Bright Lights and Jingle Bells

It's that time of year again when we rush around decorating our homes for the upcoming celebration, budget and bargain hunt to find the things - or at least some of the things - our loved ones would like for presents, baking things we tend to only make once a year and generally stressing ourselves out to make things "just right". But I ask you, how can we go wrong? Because we all know what it's really about. Sure, it's nice to give gifts to those in our lives we're fond of or those we absolutely adore. It's nice to see twinkling lights at the houses where they actually bother to put them up. It's like the icing on the cake when the ground is covered in the fluffy white-blue snow that so often melts around here in a day or two. I even enjoy the cold air - if it stays above freezing. But, yeah, we all know what it's really about. Need I say more?

I have a manger scene that was given to me many years ago, long before I was married. A friend who had divorced the man who had given it to her no longer wanted the reminder and offered it to me. It's a lovely set, bought from Avon. I found a stable that fit the figurines sizes well and put a little light up in the corner of it. There stands the angel watching over the babe while His mother and father look adoringly at Him. And a quietly laying cow and a donkey are nearby. There is the shepard boy holding a little lamb in his arms with his head bowed and the adult shepard (I always think of him as the boy's father) with his staff in his hand. Two sheep are lying together, one's head resting on the other. There are the three wise men and two camels (I wish there were three because I'm sort of OCD like that) and every evening when I get home from work,I click on the little light and take a moment to look upon the scene and remember what it's really all about.

Just a moment ago, my daughter asked me how long we'd had our artifical tree. I told her I thought about five years or so. Her response? "Wow. You have a lot of old things." Her father and I laughed. He said, "Are your referring to us?" Of course, she wasn't. Not this time, anyway. But I look around and she's right. i do have a lot of "old" things. But that comes from living for a while. For almost every item, there is a story and certainly there is a history. My history. There are the two table trees we have - two because my mother forgot she bought one for us the year before. But we bought some small, cute ornaments for them and one goes on the dining room table and one on the top of the entertainment cabinet with the Santa collection. There are the two large nutcracker Santa's in that collection that my husband bought for me when we were early in our marriage and I told him with the four Santa's I had, I'd like to start collecting them. There is my black Santa in his winter white Father Christmas clothing that I picked up because it was unique and beautiful and adds an interesting touch to my collection. There are the hand painted ones, a hand carved one, a bobble-head one (my mother again), the one my father gave me when they found out I was collecting them that has a reindeer at his side. There is even one I painted myself one year. Each of them has a story, a special meaning. Most were gifts. It is the same with my much, much smaller nutcracker collection. There is the first one I ever bought, from Tuesday Morning and the other 4 large and 3 small ones were gifts. There is the snowman collection, also pretty small, that is spread out around the house. There are all the ornaments we put on the tree, some of which Rachel remembers the stories of and tells them back to me now when we are decorating it.

Christmas for me is filled with many memories. I miss the times when all of my family lived here in Colorado and that was the one time of year we were all together at the same time. Oh, there were arguments, but there was also plenty of laughter and music and singing, too. My mother played piano and my older sister, guitar. We sang Christmas carols until our voices were hoarse. We attended midnight services at my older sister's Luthern church (well, the guys usually stayed home)because she wanted us to participate in her tradition, and we cooked and ate and opened presents Christmas Eve because "Santa can't make all the houses just on Christmas Day, so some of us get them early." Now, with my own family, we open them Christmas Day, though. This year, we've struggled with unemployment and now under employment and my extended family is scattered to the wind. We'll spend Christmas Day with my brother and his family, as well as his wife's family, and then the next day drive down to Colorado Springs (the Springs) to see my husband's family. But I won't see my ailing parents again this year or my younger sister and her family - all in Texas. I won't likely see my older sister who doesn't live that far away but in some ways is far away. I don't know if I'll hear from my other brother whom I so rarely speak with anymore. And why, you might ask? Hard feelings, grudges that hurt the bearer so much more than those they hold the grudge against, anger, spouses, distance, differences. Why does any family of siblings lose touch? But at Christmas, this seems so sad to me.

So, I focus on the true meaning of Christmas. I focus on Jesus Christ, His atonement, His true church and my belief in it, my immediate family and gratitude for all the goodness and kindness and the ward family that surrounds us not just this time of year, but every day.

May your Christmas and the coming New Year be filled with love of family and friends, kindness from and to each other, prosperity, and the simple knowledge that God lives, the Savior lives and guides us and His arms are open to us if we but ask it.

Merry Christmas.