Remembering Christmas

SHORT HOLIDAY SEASON.  Somehow this holiday season has flown by us.  We did, actually, have a shorter number of days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.  But regardless the number of days, I seem to always have the best intentions.  After a couple of weeks of intense preparation and scurrying, decorations and gift-planning, my head continues to spin and my enthusiasm begins to wane.

CARDS and PARTIES. So it is with this season!  Our Christmas cards are created, addressed, and sent, and most gifts have been purchased and mailed out.  We have baked some, and gone to a few Christmas parties and dinners.  Lots of socializing and good people.

Here are Kara and Teresa dancing with the young women at church: they introduced Santa after our dinner.

  Probably the only time you'll see Teresa doing something like this...and of course they laughed at themselves most of the time.

Sunday was our Christmas program at church, and the music was heavenly.  It really was a beautiful program.

Teresa carves out a big ice chunk and ... tosses it!

SNOW.  That, of course, was mixed in with our first snowstorm last weekend...my body is groaning after shoveling for 2 hours on Sunday morning.  The whole family pitched in, and Frank shoveled here in addition to helping clear walks over at the church.

Kara shovels in front of the house

UNCLE. Just this morning I was reminded of a gift that we forgot to purchase for someone, and I shook my head.  "I'm just about ready to call "Uncle" with the season," I complained to no one in particular, and everyone, at the same time.  "Enough already, are we really going to buy more junk just so people will have something to open on Christmas morning?" (Sorry, that may have been the Scrooge coming out...although I do like to think of myself as "pragmatic.")

DRIVING PLANS.  We will be traveling for Christmas this year.  David, who is taking finals at BYU this week, will fly home on Saturday.  Our family will drive to Williamsburg, VA.  (Angela is also coming with us!  She's our "adopted daughter/friend" who went to the same high school as David and Teresa.  She graduated last spring.  She's attending college here in Massachusetts, and her parents have now moved back to Taiwan.  She's awesome.)  We asked her if she had been to Williamsburg, and she had not. So she's coming too.  We will meet up with Frank's parents (driving from Florida) and his sister Dana, and her kids (driving from northern Virginia).  We wish Pam could also be there, with Mandy and Eric.  Not this time! :(

REAL CHRISTMAS.  Tonight we tried to do a few 'real' Christmas things.

1) We took some treats to our neighbors, and chatted some as we delivered them.  We have really great neighbors.  People just get busy and we don't see each other very often.

2) We read some scriptures as a family, and listened to some neat Christmas stories that made me cry.  (Since I'm a mom, it doesn't take TOO much to make me cry.  But that's okay.)

3) And of course, in December we receive cards and photos from other family friends.  It's a fun time to reminisce and catch up on their lives for the past year.

I still think the gifting is over-done.  I still think Christmas is too much scurrying in too little time.  But tonight I felt what some people call the "Christmas Spirit."  I remembered that Christmas is my favorite holiday, and I remembered that I love Christmas because of good people with good hearts.

I think we'll keep up the gift-giving.  It makes you feel good inside.  I think visiting with friends, and remembering that you're there for each other is another good way to feel good inside.

I can't wait for David to come home Saturday! 

And if the weather is bleak and it takes us WAY too long to drive to Virginia, then, at least we'll have each other for company. :)

Kari