On Christmas day there was one gift under the tree that neither Laura nor I knew about. Savannah had made a wonderful calendar for our family for 2010. I just had to share each of the months – it really warmed our hearts to see the work that she had put into this.
In case you can’t tell, that shell of the egg opens and closes to reveal the picture.
Things she is thankful for: Mom and Dad, Alyssa, Mariah, Isaac, and Bell (not sure of the reference there)
We have been encouraging the kids to think about what they would like to give to others at Christmas and to go beyond simply spending money or giving away toys they no longer want. The results have been very encouraging. I was most pleasantly surprised when Alyssa apparently decided that something she could give me would be to pack my lunch for me. Of course that does no good on Christmas day so she set to work Sunday evening and packed up the leftovers that I had been planning to take to work yesterday then she wrote me a note saying:
I hope you like your lunch. I packed it.
From Lyssa
To Dad
She left the note on top of the lunch in the fridge for me to find. It was a fabulous gift from a child with an amazing heart.
Living in a wonderfully snowy and hilly location, Laura and I volunteered our house as Laura’s family began planning a sledding excursion for the day after Christmas. While we were still in the planning stages I suggested to Laura that this might be something we could do every year.
Everyone decided to take us up on the offer and so our house was overflowing for most of the day. We had a great time hosting a relatively large event for the first time since we moved. Based on the reactions of everyone who came it was an enjoyable experience for all. Our house was close enough to the sledding hills for the group to have the flexibility necessary for our children of various ages and the hills were perfectly suited to the different needs of our varied age groups. We had a great meal before hand and plenty of time to socialize and drink hot chocolate after the sledding. It was perfect. Laura and I have decided that we are definitely going to do this every year. Now that we have had the experience once we will probably expand our invitation in future years to include more family and friends to share in the fun.
As I was sitting in Sacrament meeting today anticipating the start of our Christmas program the thought struck me of how appropriate it is that we should celebrate the birth of our Savior through so much music. It seems to me that we use music more at this season of the year than for any other celebration.
I think it is appropriate to use so much music for such an important celebration because music communicates with people emotionally and intellectually in a very powerful way. In fact, it may be the generous use of music that helps to keeps our cultural celebration of Christmas so strong. While so many other holidays turn into nothing more than a day off of work or an excuse to hold retail sales Christmas has never yet been relegated to such a bleak fate. Despite any complaints by some about “Happy holidays” or “x-mas” the fact is that I have never found any holiday that carried more spiritual meaning that Christmas. Whatever of secularism might be carried by the figure of Santa Claus we still can hardly go anywhere without some display of the religious side of the season whether we are seeing Menorah’s or nativities or hearing references to Bethlehem and wise men.
An objective analysis would undoubtedly show that Christmas carries more religious significance in our secular society than any other holiday (with the possibility that Easter might rival it for religious/spiritual content). I really would not be surprised if music played a large part in keeping so much of that meaning intact.
Here’s a fun rendition of a holiday favorite.
I’m guessing that it will be normal for me to post less often during the holidays. Hopefully 10 day breaks will not be normal.
Besides the obvious Christmas festivities and work, I have been doing very good with my running until this week. Sometime on Christmas day my right ankle began to hurt. I went running on the 26th and, although running was fine, I noticed that my ankle got worse. My Achilles tendon began to swell some so I have been staying off it for the last few days. I don’t know how it happened, but I have to assume that it is related to the running. Hopefully resting it this week will allow me to get back to training sooner than if I pushed harder. I’m going to give it a try with a short run tomorrow.
I’m still trying to find the balance of what I write about here. I was doing lots of candidate endorsements before the break, but I want a better balance. I have found that there are two new candidates who have filed with the FEC since I last wrote. I guess I had better get caught up again because it looks like we are likely to have even more in the coming weeks.
Last night I got a call from my Grandpa and we got to catch up. I had not talked to him for a few months as he has been busy with his new wife trying to keep up with their combined 48 grandchildren. I don’t know about her grandchildren, but I realized that of his 24 grandchildren half of them were married so we’re all getting spread out a bit.
I can only imagine how busy it would get trying to keep up with 48 grandchildren. Anyway, it was nice to catch up with him, that’s why I decided to do a little catching up here.