Benjamin should speak unto them….”  Mosiah 2:1-6

Every time I read that passage, it reminds me of General Conference where Church members gather to hear the words of the prophets and their testimonies of Jesus Christ. 

I have shared with you in previous years that when I was younger, I would often go to Salt Lake City on the train with my cousin Lynn to attend Conference.  Then Conference became available on television in my home town, then on satellite broadcasts at the chapel, and now in a variety of platforms that can be received at home on the big screen or on the little six-inch screen of our smart phones!  Wow! Technology has come a long way for the April 2025 General Conference global broadcast which will be next weekend, April 5-6.

But, no matter how most people access General Conference now, it still reminds me of King Bejamin calling the people to gather together to hear his words as they sat in their tents with their families having the doors facing King Benjamin at the temple.

So, we have that same kind of opportunity, as the Book of Mormon Nephites, to listen to Conference in our own homes with our families as we look at our Prophet Russell M. Nelson and the Apostles while they give us instruction from the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. 

 

Here is some info I took from the Church’s website:

“General conference provides an opportunity to receive personal revelation as general Church leaders give counsel and direction from the Lord.  We encourage all to listen to, study, ponder and apply the counsel given,” wrote the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Following the broadcast, the messages will be available in text, audio and video formats on multiple on-demand formats for viewing and studying. The messages will be published in the Gospel Library app, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org and in Church magazines.

Saturday, April 5   

Morning session: 10 a.m. to noon*

Afternoon session: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Evening session: 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, April 6

Morning session: 10 a.m. to noon

Afternoon session: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

All conference sessions will be streamed live on the broadcasts page of ChurchofJesusChrist.org. You can also watch and listen on the General Conference YouTube channel, the Gospel Stream app, Gospel Library and other radio, television, satellite and digital channels.

 

I’m personally looking forward to this opportunity to find respite from the world for a few hours.  And, I invite you to also find that respite as you tune in however it is most convenient and easiest for you—one talk, one session, or one quote that will touch your heart and lift your life to give you peace.

LET'S DO THIS!

 

Let's Talk About the Weather!

 

I live in Colorado.  A transplant of nearly 60 years from the high windy plateaus of south-central Wyoming where I was born and raised.  

Wyoming was a great place to grow up.  I didn't know any different, except for the places we went on vacation which sometimes seemed nicer than where we lived, but there was always blue sky and sunshine for most of the year in my neck of the woods.  BLUE SKY AND SUNSHINE!  My biggest faves.  However, there was also a constant wind blowing, little semblance of four seasons (we always said there were really only two seasons), and not a lot of trees.  That isn't what a lot of what other people in the world think of as "inviting".

When I moved to Colorado after I graduated from Brigham Young University, I thought I had come to live in Paradise.  Sure, there is sometimes a freak snowstorm in the early fall or late spring, but for the most part the weather is pretty acceptable.  The snow doesn't last forever.  It usually melts within a day or so.  Plus, there are always plenty of days that reach into the 60's even during the winter months.  And yes, sometimes the wind blows.  But not usually so fierce or chilling as our neighboring state to the north.  No humidity.  No unbearable heat.  No extreme phenomena like earthquakes or tornados.  (Okay, that freakish kind of event has happened now and then, but those are the exceptions, not the rule for regular, every-day life in Colorado.)

April showers bring May flowers is what the familiar verse says.    Not always in Colorado though.  Some years the showers turn out to be a snowstorm that either freezes the buds that managed to pop up their heads or delays them for a few more weeks. Just wait--that riot of blossoms will come....

Luckily, there is a common phrase to cover any disappointment about an unexpected rainstorm or cloudy sky that pops up on the horizon:  "If you don't like the weather, wait a while.  It will change."  And it usually does.

However, after some warm days recently that turned unexpectedly windy and bone-chilling, my daughter sent this little reminder to me about the "seasons" we experience in this beautiful area of the Rocky Mountain West.  I laughed out loud!  Just about sums up the whole topic of this discussion.  

I think it is a pretty fair commentary about the subject of weather as we experience it in Colorado.  Yet after calling Colorado home for nearly six decades--including four temporary short-term residences in Europe and on the East Coast--I'm STILL satisfied with my choice! 

LOVE

 

LOVE...

puts the fun in together; 

the sad in apart; 

the hope in tomorrow; 

the joy in a heart !

Abraham Lincoln

 Today is Abraham Lincoln's birthday.

When I was a little girl in grade school, we celebrated both George Washington's birthday on February 22nd, and Abraham Lincoln's birthday on February 12th.  I remember we learned fun facts about each of these presidents and usually did a craft project which featured something about them.  Though these two days were not school holidays, still they were important occasions in my young life..

Then at some point, the two birthdays got morphed into a generic President's Day which was meant for inclusion of ALL United States presidents, not just the first and the 16th.  I guess singling out those two outstanding leaders looked like an exclusivity instead of the respect each of them deserved--way above and beyond the other presidents.  So, came about President's Day on the third Monday every February.  And oh, what a coincidence--a three-day weekend that spawns a proliferation of sales and bargains and other ways to celebrate!  It has always made me wonder if it's all about the shopping and not the well-earned respect.

But today, I was thinking about just Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865).

I'm not even sure if most people in the country--especially kids and young people--are even aware Lincoln is best known for preserving the Union during the American Civil War and for emancipating the slaves. 

