It’s General Conference weekend, and that makes me smile for a number of reasons.
1) What a blessing it is that we can hear words of wisdom from a living prophet and apostles. So many talks are exactly what I need to hear, and provide the fortification I need to carry on in my roles as mother and wife.
2)Traditions! How we watch General Conference as a family centers on a few traditions that my children know and enjoy. Traditions are a good thing.
3)The entire weekend with my family! No other meetings for my husband or myself.
4)Good food to eat!
Here is a little peak at what General Conference weekend is like at our house.
In the week prior, we spend some time talking to our children about General Conference and the importance of it. We usually have a FHE lesson about it, and we review the names of the First Presidency and the 12 Apostles. I have a little set of flashcards with their pictures and we sing a little song (to the tune of 10 Little Indians) to help remember their names in order : Monson, Eyring, Uchtdorf, Packer, Perry, Nelson…We keep the cards up all week.
This week I came across some great printables from the Red Headed Hostess about General Conference. We talked about them at breakfast, and added them to our wall with the apostles pictures.
Conference Saturday at our house means crepes for breakfast! Today we ate ours with nutella, strawberries, bananas, powdered sugar, whipped cream, and coconut (well, some just had nutella, and some just had powdered sugar, but we had yummy options!).
We have some very nice friends who invited us to watch a session with them and have lunch with them afterward. That was lovely! We don’t require our children to watch all of the sessions of conference, so it was fun for them to have friends to play with outside when they were wiggly. And the ribs for lunch were fantastic! I wanted to bring something yummy as an appetizer to share, and when in doubt for a new recipe, you can’t go wrong with Our Best Bites. I browsed their index and discovered this Fresh Fruit Bruschetta with Honey Orange Cream.
It turned out really yummy and will definitely be added to my regular recipe list. I made mine today with strawberries, oranges, and pineapple, but you can really use any kind of fruit. My crazy kiddos who don’t eat fruits or veggies (okay, they eat a few, but that’s a topic for another day) were happy with the cinnamon toasted bread.
General Conference weekend also means activity packets. Hello, Sugardoodle for a plethora of options! I showed my children some of the options available and let them pick out what interested them. My 9-year-old picked the Mormon Cartoonist packet by Arie Van De Graaff. She is working on listening more and learning how to take notes. My 6-year-old picked the Ultimate General Conference packet, A to Z by Food Storage and Beyond. There are a lot of activities in there, and it should keep her occupied the entire weekend, plus more Sunday’s to come in the future. My 4-year-old didn’t pick a packet, since that is not really his thing. He played outside a lot today, and will most likely be occupied with cars and trains and legos.
The last step of preparation this morning involved removing the General Authority poster from the most recent conference Ensign. The children get to put a sticker on the picture of whoever is speaking.
I’ve got a few more tricks up my sleeve for General Conference Sunday. My children love the “Don’t Eat Pete” game, so when I saw this Prophet version by Cookie Nut Creations I had to download it. We will play it tomorrow (and raid our Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day candy stash in the process).
General Conference Sunday also means…cinnamon rolls made by my husband! Can’t wait!
This post has focused on more of the fun traditions and activities of General Conference. These are important and nice, but of course the most important thing is the messages we hear by the apostles and through the spirit. What a wonderful time!