Holiday Time

Who doesn't love this time of year? Parties, outings and dinners with friends, good mail every day, the opportunity to reflect on blessings and blessing others lives, pretty bows and sparkling lights, remembering a special, pivotal night in Bethlehem so many years ago.

I remember the magic that accompanied the month of December as a child. My mother was brilliant at Christmas. She did Christmas like every child hopes their mother would do Christmas. She did cookies and books, decor and lights, we went to Christmas plays and did the 12 Days of Christmas for those perhaps forgotten. She initiated the honored Nutcracker tradition that I still look forward to every year (a nutcracker is added to the family collection every Christmas, representative of something that happened in the family that year i.e. a missionary, a law student, a dad with a stroller etc.) She pulled these stories out of who's know where when she sensed any fleeting belief in Santa. I swear I believed in that man in red until I was about 14.

The magic of Christmas seems to have returned now that Wade and I have a child in our house. I find myself trying to recreate the Christmas's of my childhood for T. Wade and I have talked about family traditions we want to establish in our house, how we want to keep it Christ centered. We've come up with a few and I imagine they will evolve and be added to as our family grows. As for now, it seems just about right.

I will however have to drum up some of those stories so T will like Santa Claus someday. She knows Santa when she sees him and can say his name, she also know's he says, "Ohh, oh, oh."

We did dinner and the Laguna Niguel tree lighting with some friends last weekend. The ward Santa Breakfast, brunch in LA and a white elephant party this weekend, the hospital Gala next weekend. It's a busy time, but a great time.