This has been my fourth Christmas without snow. Many people I am sure don't care. Many have never had a white Christmas or don't care about a white Christmas. It's just I've had almost 20 white Christmases, snow is almost a tradition for me.
It has been tradition to go to my mom's cousin's cookie party. Tradition to drive around and look at Christmas lights strung beautifully on houses and at the local zoo. There is pumpkin roll and sugar cookies and putting up the tree with all our Christmas ornaments given to us through the years. I loved listening to Kenny G after the tree was put up, the living room lights turned off and the Christmas tree is the only source of light. It's shining like the stars at night, reminding me of the star that led the Wise Men to the baby Christ. Christmas Eve spent at my grandparents eating food, telling the kids to stop being so crazy or fighting, and laughing till our sides are sore, then we go home and go to bed exhausted.
Christmas morning we open presents in our pajamas, eat cookies and milk for breakfast. The living room is a mess, toys everywhere. Snow is covering everything outside. It's cold, sometimes freezing some years, but we are warm inside the house. The spirit of Christmas could be felt from Thanksgiving until the new year when the tree comes down.
For the past few years Christmas hasn't been the same. Family move, people move on, I am in places without family and snow. I am the one making the pumpkin rolls, no cookie parties anymore.
Last year I was on my mission during Christmas. I was without family, but I still felt the Christmas spirit. I talked about my Savior, taught about him to people who did not know of him. That is all what my Christmas was about. It wasn't about presents, decorations, Christmas TV specials. It was about the original meaning of Christmas.
This year was away from home once again, but not away with family. Yet, it still didn't feel the same. There wasn't many Christmas traditions I got to do. I didn't decorate a tree, make cookies or even a pumpkin roll. We didn't drive around looking at lights. Christmas Eve was spent at a casino theatre watching a musical and a very expensive restaurant with the smell of smoke everywhere. We did find some snow earlier that day, but had to drive a good distance in the mountains to find it and we went sledding for a bit. But I still miss looking out the window of where I am staying and not seeing white, but rocks instead.
What brought some of the feeling of Christmas back some was a phone call and long conversation with some one not near in location but very dear to me. We talked about Christmas memories and our ideas of what Christmas is to us. Night of Christmas we began to read in the Book of Luke in the New Testament, THE Christmas Story. We didn't finish reading the story because we got lost in discussion about some of the wording in the verses.
Bringing me into the scriptures and talking about "The First Noel" brought back Christmas.
It has been tradition to go to my mom's cousin's cookie party. Tradition to drive around and look at Christmas lights strung beautifully on houses and at the local zoo. There is pumpkin roll and sugar cookies and putting up the tree with all our Christmas ornaments given to us through the years. I loved listening to Kenny G after the tree was put up, the living room lights turned off and the Christmas tree is the only source of light. It's shining like the stars at night, reminding me of the star that led the Wise Men to the baby Christ. Christmas Eve spent at my grandparents eating food, telling the kids to stop being so crazy or fighting, and laughing till our sides are sore, then we go home and go to bed exhausted.
Christmas morning we open presents in our pajamas, eat cookies and milk for breakfast. The living room is a mess, toys everywhere. Snow is covering everything outside. It's cold, sometimes freezing some years, but we are warm inside the house. The spirit of Christmas could be felt from Thanksgiving until the new year when the tree comes down.
For the past few years Christmas hasn't been the same. Family move, people move on, I am in places without family and snow. I am the one making the pumpkin rolls, no cookie parties anymore.
Last year I was on my mission during Christmas. I was without family, but I still felt the Christmas spirit. I talked about my Savior, taught about him to people who did not know of him. That is all what my Christmas was about. It wasn't about presents, decorations, Christmas TV specials. It was about the original meaning of Christmas.
This year was away from home once again, but not away with family. Yet, it still didn't feel the same. There wasn't many Christmas traditions I got to do. I didn't decorate a tree, make cookies or even a pumpkin roll. We didn't drive around looking at lights. Christmas Eve was spent at a casino theatre watching a musical and a very expensive restaurant with the smell of smoke everywhere. We did find some snow earlier that day, but had to drive a good distance in the mountains to find it and we went sledding for a bit. But I still miss looking out the window of where I am staying and not seeing white, but rocks instead.
What brought some of the feeling of Christmas back some was a phone call and long conversation with some one not near in location but very dear to me. We talked about Christmas memories and our ideas of what Christmas is to us. Night of Christmas we began to read in the Book of Luke in the New Testament, THE Christmas Story. We didn't finish reading the story because we got lost in discussion about some of the wording in the verses.
Bringing me into the scriptures and talking about "The First Noel" brought back Christmas.
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