Conference Traditions

General Conference is this weekend and I'm excited. It's a time to recharge my spiritual batteries and spend a weekend pondering on things that I need to improve in my own life. Our family has a few conference traditions that make the weekend even more special.

• Today I spent the morning giving the house a good cleaning. It's hard for me to focus on the messages when I'm surrounded by clutter. I didn't spend a great deal of time doing extra chores. But the carpets are vacuumed, the hard floors are mopped, the furniture is dusted and the bathrooms are clean.
• Conference breakfast is usually a special treat. Sometimes we enjoy fruit cocktail, sometimes cinnamon rolls, and recently it's been Grandpa Jack's Life-Enhancing Breakfast Casserole.

What's that? You want to know what Grandpa Jack's Life-Enhancing Breakfast Casserole is? Well, the ingredient list doesn't sound too life enhancing. Eggs. Bacon. Hash Browns. Cheddar Cheese. But, it kept my Aunt Alice alive for nearly two years. It's about all she could eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner so it MUST have some magical quality.

• This year for Sunday's breakfast, we are going to do something NEW for Conference breakfast. I got this idea when I taught Laurel's last week. We are going to have a Waffle Bar. Think yummy homemade waffles with several toppings to choose from. Fresh strawberries. Milk chocolate chips. Whip Cream. Syrup. Doesn't it sound yummy?
• Another conference tradition is playing Conference Bingo. You can find these cards on a lot of other websites. I buy a large bag of M&M's and Skittles. Whenever a word is mentioned, you got to place an edible marker on your square. Once you have a BINGO, you get to eat that row or column and start again. My children loved this when they were younger and I've heard rumors that my married daughters STILL do this because after all..."It's TRADITION!"
• When Ron's at Priesthood, one of my FAVORITE traditions is having "Girl's Night In." We pull out the facial cleansers and masks, the foot scrubs, and the nail polish and sit around and pamper ourselves. We watch a movie. This year, it's going to be Tangled. We also usually indulge in hot fudge sundaes. However, with Emily's new health kick, we may be indulging in air popped popcorn this year.
  
• Besides playing Conference Bingo, we take notes. I star the speakers whose remarks especially touched me to make sure I remember what they talked about and study their words when the Conference issue of the Ensign comes out.
• We watch the programming between sessions of Conference on BYUTV. I may not always sit in the room, but I'm listening to what is on. Many times they show a great movie right after the afternoon sessions, too.
  

Conference Weekend! It comes twice a year and I'm always ready for it.