'Tis the Season...

Sometimes I get quite overwhelmed by the Holidays. All of the work that is involved in one birthday party. Brandon and I have already made our Christmas buying lists, fretted over our budget, argued about how much to get the kids, and planned how we can out-do our neighbors with decorations. We're pretty much done with all of the planning. All we have to do now is decorate, buy the gifts, get everyone to smile at the same time for one Christmas photo and think about Jesus for a second before we are on to the New Year... Sometimes it goes just like that, doesn't it? I like to try to get as much of that "stuff" out of the way so that we can focus more of our time on our Savior's birth. I am so grateful for this time of the year where I take more time to reflect on how closely I follow my Savior. I love that Christmas follows Thanksgiving. It's like we just had a warm-up for gratitude and now it's time for the big test. I hope that I pass. I've studied quite a bit this year and I think I know what I'm doing, but I don't want to be over confident. I've had many great examples of charity and gratitude in my life. I hope that I can live what I have learned. My big thing this year is trying to come up with a good way to teach the children to think about Jesus when they think about Christmas. I've had some good suggestion. We might do the idea where you have an empty manger and every good deed that your children do will get one piece of "hay" placed in the manger and you are trying to make a good bed for baby Jesus. We do always say a prayer on Christmas morning before they are allowed to touch the gifts. That is a tradition that I love, watching my beautiful children, with enough excitement to make them burst, bow their heads and kneel in prayer with appreciation for Our Savior. That is my favorite moment of Christmas! -Pam_