Christmas Memories

Christmas was different this year but I didn't dwell on what was missing. There was so much to enjoy. I didn't think I would put up a tree or pull down the decorations, but I just had to. It just wasn't right not to enjoy the Christmas spirit.

I spent the week of Christmas with Tessa in Washington. It was great fun being there, running errands, playing with my two grandsons and feeling their excitement. Tessa collected all the materials so we could make this craft project together.









As soon we I got home, there was crazy preparation for Trenton's wedding the next weekend with menus, grocery shopping, beds to make, work to finish up so my time would be free. The time at the temple was so very special. I felt Jon's presence and happiness as we were gathered together as a family to witness Trenton and Jennifer's sealing.








I am so blessed and feel to thank my Heavenly Father every day. I quote from Jeffrey Holland in the January Ensign, "As a new year begins and we try to benefit from a proper view of what has gone before, I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives. To yearn to go back to a world that cannot be lived in now, to be perennially dissatisfied with present circumstances and have only dismal views of the future, and to miss the here and now and tomorrow because we are so trapped in the there and then and yesterday are some of the sins [we can be guilty of]." Yes, I have been guilty of such sins and resolve now to look to the bright future with faith and trust in the Lord, not dwelling on what could have been. I have so much and hope I can somehow give back to others what I have been given.