It is feeling a lot like Christmastime. The air is cooler as I drove around town today with my windows rolled down listening to Christmas music. It amazes me that as I have gotten older, the real reason for Christmas seems to get lost more and more. Of course, a lot of things seem to have gotten lost over the years. Things like, respect for others, kindness, an understanding that Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to someday return to live with him. That concept has a unique connection to the birth of our Savior, the one that was sent to prepare the way that we may return. However, there are a lot of other things going on in the world that seem to preclude the thought that we should act like we want to someday return to Father. There is no need to point them out as I am sure that you can think of a few. As for this years Christmas events there are a couple that stand out.
The first is how do you get a two year old to sit on the lap of an old person dressed in bright red. To you and I, we understand. However, to a two year old that has no idea who this old bearded person is that keeps sounding out ho-ho-ho because she has never seen Santa before in her life, it is a little traumatic. Elizabeth would not venture close to Santa for over a half hour. She wanted nothing to do with him. She had seen other children sit on his lap, but that was not enough. Finally, I took the Mini Mouse doll and put it on Santa’s lap. I asked Elizabeth if she wanted to join Mini Mouse and she said yes. I would conjecture that if it is safe for Mini, it is safe for Elizabeth.
The next Christmas event was out Christmas breakfast. We get up early and cook breakfast and the children show up to eat. This year it was about three pounds of bacon, biscuits and a modified version of dutch oven mountain man breakfast using twice as much sausage in the “hot” variety. Add in milk and orange juice and it is a morning feast. After breakfast we open gifts. Of course Emily wanted to get a “selfie” with her brothers. I found that it was an opportunity to take a picture of the four of them.
Christmas has been great this year. We had the children over an got a chance to travel and visit friends and relatives. I am just looking forward to a few days off to relax and possibly go for a hike. But for now, there is something from the kitchen calling. I will eat something sweet and contemplate the real mining of Christmas.
