I love this time of year.
I love all the magic, memories, and peace that this time of year brings.
I am really big on remembering a lot of "little" details, I remember certain feelings during events that make me long for those same "little" detailed feelings.
There has been a lot of memorable moments that have happened during this time of year in my life. Carson and I got married,
my Grandpa passed away,
babies being born.
My wedding day, it was such a magical day.
I remember the peace of being in the Temple with my new husband,
watching it snow while we were in the hotel that night.
I remember sitting in our room across from the SLC Temple that very first night and at that point that is when Carson and I started talking about how we wanted our family to be.
I was finally big,
I was finally living what I had dreamed about for so long.
It was the start of our lives together, a little bit more of a roller coaster ride then I thought,
but now 9 years later and couldn’t ask for anything more!
Seven years ago my Grandpa Carlson passed away early Christmas morning.
I remember the phone call bright and early from my Dad telling me what had happened.
I remember crying,
I remember Carson hugging me and at the time 1 year old Marcus.
I remember feeling sad that Marcus and our baby #2 (I was 3 ½ months pregnant) wouldn’t know my Grandpa.
But I also remember the peace that our family had that day. My Grandpa was no longer uncomfortable; he was in a very peaceful place.
I remember the snow that we had, we truly believed that we had so much snow because my Grandpa wanted to give us something that he loved, which was a lot of snow!
It was a time to reflect on family, life, and death. The presents didn’t matter; it was family, our Savior, the gift of life, and the knowing of forever families.
Then there was Olivia’s birth, four years ago. The days leading up to Christmas didn’t seem really peaceful, we had all of her health issues we were dealing with, but the day of Christmas was a wonderful day.
It was the first year during my whole life of what I could remember that we were able to stay home and enjoy Christmas as a family.
There was no running around in the morning to hurry and get this done,
so we could run to the next place and hurry there,
so we could move on,
and so on
and so on!
At that point on Carson and I knew what tradition we wanted to set, Christmas day was for our little family!
Now December of ’09 is very fresh on my mind.
We had unexpected heart ache days before December began which could have made it a very upsetting month because Carson and I had no certainty of what life was to bring. But on the other hand we were getting ready to welcome Baby #4 into our home.
We focused on the latter and enjoyed ourselves to the fullest!
We had everything purchased by the first few days of the month.
The house was decorated.
The neighborhood and friends gifts were delivered.
The house was clean to perfection.
It was peaceful.
It was relaxing.
Then the 11 was here and we added little Payton James to our family!
I don’t know if you could ever ask for a better Christmas. It doesn’t become more magical then that, having a brand new baby on Christmas was such a wonderful feeling.
We flash forward to the present and we will try to do things that can bring us that peace and magic feeling.
The presents are bought,
the house is decorated,
the house is a work in progress of being cleaned to perfection,
but I have done as much as I can to simplify my life so I can enjoy the holiday season to the fullest.
My heart is full for all of the blessings I have been blessed with.
I am so thankful for my kids,
for their smiles,
for the chance that I have been given to hold them and kiss them daily.
We are enjoying our daily Christmas story before bedtime,
for the chance of driving around looking at lights,
our daily piece of chocolate to count down on our Advent calendar,
and we look forward to crossing off our list of must do’s for the holiday season.
I look forward to talking about baby Jesus more and hoping that these are the things that my kids will always remember.
Those “little”
feelings
that will always help them to realize,
how nice it is to be together as a family.
The wonderful blessing that we have been given and to remember it truly doesn’t get any better then this!
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