Christmas Day Heaven

Do you remember waking on Christmas morning before it was even light outside, and shaking with excitement as you saw the front room that had been transformed into a sparkling, positively magical place? Boy, I do.

It was so wonderful watching Chompy open her presents, and love them…

even the clothes! What a good sport of a baby.

Jillian could hardly believe the lovely gifts she received from her dearest friend Sarah–all the way from England!

The bald kid was thrilled with his Russian vocabulary book. Pretty sure that’s going to come in handy–real soon.

Then our April and the “second wave” arrived. Sounds like the name of a band–don’t you think?

The babies were sweet to take turns and tried very hard to wait patiently until their turn to open a present…

but they never understood why we would ask them to come open something else–when they were happily playing with what they already had. Perhaps next year, we’ll take things a bit slower and maybe take a full week or so to unwrap. Don’t know if anyone will agree with me, but wouldn’t a couple of presents every day be great fun–instead of all at once?

Ok, it’s true. We did have our share of meltdowns here and there, simply because…

we didn’t know that a toy drum would be the hit of the land…and there are three kids…and one drum.

Do the math.

But the day was, by farrrr—a mystical, magical thing, with enough squeals and giggling to add a hundred years to this grammy’s heart.

“All of the music
All of the magic
All of the family home here with me.”

I do hope your Christmas was everything that brings you joy!  Thanks for being with us!

{ Paper Dolls }

By Norman D. Anderson

One Christmas, I was serving as a bishop in a Provo, Utah, ward. Because I had never had much success in selecting and buying clothes for my wife, I had, for the past several years, cut out a paper doll, wrapped a twenty-dollar bill around it like a dress, and hung it on the tree as a special gift for her. In those days, twenty dollars would buy a pretty nice dress.

But because of a tight budget this particular year, I had struggled for weeks to save the twenty dollars to hang on the tree.

The day before Christmas, my plans changed suddenly when a man needing help came by my office. I could not reach my financial clerk to obtain fast offering funds, so I gave the man five of my twenty dollars so he could go home for Christmas. I tucked the remaining fifteen dollars away in my wallet, hoping it would do for a dress.

A few minutes later, a man from my ward came into my office. He said, “Bishop, one of my home teaching families won’t have much for Christmas this year without help. I have fifteen dollars. If I could get a little more from somewhere, I could get a few things for them.”

I knew he needed his money as much as I needed mine, so I handed him my fifteen dollars and said a sad farewell to my wife’s Christmas dress.

My disappointment over the dress lightened when the children finally settled down on Christmas Eve and we had set out their gifts for them. But when my wife went to get ready for bed at midnight, I sat moping in a chair for a few minutes because my traditional gift hadn’t worked out.

Suddenly the thought came to me that I should look in my wallet again. There, where I had taken out the money to give to the home teacher, was fifteen dollars. I looked in another compartment and found another fifteen dollars. In the final compartment there was a twenty-dollar bill—making a total of fifty dollars that had not been there earlier!

I wept in gratitude as I cut out a paper doll and hung it on the tree.

{True Gifts}

“We all enjoy giving and receiving presents. But there is a difference between presents and gifts. The true gifts may be part of ourselves—giving of the riches of the heart and mind—and therefore more enduring and of far greater worth than presents bought at the store.

“Of course, among the greatest of gifts is the gift of love….

~James E. Faust


 

 

Happy Birthday April!

A Special Gift

This moment…

A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from our lives.

A simple, special, memorable moment.

A moment I want to pause, savor and keep close to my heart.

If you are inspired to do the same–leave us a link in the comments.

Happy weekend my dear friends.

{ Forever }

We love you Matt…

“If only we could look beyond the horizon of mortality into what awaits us beyond this life. Is it possible to imagine a more glorious future than the one prepared for us by our Heavenly Father? Because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we need not fear, for we will live forever, never to taste of death again.”

Dieter F. Uchtdorf