Christmas memories

Lately, I have been reminicing about so many christmas memories. I was trying to think back to my earliest memory of Christmas as a kid and it's got to be when our family moved to Fruit Heights when I was 6 and we were staying in a motel behind Cherry Hills (it is still there but I think they are apartments now) until my parents bought a home in Farmington. We were living there during the christmas holiday and I remember just a few things, visiting my grandparents in American Fork and then some sort of Slide I think that my brother got from Santa.

I really remember the following christmas. Our family had moved back to Alaska after living in Utah for 8 months. I really wanted a pair of roller skates and I got them. I wore them all over the house on carpet since there was alot of snow outside. My sister got a desk which we played school with all the time. My grandma Smith sent matching red pajamas which she made and embroidered our names on. I loved them. But this was the year that my curious eyes discovered half of my gifts and well...

My siblings tease me all the time but my Dad let me pass out the gifts as long as I can remember to everyone one at a time. I liked how we all picked a spot the night before in the living room where we were going to sit to open gifts. This was something I really liked to do. I did this up until college. I remember coming home to Alaska after my first semester at Ricks College and my dad asking me to pass out the gifts. I felt right at home again. You know I can only remember a few things I got for Christmas which is sad but more then anything I just remember my mom decorating the house with lots of christmas decorations and I love that. I remember whenever we got christmas cards my mom taped them to the door and so now I do this. I loved Christmas eve at the Paynes home. It was always fun to make the drive up the hillside and to jump on their indoor trampoline and eat dinner with them. They were family to us. When we were older we would go skiing on Christmas day and that was always fun.

I miss how all 6 of us siblings would sleep in the same room on Christmas eve. I wouldn't exactly call it sleeping we were so excitted and so hyper it would take us forever to fall asleep and just as one of us was about to fall asleep someone would yell, I think I hear Santa on our roof and we would all jump up and look outside.I also miss all the snow we got in Alaska (but i am starting to feel at home with the amount of snow storms we are getting here).

Another great christmas memory was when I was on my mission in Litchfield, Illinois. I was able to focus on Christ more then ever and not focus on the commercial part of christmas. I was serving with Sister Dillenbach, who has since passed on. She made the holidays so much fun. We had just moved into the area and were trying to get to know the members so it was more of a service month. It was hard to be away from home during the holidays yet it was one of my best Christmas's ever. We bought a tree and some people donated lights to us. We used pop cans as our decorations along with candy canes. Gotta love the mission! I remember our Christmas eve and we both shared and did our family traditions such as write a letter to baby Jesus expressing our gratitude for his birth and atonement and expressed things we would work on through out the year as our gift to him. We made cookies and drank egg nog. We even opened one gift since this is something we both did in our families on Christmas Eve. We also read the Christmas story and shared our testimonies. I am truly grateful for this opportunity I had to serve a mission and to experience a christmas out in the field. It was wonderful to serve and to help bring Christ and the gospel into many people's lives.

Ahh and of course our (mine and Brett's) first christmas together. How simple it was back then. We had been married only a few months and didn't have a whole lot of money since we were both in school. I do remember how blessed we felt because we were living in Brett's sister's home house sitting while they were trying to sell it and we were able to save money. How fun it was to pick out a real tree and decorate it with random childhood ornaments. It was great to have a break from school but still worked like crazy. I also remembered we had received a belated wedding card with money from my Uncle and we were just thrilled! But when I look back at this time I remember the best christmas gift I ever got was when Brett woke up early Christmas morning and made breakfast for me and brought it to me in bed. I will always cherish this simple gift. Now whenever Brett asks for ideas or hints for Christmas I just tell him Breakfast in bed.

We enjoy all the family christmas parties and eating and laughing together. We love attending christmas concerts and especially seeing the lights at Temple Square. Now that we have children Christmas time is so much fun and it feels so magical. They really bring the spirit of Christmas into our home and we love teaching them about the true meaning of Christmas and they understand. We also love to see their eyes light up when they see Santa at the store or hear the excitement in their voices as they talk about presents and making cookies for santa and leaving carrotts out for the reindeers (that is Teagan saying that).

May you all have a very Merry Christmas and enjoy your family traditions. These memories are priceless.