Christmas Eve 2010

As I get older I realize how easy it is to get caught up in all the commercalism of Christmas. With trying to get all the "have to's" done it can seem more like extra work than celebrating the birth of our Savior. Some years it is very easy for me to have the "Spirit of Christmas" right from the start. Other years I have a harder time trying to get that special feeling. This started out as one of those years. I would get glimpses of it here and there, but the main special feeling was alluding me.
Scott says when Christmas gets like that it is because we don't associate the symbols of Christmas for what they should be. If every time we saw Christmas lights we think the Star of Bethlehem, and every time we saw a candy cane of the color red we think of shepherds and Christ... Then it is easy to have the Spirit with you.
I don't know if I am that hard headed, spacey, or have rowdy kids that make it hard for that still small voice (feeling) to be heard (or felt) but I couldn't get the Spirit to stick for very long. That was until our annual Christmas Eve program. The whole family was there and everyone participated. The kids did a good job, and the music and other stories/comments were just the thing I needed.

I could probably draw a parallel with it not actually being Christmas until the Christ child was born. . . I couldn't feel that amazing Spirit until our "Christ Child was born" Either way I was glad to have that feeling, and another testimony that I know Christ came to this earth for us.