Happy New Year!

Alas, I still have not written an entry about my wonderful Christmas, and now it is already New Year's Eve. My plan was to write a Christmas blog today so that I could write a New Year's blog tomorrow, but the day got away from me.  So, I will do a New Year's blog now and hopefully soon write about Christmas.

Today has been a nice day. We went to the temple this morning with my parents and my Uncle Joe to do some family names. It was a good session.  I love the peace and  beauty of the temple. I spent a lot of the time pondering about family and what a blessing it is in general and specifically how much I love my family.

After the temple we went over to my parents for awhile. It is nice to have a few days off to spend time with family this weekend.

I came home and had three more chapters in the Book of Mormon to read in order to finish it. In 2000, at the suggestion of a friend, I decided to try reading the Book of Mormon in a month. I did, and it was such a wonderful experience that I have done it every year since then. I usually do it earlier in the year, but this year I was reading the Old and New Testaments (finished the NT, only half way through the OT) so I didn't start until mid November. I am a little over my month, but I wanted to finish it before the end of the year. I finished a few minutes ago, so I barely squeaked by. I sure do love the Book of Mormon and I love reading it fast like that every year, because it gives me a different perspective.

So, here I am at 5:55, about to leave for a New Year's Eve party, and I thought I would do a quick post.

After I finished the Book of Mormon I spent a few minutes going through my journals and getting an overview of my year. Every New Year after I get home from the celebration, I write a journal entry about the year. So in preparation for that, I sat down for a minute and reviewed my year.

It was so wonderful to look back. Yes, there were hard things that happened this year, but they were far outweighed by the many good things that happened: sleepovers with my nieces and nephews; many fun family parties, including our family Olympics; summer vacations, trips to the canyon and Lagoon trips; going to two temple open houses and the wonderful opportunity to be at the Oquirrh Mountian Temple dedication; going to Conference; working at the temple and the wonderful experiece of being a coordinator, working with the sweet Primary kids in my calling, working as a nurse and having patients tell me I made a difference for them, teaching and training new nurses; all the fun things we did for the Holidays this year...

OK, I guess that is enough of a review, but as I reflected about my year, I just felt so grateful for my blessed life! New Year's Eve used to be so hard for me because I am not married, but Heavenly Father has taken that pain from me and given me sooo many compensatory blessings.

So, I end this year with gratitude for all that has happend this year and with excitment for what the New Year will bring. I want to be a better person in the New Year, be more willing to serve and love and help others.

Happy New Year!