It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

We are FINALLY getting ready for Christmas around here - it came so FAST this year!!! Here is a quick look at our last couple of week of Christmas preparations!

Matt and the kiddos decorating the tree...The finished product :)McKinley was very proud of her Christmas Star!McKinley and her friend Marley were very excited to see Santa at Thanksgiving Point!Mason was not so sure about the whole idea :) Santa told McKinley that she would get a doll for Christmas, and of course a truck for Mason!

A quick visit with Santa's reindeer - Rudolph was sleeping in the stables that night, he couldn't come out to play :)

In Defense of Santa Claus

I know that there are many 'non-believers' out there in this grown-up fast-paced cynical world, but as for me and my house, we believe. I ran across this short story several years ago, and have always liked it's meaning.

"The Story of Saint Nicholas" - An excerpt from the article by Cory W. Creek

"... In late November or early December of 1977, I attended a Stake Conference where Elder LeGrand Richards spoke...because of the time of year, he happened to address the issue of Santa Claus. I listened intently because I was almost due to deliver our first child. What he said surprised me. He said that he thought Santa Claus putting out gifts for our children was a great invention. He explained that the children didn't need him, they would do just fine without him, it was the parents he said that needed Santa Claus. He said that it was our opportunity to learn to give anonymously to our own children when we expected no thank you or praise - a time when our only thoughts were on making them happy..."

And of course, my favorite tribute to good Old Saint Nick, it definitely bears repeating. :)

"Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

VIRGINIA O'HANLON

115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood. "

My mother always placed a statue on her piano at Christmastime. It depicted the Savior asleep in a manger with a humble Santa on bended knee bowing before his King with his hat over his heart in reverent worship. Believe what you may, but there is no denying the magic of the season; the desire to do something wonderful and kind annonymously for someone else JUST to make them happy. True, he has become commercialized, and can be over-used as bribery for misbehaving children, but what Santa truly represents is the spirit of giving. There may be one, there may be many, he may fly, run, crawl, or walk, but he is as we all should be, a humble servant of mankind, expecting nothing in return. Call me what you may, but even without the magic of presents or reindeer, I believe.

The Best Christmas Ever!

