Comfort Food Conference Weekend

Question: How many carbs and how much sugar can one family consume in one weekend? Answer: If it's General Conference weekend, A LOT.

Dan and I have tried to make General Conference weekend something our kids look forward to and enjoy. We try not to plan anything else for Saturday and Sunday so we can watch all of the sessions, which are broadcast on BYUTV. We set up the family room with beanbags, blankets, and comfy chairs, and we make lots of food. Cinnamon rolls, apple crisp, our favorite broccoli soup, delicious chips and dips, pork chops, banana pudding, etc. Oh, and don't forget the bag of candy to be used as (very effective) bribery. It's a good thing we don't eat like this all year, but our semi-annual comfort foods tradition is a lot of fun.

We try to have fun games and activities that help the kids to listen/stay occupied during Conference. The three youngest kids did Conference activity books and play-dough, and Joseph did a matching game with the apostle's pictures.
We discovered something new which really worked for us. We didn't make it up - I read about someone else doing this with their family. We printed off pictures of the 15 General Authorities and posted them around the fireplace, which is right below the TV. During each talk, Joseph tried to match one of the pictures with the speaker. He thought this was fun, but was really confused at first when the speakers were NOT wearing the same ties as their picture.

Spur of the moment, we decided to write down the speaker's main message and have Joseph post it next to the picture. This proved to be really helpful for all of us. We were able to look over the pictures and labels and see "themes" emerging in the Conference, and it has been easier to remember who spoke about what. Monday night for Family Night we sat in the front of the fireplace and talked about our favorite talks. In the past when we have tried to do a "Conference review" we struggled to remember much about specific talks/speakers. Having the visual cues seemed to really help us. So, this activity is a keeper! Bailey with her play-dough creation - a statue of Quentin L. Cook!
Aubrey with her pretty realistic-looking play-dough food.
Brandon made this Banana dessert for us, using the Ellefsen's recipe.

The "spiritual food" from Conference was even better. It was just what I needed. There were so many great messages. A few of my favorites: Elder Bednar's talk about strengthening our families, and Elder Holland's testimony about the Book of Mormon. The Tabernacle Choir's rendition of "O Divine Redeemer" on Sunday was gorgeous. That is one of my very favorite pieces of music, and I felt the spirit so strong when I listened to it. As a family, we interpreted an overall theme of Conference as being "God loves us so much and we should love others, especially our family, the same way."