Family Night...

I was counceling with my Strong Silent Mysterious Man about what we should address at Family Night. He said "Why don't we review the conference talks from this weekend"?

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Okay that would have been a great idea, except my plan this conference weekend was to listen and feel the spirit of the messages, work on my card making, and wait until the church magazine came out to read all the talk over and study them more at that time.

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So I did not take any notes! Not one! Not all weekend, did I have any notes!!!

I am horrible at remembering talks unless I take notes.

How would I hold an entire Family Lesson on something I couldn't remember?

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I was checking my email yesterday and opened the weekly letter from our Nephew the Missionary in Chile... and he had watched all the sessions of conference and his entire letter summarized some of his favorite talks.

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What a blessing! I was so grateful to have his notes to be able to review some of the talks with my family!!! One of his favorite talks, was on Unity! I read his words, and remembered some of my thoughts and feelings during that talk. So we had a lesson on Family Unity, and what ways we could be more united in our Family.

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For an activity I told the boys that we would be unified in a basket of white clothes that didn't get folded earlier in the day! They laughed at first and when I didn't they murmerrd and then I used that as an object lesson on how we could be better unified by coming together not only in the fun things, but in chores and household duties too!

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Then we were trying to come up with a fun game to play together... I suggested a friendly competition of Guitar Hero, the teenager wanted to play Last Word, and my Strong Silent Mysterious Man wanted to play Rook.

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So much for Unity!

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We finally decided to play Rook, the cards were dealt, I had an almost perfect hand and began to bid on it, the teenager raises the bid up so high, I figured he must have had the cards I was missing in my hand to make it perfect, so I let him have the bid. During the course of the hand, it became evident, he did not have a good hand, but was only keeping me from getting the bid.

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Okay, I can play that game. So the next hand, the cards were dealt, my hand wasn't as good as the last one, but still bid worthy... so I began bidding, my strong silent man was bidding really strong, so I backed out. And the teenager ran the bid up and took it again.

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As the cards began to play, it was very evident that the teenager was just throwing cards down willy nilly, and not really trying to be competitive and play the game right.

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My strong silent mysterious man put his cards on the table, walked away. I followed suite, explaining to the teenager, how unfair and selfish that was of him. And we left him sitting at the table.

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Everyone got their treat and went to watch football. Nobody was mad. But it sure wasn't the Unity I dream of for Family Night. I went in my bedroom and watch girly tv, and folded the laundry. Before too long, it was time for family scriptures and prayer and off to bed. Everyone had forgotten by that time, and all was well. There was not any aggression or tension.

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I am not sure how I could have done things differently. maybe not making a big deal when the teenager is ornery is the best way... just walk away (I almost never do that, I am always up for duking it out). Maybe I could use all of this for another lesson for another time. Not really thinking I want to re-live it again though. Maybe it was just something I needed to learn. How to walk away and be quiet.

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I guess some Family Nights just go better than others. I am not sure what to really think of this one, but I am glad it is over. I think I will give the lesson to someone else next week, and see how they do with it. I can't wait til next week! Oh Boy!