Christmas 2019

We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner and our annual kids nativity scene. We then watched a FANTASTIC new video about Christ's birth and the kids made cookies for Santa (except for Emmeline who fell asleep.) It took some of them FOREVER to go to bed, but finally they did.

Stella set the table for Christmas Eve dinner.

Making Cookies for Santa

  Look who our motion sensor camera app picked up!

I can't believe Christmas was already here and is now gone. We had such a wonderful Christmas and made beautiful memories. It really goes by too fast and that part makes me sad, but grateful, too.

I read this quote on one of my favorite blogs, NieNie Dialogues, and it really touched my heart. It's from Jeffrey R. Holland:

"My wife and children can testify that no one 

gets more giddy about the giving and receiving of presents than I do.

 But for that very reason, I, like you, need to remember the 

very plain scene, even the poverty, of a night devoid of tinsel 

or wrapping or goods of this world. 

Only when we see that single, sacred, unadorned object of our 

devotion—the Babe of Bethlehem—will we know why

 “’tis the season to be jolly” and why the giving of gifts is so appropriate.

I wonder what emotions Joseph might have had as he

 cleared away the dung and debris. I wonder if he felt the sting 

of tears as he hurriedly tried to find the 

cleanest straw and hold the animals back.

I’ve thought of Mary, too, this most favored mortal woman 

in the history of the world. It is here I stumble, here that

 I grasp for the feelings a mother has when she knows she has

 conceived a living soul, feels life quicken and grow within her womb, 

and carries a child to delivery. At such times fathers stand aside and watch,

 but mothers feel and never forget.

With only Joseph’s inexperienced assistance, she herself brought forth

 her firstborn son, wrapped him in the little clothes she had knowingly

 brought on her journey, and perhaps laid him on a pillow of hay. 

Then on both sides of the veil a heavenly host broke into song.

 “Glory to God in the highest,” they sang, “and on earth, peace 

among men of good will.” But except for heavenly witnesses,

 these three were alone: Joseph, Mary, the baby to be named Jesus.

Shepherds would soon arrive and, later, wise men from the East. 

Later yet the memory of that night would bring Santa

 Claus and Frosty and Rudolph—and all would be welcome. 

But first and forever there was just a little family, 

without toys or trees or tinsel. 

With a baby—that’s how Christmas began"