Well known facts include that he was of humble origins, but a self-educated lawyer in frontier Illinois, noted not only for his shrewdness and practical common sense, but also for his invariable fairness and honesty.  In one account of Lincoln's life which I read recently, the author attributed Lincoln's style of leadership as coming from his confidence in "The People" and his belief that all said people are to have equal access to the resources of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as outlined in the Declaration of Independance.

As I was reviewing today some of Lincoln's accomplishments, I decided to reread the Gettysburg Address delivered on November 19, 1863, to dedicate Gettysburg National Cemetery.  This short dedicatory speech reiterates his belief "The People" will carry forward the ideals of freedom which we continue to benefit from today.

Thank you for your confidence in us, President Lincoln, and Happy Birthday! 

HOARDER!

 

My younger daughter sent this to me a couple of weeks ago.  We both laughed because it was so depictive of her own experience every time she comes to visit from Portland.  At some point during each visit, my older daughter takes her down my basement and holding her arms open wide says, "This is what we are facing when Mom dies." Then we all laugh!

She's right, though.  The basement is FULL of boxes--mostly the boxes are all of the figures and findings and undercloths and greenery to enhance the every- other- year display of my beautiful Nativity collection which began in the early 1970's.  And now, over 50 years later, it is a vast amount of "stuff" to support my passion for that ONE WONDERFUL NIGHT!

But, there are also boxes of other things, too.  School memorabilia, mostly, that belongs to my children.  Some of those saved items I have taken to THEIR homes, but the kids I go to visit on a plane still have boxes down there because it's more than carry-on luggage.  

And there are boxes of pillows and blankets left over from the years people actually stayed at our house when they came to visit rather than stay at a hotel like they do now.  I get that--I do the same when I go to visit them!

Oh, and treasures I brought back from our wonderful years that we lived in Sweden and West Berlin Germany.  

And there are boxes of kids' books and brand new supplies of crayons and pencils and tablets and journals and anything else that I kept around for those visits when I had planned fun adventures during their visits--the Nichols Family Olympics, Summer Safari, Summer Splash, The Grands Go Hawaiian, and all the other events I hatched for their entertainment--you get the picture.

Plus, there are the small items I have purchased here and there to have on hand when I want to give a little gift to a friend or a neighbor who is ill or down or just needs a friend.  That all takes space, too.

Not to mention all my United Airlines uniforms that can't be given away--in the interest of security so no unauthorized person can impersonate a flight attendant because it is against the law.  They are still down there, too.  Apparently, I am supposed to destroy them but haven't done that yet either.

But when my husband told me I was a HOARDER just a few days before I received that telling cartoon, I protested to the max.  NOOOO!  I'm not a hoarder.  I don't save stacks of newspapers and magazines and containers, etc. that pile up all over the place.

And to prove him wrong, I went to the dictionary to show him the definition of a hoarder--those people on TV shows that have rotting food and lost pets in the mess all around them.

But I was chastised to find that one of the definitions of a hoarder was "having a difficult time letting go of items that have a sentimental attachment."  Uhoh, that IS me to a certain extent.  

Okay, organizing the basement and having a huge garage sale was at the top of my list when I retired in 2000.  But, five days after I retired, I accepted a position teaching religious education to high school students.  My plans got put on hold.  When I was finished with that assignment, I was tapped to be the secretary of the very large women's organization in my Church.  That is still an on-going--and very demanding--responsibility.

So, the picture boxes, the recipe files/books, and my desire to select letters from my vast correspondence for a second edition of the book I self-published 15 years ago all got put on hold--and are still there.  ON HOLD!

But, I have scaled down my intent to do everything at once by concentrating on more doable chunks because I know I do not have the time, and let's face it, the stamina to work tirelessly for eight to 12 hours a day on projects that require a lot of physical output.  Now, I have small tasks that are not only doable but still give me the satisfaction I am getting a foot in the door to my desired final outcome.

One box a week to the thrift store.  On Tuesday.  Without fail.  It's working!

This week I chose candles.  I haven't used them in years to burn as a room aromizer or even to use in decorating.  Easy for me to give away.  No sentimentality there.  So, for the past several days I have systematically gone through Christmas boxes labeled with candles as part of the contents, kitchen shelves, and any other nook and cranny I just happened to see a lone candle.  And off they went to the thrift store.  Brand new.  Maybe someone will enjoy having some delicious scent for a long soak in the tub for a spa-like atmosphere.  Maybe some other use...I don't know.   But after I threw away the ones that I HAD burned--even a little--there were still two small boxes to share with someone else. 

Of course, I had to treat myself for accomplishing my doable goal.  That was part of the incentive, too.  Since today was Taco Tuesday, I indulged on the way home then peeked once more into the tidy 3 shelf cupboard I had relieved of its candle burden.  Looking good!

I'm hoping my husband isn't expecting a Mary Poppins experience where the results are done with a few magical words and gestures.  This is still REAL LIFE, you know!

Patting myself on the back...I am off to a pretty good start.  Four weeks.  forty-eight weeks to go.

Then there shouldn't be anything left that has to be "unhoarded".

HAHAHA!

HAPPY NEW YEAR--2025

 Because I was a flight attendant for several years, my nephew's wife shared this with me for her New Year greeting today.  It is a clever take on the pre-flight procedures presented at the beginning of the safety information for passengers as the plane takes off.  See what you think of the suggestions presented in this unique way.  

Oh, and by the way, Happy New Year!