It's Christmas-time again

As we approach Christmas this year my heart lightens every day it gets closer. Last year Ryan and I set aside an evening to exchange gifts at our house, only a few short weeks before our wedding. This year we'll have our first real Christmas together. For the first time we can wake up together on Christmas morning, meander out to the tree, and open our presents.

Christmas is a traditional time of year. Everyone has some kind of tradition they follow, even if that's not to celebrate. It's marked by old movies, like White Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, The Polar Express, Elf, and Ryan's two favorites, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story. It's an acceptable time of year to bake everyday. Who am I kidding? I bake all year long.

Christmas is full of memories, good, bad, happy or sad. It's a magical time of year, even here where it's never a white Christmas and you might be dressed for 60 degree weather. I remember such excitement racing through me waking up on Christmas morning. My brothers and I would run downstairs to see what Santa left for us and how many cookies he ate. We'd spend our morning together as a family eating homemade biscuits, talking and laughing around the table. The morning in question may not have gone exactly like that, but rose colored glasses paint everything as a happy, stress-free memory.

Childhood memories of Christmas are important because the way your family celebrates it becomes the way you celebrate the holiday. This year, Ryan and I will have our first opportunity to begin blending our separate traditions into one. I haven't gotten the run-down of exactly how his family celebrated over the years, but I do know sausage balls were involved. Step one: done.

This is also a time of year to reflect, to take stock of how the year has gone, what things you want to change for the future, and what you're thankful for. Each Christmas I'm reminded of the people who aren't standing with us in the circle anymore to pray over the food. It saddens me for a moment to remember the vibrant lives and personalities they possessed, but I am equally joyful to know they are already with the Savior we're celebrating. This year we added two more names to the list. My dear, great Aunt's Lena and Jeannie joined my grandfather, "Papa," and my Aunt Toni.

I learned at my great Aunt Lena's visitation that she was a writer too. She wrote poems about and for her family. She wrote many of them, and someone brought a folder full of them for people to read. Flipping through the stack of poems, I came across one written for my Aunt Toni, one of my mother's sisters, who died tragically and far too young. It brought her back to life for a moment, describing her exactly as she was.

I'll keep these loved ones in my mind this Christmas, but I won't let it keep me from finding the joy in everything around me. The joy found in new traditions, new family, and the birth of the Savior. As you spend time with family and open your gifts this year, I hope you'll take some time to talk about the reason we have this holiday. I hope you'll read the story in the Bible found in Luke 2 describing the birth of Jesus, and I hope you truly understand what that means for you in your life.

Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:

"Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and peace on Earth to men of good will!"

Merry Christmas, readers!