Tuesday, January 3, 2012

What Mormons Do on Monday Nights...




Normally, what happens at Family Home Evening stays at Family Home Evening...
...but not anymore.

I thought it would be fun to give my friends of all faiths a peek into what Monday nights are like at our house by showing you what we do during Family Home Evening over the course of one year.  




For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Family Home Evening is a special time set aside each week that brings family members together and strengthens their love for each other.  It is an opportunity for parents to instruct children in matters of faith, for games to be played, treats to be eaten, and memories to be made!  

Setting aside time for the family to be together each week sends a strong message, to children especially, that family is what matters most.  In our faith, we truly believe that when it comes to family relationships, love is really spelled "T-I-M-E."


Confession:  My kids love FHE so much that they have asked us to hold it more than just once a week!  However, I used to feel badly when my kids had to tell their friends,"Sorry, we can't play, because it's Family Home Evening night."  This answer is often difficult for little ones to understand.  I'm sure they think initially, "You can't play Sunday...You can't play Monday...what's the deal?"

But then I noticed that one of our best friends started spending Monday nights together just as a family as well.  Now, during nicer weather, it's not uncommon for our family to be playing games on a blanket in our front yard, while our friend's family plays tag together in their yard.  It's a beautiful, subtle thing, but I noticed.  And it makes me feel happy and peaceful inside to see their happiness as they spend time together as a family too. 



Hopefully sharing snippets of our Monday nights together will plant in families reading this the desire to designate Monday (or another night each week) as a special Family Night to play games and spend time together in a way that is tailored to your family's interests and needs, and that it will sort of pull back the veil of what your Mormon neighbors are doing together on Monday nights when they say, "Sorry, we can't come over...it's FHE."

A new post chronicling our experiences in FHE will appear here each Tuesday of 2012.

You can also read up on our family home evenings by topic on the Family Home Evening Lessons page of this blog.

I hope that you will join us!


PS - For our first FHE of the New Year, we talked about one of our family goals, which is to finish reading The Book of Mormon together as a family.  We also colored in this reading chart from the Friend Magazine.  Then the kids begged us to go have a "dance party" in the basement.  (See the video above.)  You'll have to excuse Steve's dancing.  I swear he was doing way cooler moves before the camera was rolling.  Then we watched ourselves on video and the kids laughed their little heads off.  Then we finished off a pint of cookie dough ice cream left over from NYE and went to bed. Voila!  One FHE down...51 to go!



11 comments:

  1. your little guy is quite the dancer-fun times. I still have my book for sale FHE for empty nesters with ideas for them to enjoy mondays together....

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  2. I love that last picture with Daddy.

    =)

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  3. I heard at church on Sunday that they originally wanted to call FHE, Family Unity Night. I wish it would have stayed that - it would have been FUN night!!

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  4. I love it! Those were some awesome moves!

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  5. This is awesome! :) I LOVE that you're sharing your FHE's with everyone.

    Your little ones are so cute. It made me cry when you said they love FHE so much. Enjoy it. My almost 14 year old and 11 year old DON'T anymore :( and it's a struggle to keep them interested and still make it fun for my 7 and 3 year old.... ahhh, but I know it's worth it.

    Thanks for making me smile, your little boy dances SO cute.

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  6. You have a beautiful blog here! I'm glad you shared the "About Me" page. It's always good to know the person behind the testimony. :-)

    Thanks for visiting my blog!

    Joyce DiPastena
    http://myldscorner.blogspot.com

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  7. I love this idea. I, too, am blessed with kids that love FHE. I have often wondered why we've been so lucky. I've also thought that I should post some of the things we do on the internet...but I haven't done it yet!

    The key is fun, and you guys have fun! The best part, as the children get older, you can see how FHE is a positive force in their lives.

    I'm grateful for FHE, and I might join your Tuesday FHE bandwagon...

    -chococatania

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  8. oh no its Gene Gene the dancing machine from The Gong Show...hilarious!

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  9. One of my favorite things about our Christensen men is their lack of inhibition. Monday night Evan challenged the kids to a Just Dance dance off. We had a couple of extras over and I'm not sure what they thought, but I love it.

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