"I LOVE Conference!"

I've always loved General Conference, maybe because I've always loved traditions. I'm glad my parents made it a big deal in our home. We didn't have cable growing up, so we watched all four sessions at the church. On Saturday, we'd bring our buckets of legos and constructs and paper and pencils to the Relief Society room and draw and play while we listened. Then between sessions, we'd always get pizza for lunch. On Sundays, we'd watch it in the dark chapel. I remember trying to position myself under one of the spotlights on the side so I could draw the speakers while I listened. For one of the Sunday sessions, we'd go to my Grandma's chapel, where she always had little bags of treats for us. Later when I was in college, my siblings and I would drive to my Grandma's house, and sometimes spend the weekend up there to watch.Now that we have kids and are on our own, we're trying to figure out what traditions we want our kids to grow up with. I know our kids are still tiny, but it's still something I think about. I found a great idea in last month's Ensign that I used. Benjamin was so excited about the "game," and was saying all morning, "I LOVE Conference!" anxiously waiting for it to start. I just set out a bunch of objects that I knew would be key words and a few bowls of candy. Then Benjamin had to see if he could hear them say any of those words so he could have one. He listened for a little while, but mainly just worked on his puzzles and colored. The fact that he let us listen was enough for me! Peter was content to lay near us and play with toys. We were lucky naptime for both of them fell right during the second session, because I think our "game" had lost its magic by then. I'm interested to hear what others have done and what's worked.

The key words I used were Jesus, key, bread, Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, family, tree, prophet, rock, and temple. Paul and I were good listeners too and got lots of candy. :)