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!