It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

(Our Christmas wreath on our front door)

Remember how I love Christmas?! Well, here we are again already. I can't believe we are already a week into December!

This last weekend we had one of our girl's sleepovers (which was so fun again, by the way, with 10 girls under 12.) On the way to the sleepover I went to pick up the pizza and I had one of my nieces with me. We had to wait a few minutes for the pizza and while we were waiting, my cute 5 year old niece kept singing, "It's the most wonderful time of the year" over and over. We had been listening to Christmas music in the car and I guess that was what stuck with her! It was so sweet.

I have thought a lot about that phrase since then and how, for me, it really is "the most wonderful time of the year." I started memorizing "The Living Christ" last week and I love the phrasing about Christ in that document. I was thinking as I was memorizing this weekend the He is the reason it is the most wonderful time of the year.

As much as I love the Christmas music, the decorations, the parties, the food (especially the food...), the reason I love December is because it gives me so much more of an opportunity to ponder about Christ and His life and sacrifice. I love that all over are words like "joy," "peace," "hope," and "rejoice." All of those hopeful words are because of His life and what He did for all of us!

Here are the phrases that struck me this weekend as I was memorizing:

As we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ two millennia ago, we offer our testimony of the reality of His matchless life and the infinite virtue of His great atoning sacrifice…


He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son.

Aren't those beautiful phrases? I love the whole thing of course, but those were the ones that stood out to me this weekend as I was studying it. His life and sacrifice are the greatest gift we will ever receive!

I thought I would again include a few of the Christmas decorations at my house, mostly because I like to look back each year and see what my decorations looked like:

We have done a few fun Christmas things this year, but Jen has the pictures on her camera at work, so I will write about those later.

I did want to end with a few pictures I took on Friday when we went to the Festival of Trees:

This was one of my favorite trees, mostly because I loved that it has many of those wonderful words I was talking about before.

I thought this was the most inventive tree--a snowman Christmas tree!

This one reminded me of my sis-in-law Stace since it was all purple--this one is for you Stace!

So, this picture is lopsided, but I had to put it in because I loved this house, especially the entryway with the big candy canes!

Check out this gingerbread village. Can you imagine the hours it must have taken to make that!

I hope you have a wonderful December!

P.S. Look below for a post I wrote three weeks ago and never posted!



A Baptism and a Funeral

(Saturday, November 13, 2010)

I have had a few experiences this last week that gave me a chance to "let the solemnities of eternity rest upon [my] mind." (D&C 43:34)

The first one was a baptism. On Saturday November 6 my nephew Logan was baptized. It was such a nice day! Logan, who is normally very active, was unusually subdued that day. He really seemed to sense the significance of the day and that made it really special.

Jen and I went over to Seth and Karla's a little early and I read a book to the kids while we we waited. I love being an aunt!

Right before we left for the baptism we had Logan open up his present. Here he is holding the baptism book and "future missionary" tag we gave him. What a handsome boy!

Here are a few more pictures we took before the baptism started:

Logan with his parents and his Southern grandparents. (Doesn't my Mom look great? She has lost 100 lbs this year!)

Jen and I with Logan



After the pictures we went into the chapel and waited for the baptism to start. It was fun for us to sit again surrounded by our many nieces and nephews.

Logan was the only one being baptized in his ward, so he asked Jen to give the talk on Baptism and me to give the talk on the Holy Ghost.  That was a sweet experience. During my talk on the Holy Ghost, I noticed that Logan was attentive and nodding at things I said. It was so neat to see him listening so carefully!

After the baptism we had a luncheon at Seth and Karla's house. Overall it was a really nice day. I love the Spirit I feel at baptisms and the opportunity it gives me to reflect on the blessing of my membership in the church and the restored Gospel!

On a sad note, we also attended viewing on Sunday night and funeral on Monday for the mother of one of our good friends from High School. She passed away at the age of 61 from a brain aneurism. They lived in Orem in our old ward and stake, so even though it was a sad time, it was so nice to see so many wonderful people that we had grown up with.

It was also so nice to see my friend Tammy and her family again.  They have been good friends for many years, but we have not seen them as much lately.

We spent a lot of time with Tammy and her husband when her first two kids were little. That was before we had any nieces or nephews of her own, so we were really close to her kids. In fact, once when her daughter was very young, she asked Tammy if Jen and I were family! So cute!

Well, we got to see that daughter this weekend and she is now a beautiful 18 year old! It was so good to talk to her and see the wonderful young woman she has become. She was even wearing her Young Women Medallion. Here is a picture of her with Jen and I:

The picture turned out a little yellow, but I thought I would include it anyway. I can't believe one of my high school friends has a daughter that is so old! She is already taller than me!

The funeral the next day was so inspiring even though it was very sad. My friend Tammy is the oldest of nine kids and they had all the kids participate except one who is on a mission and one who has autism. As I sat watching those kids pay tribute to their wonderful mother I thought about how motherhood is the highest calling and best work we can do in this life! I thought of my own parents and the sacrifice they had made to raise nine kids. I also thought of how grateful I am for the gospel--even though it was such a sad time, each of the kids that spoke bore testimony that they knew she was happy and that they would see her again.

I was especially touched by one of the talks by her son. He talked about a journal entry by his mother that he had read after her death in preparation for his talk. In her journal, written a few years before her death, she wrote about how she had been pondering and studying about faith and that one night she woke up in the middle of the night with this thought: "Faith is the antidote to any trial." 

In the entry, she talked about how she thought at the time that antidote was an interesting word to be used in that context, but that as she looked it up later, she found it meant "something that relieves, prevents or counteracts injurious or unwanted effects." She talked about how she realized again that because of Christ's Atonement we would be protected and supported in trials. She then wrote this, "Our whole lives should be spent rejoicing because of our faith in Christ."

I thought that was so profound. Because of Christ, we can survive any trial! He truly is the antidote to any trial because He has experienced it! He knows how to "relieve, prevent and counteract" the injuries we receive from our trials. He truly is the great Healer of our Souls! I am so grateful for Him and what I learned about Him at that funeral.

 

I am grateful for the experiences we have in life to reflect on the "solemnities of eternity" and for what we what we have waiting for us in the eternities because of the sacrifice of Christ!