Yesterday in Relief Society we had a wonderful Christmas lesson. At one point during the lesson, we were asked to think about the best Christmas we ever had. I LOVE Christmas, and there have been many wonderful Christmases that I love to reflect on. I loved the magic of childhood Christmases, the intense awe of my first Christmas as a mother as I really felt what Mary felt as she held her newborn baby (and gave birth in a stable??? No epidural??? Pretty amazing! :). However, the Christmas that stands out from all the rest was a very simple one. There was nothing amazing, wonderful, or awe-inspiring about it - at least to anyone on the outside. It was my first year of college. I was in Provo, UT, experiencing my first actual winter (with SNOW!), I had no car, so I walked or took a bus everywhere that I went, I worked 3 jobs just to pay rent and save money for school, and I was far away from family or the traditions I had always known. I had no money to go home for Christmas, and besides I had to work on the 23rd and 26th, two days off was not enough time to go all the way home anyway. I had a wonderful room-mate from New York, who was in a similar situation and was not going home for Christmas. All of our other room-mates made their holiday plans and left for the Christmas break. So, it was my first time away from home and it was going to be just Shelly and I alone for Christmas. We decided that we didn't want to spend the holiday in our dirty old apartment, so we planned a quick (last-minute) camping trip to Moab. I had never been to Moab, but had heard it was a cool place to go. Shelly had been several times and just LOVED it. So, we loaded up our tent, Walmart sleeping bags, coats, Christmas Music tapes, and headed off to Moab early in the morning on December 24th. As we drove, we talked about everything under the sun, we listened to Christmas music (and some John Denver and The Eagles :), and began our adventure. I will admit that as we drove I couldn't help but think that this really wasn't Christmas at all. There were no presents (neither of us could afford to get each other gifts, we could barely afford the gas to get to Moab and back). There were no family parties. No lights, Christmas trees, sugar cookies, nothing that had always made Christmas seem, well, Christmasy. On the way down we stopped at a really cool frozen waterfall to climb around on it and take pictures (see photo below, sorry, these are old scanned photos, but you get the idea). Now, this should have been an indication that it was pretty cold, but we didn't really pick up on that. :) We arrived in Moab and went straight to the little market to buy food for our Christmas Eve dinner (the market was to be closed on Christmas Day, so we wanted to make sure that we could buy food and firewood). We walked the aisles planning our campfire delicacies - Mac & Cheese (the GOOD kind, we splurged and got the Velveeta rather than the usual Kraft Mac), cantaloupe, firewood, some Mrs. Fields' individually packaged chocolate chip cookies and oranges (we joked that this was so we would have something to open on Christmas), a bottle of Martinelli's, and of course some oatmeal for Christmas Morning breakfast. We made our purchases, loaded them into Shelly's little Toyota Corolla along with our meager camping gear, then headed to Arches National Park for a little bit of hiking. That Christmas Eve we hiked to the Delicate Arch (the famous one that is on the Utah license plates :) laughing and joking the whole way. When we arrived at the arch, there were (surprisingly :) not many people there, so we took our pictures, then found a quiet spot with a beautiful view of the landscape, and pulled out our scriptures and the oranges we had purchased that afternoon. In the solace of that quiet spot we read the Christmas story together. I have never before, and never since, felt the spirit of the Christmas story quite like that. I felt for Mary and Joseph, about to give birth to their first child on that Christmas Eve many centuries ago. They were in a strange place without the comforts of home, no friends or family to share the event, there were no twinkling lights save one special star to mark His birth, there were no ribbons, no Christmas parties, no shiny Christmas gifts. As I reflected then on all of the Christmases past, I realized that all of those things were wonderful, but also so distracting. The reason for the season IS the birth of the Savior of the World. He was born in a humble stable, with his loving parents and the guests' animals as the only witnesses to this miracle. We finished our orange slices and hiked back in silence as we pondered the events of the day. We arrived at our car near dark and began the drive out to Shelly's 'perfect spot' along the Green River. During our drive we began to realize just how cold it was, much colder that we had prepared for. We eventually decided to turn around and spend Christmas Eve in Moab's 'finest' (aka - cheapest) Super-8 Motel. We ate dinner at Denny's (since we didn't have a campfire) as we considered the situations of the families around us. We awoke Christmas Morning, wished each other a Merry Christmas, microwaved our oatmeal in the motel lobby, and headed out for a day of hiking. We hiked Canyonlands all Christmas Day together enjoying the beauty of nature and the wonderful gifts that have been put here on this earth for us to enjoy. Early that evening we drove out to our original camping spot, built a fire, and made our Mac & Cheese and cantaloupe Christmas Dinner - we opened our cookies for dessert - then drove home together to return to our usual routine of work, school, and sleep. There had been nothing that day to signify our traditional Christmases, but we both agreed that it had been the best Christmas ever. We have both gone on to have families, houses, and Christmas traditions of our own. I talked to her on the phone the other day for an hour as we discussed what we were planning to buy and do for Christmas this year. After we hung up, my mind wandered back to that Christmas that we spend together. I realized that I had again become distracted, that I often become consumed by the tree, decorations, lights, the perfect gift, treats, parties, and all of the traditions that - although wonderful - are not what Christmas is really about. When I really take the time to stop among the hustle and bustle of the season and reflect on what would make this Christmas perfect, I often wish that I could pack my family up without gifts, without distractions, and head to Moab for a simple Christmas together as a family to remember the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To this day I can't remember what I received for Christmas on any given year, but I will never forget that Christmas that I truly felt the spirit of Christmas in my heart. To quote Dr. Seuss' the How the Grinch Stole Christmas, "And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."

I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, as we celebrate the birth of our Savior!

If you have done it unto one of the least of these...

If you know me, you know that I LOVE Christmas! I love the traditions, and being part of Matt's family and their traditions has been so much fun! Traditionally, we all draw names among the adults for Christmas gifts so that each person buys for one other person (and there is a set spending limit :). We exchange gifts at the Christmas Eve party and watch each person open their gifts. It has always been a fun tradition, but this year it came early, and was even BETTER! Kim had the great idea to take the money that we would have spent on the name-drawing gifts and put it towards a service project. We all put in our money, then Kim used it to purchase fabric to make blankets to donate to Primary Children's Hospital. We all gathered together tonight to cut and tie blankets which we will deliver to the hospital before Christmas. Not only was this a better use of the money (we really didn't need anything this year), but it was a great opportunity to teach our children about service, and for them to realize and appreciate how blessed they are. As an added benefit, it gave us another excuse to spend time together as a family (which is always full of fun and laughs!). We all enjoyed it so much that we decided to make it a new family tradition! Thanks for organizing Kim! This is something that we will look forward to every year! The finished products - we can't wait to deliver them!

Christmas Around the World

We had the wonderful opportunity this year to attend the BYU Folk Dance team's Christmas Around the World performance. My cute niece Amanda performed in a really cool dance from the Philippines. We had so much fun together enjoying celebrations from cultures around the world.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sorry, this one is late, I haven't downloaded pictures for awhile! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Kim and Darryl's - thanks for hosting! We had so much fun spending time with family and giving thanks for all that we have been blessed with, we truly do feel so blessed (if you don't believe me, click here! :)

McKinley and Mason REALLY enjoyed their Thanksgiving Dinner!I tried to get a good photo of my favorite 'little' blessings, but this is the best we could manage!The GirlsThe BoysThree generations of football fans - like fathers like sons!By the way, it's just bottled Root Beer - I promise! Mason LOVES it! And of course, he LOVES hanging out with Grandpa!McKinley loves to read stories with Grandma!Mason and McKinley being super-silly with Grandma :)