I love Christmas. I love everything about it, whether it's going to church and being in awe of Christ's blessings, baking cookies and spending too much time decorating them, shopping for or making gifts unique to each person, and (yes) spending lots of time with the many people whom I love. I can honestly say that I enjoy picking out my gifts for other people more than I enjoy getting gifts myself. For those of you who know me well, you know that I have a big, semi-complicated family situation. My family has already been tossing around Christmas plans in an effort to organize our many options. To give you a little taste of what I'm talking about, Ceej and I need to organize Christmas at mom's, dad's, mom's relatives, my step-dad's relatives, dad's relatives, Ceej's parents, Ceej's mom's relatives, Ceej's dad's relatives... whoa! Needless to say, there is no physical way that we can make it to everyone's, but we do as much as we can because we truly love to spend this amazing season with our amazing family. I'm writing this entry because I'm sure that I'm not the only person on earth who has to organize where to spend Christmas and with whom, and I know that it can get stressful. Whenever I feel a little drained at the thought of going from this Christmas celebration to that Christmas celebration (you know what I'm talking about), I remind myself how truly
blessed I am.
Christmas time is unfortunately a time that MANY people around the world feel more lonely, sad, or depressed than any other time of year. Here I am, having to organize my many Christmas' because I have so many people whom I love and who love me. I feel so humbled by this thought, and I wanted to share it because I know we all get so caught up in the party-planning, gift-giving, financial-strain of this season that we forget the true meaning, which is the birth of our Savior meant to be celebrated with family and friends.
Below is a link to an awesome video put together by some Stewards at Blackhawk, my church here in Madison. It really impacted me and the reasons why I'm anticipating the upcoming holidays, and I hope it does the same for you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU
Emily, thank you for leaving that sweet message on my blog. This summer we went home to visit my family and just randomly I thought...I hope Emily and Ceej ended up together. So I was happy to see your blog and that you are engaged!!! I'm sure it's old news, I'm a little out of the loop these days, but congratulations! That is so exciting!
ReplyDeleteI loved your post on Christmas; It defintely makes it so much better when we are able to remember and serve those that don't have all that we have. You are such a good person! Thanks again for leaving that message; I'm so glad you did.
WONDERFUL MESSAGE, WONDERFUL VIDEO... THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE REMINDER.......
ReplyDeleteyou are so right Em, It sure isnt the same as it used to be when Jesus celebrated. Christmas is for being together with family and the ones we love, it seems the older we get the more presents that are needed to buy for everyone, I hate it. I would love just to be together and play games and do just a couple "meaningful" gifts insted of having a ton of gifts and spending so much money, its rediculous..chris's family is way bigger then mine, we have 4 neices and nephews to buy for and its stressing me out.
ReplyDeleteGood note!!
holy moly I had some catching up to do on your blog!! I love your new layout, lookin good girl! Thanks for your great post on Christmas too!
ReplyDelete