Enjoying this Season

A friend of mine forwarded this link to me and it is a beautiful Christmas card.  Not religious -- just very sweet! Just follow the link:  http://ak.imgag.com/imgag/product/preview/flash/bws8Shell_fps24.swf?ihost=http://ak.imgag.com/imgag&brandldrPath=/product/full/el/&cardNum=/product/full/ap/3166187/graphic1

We've tried to make this week fun for our students. We're having extra assemblies (reptile man and our holiday sing-along), a door decorating contest, ginger bread houses are being created, and special treats are being shared in the classrooms.  Our staff adopts families from our school to make sure all of our kids have a nice Christmas.  (Some local churches adopt families as well.)  Our student community is pretty low income and so many of our students don't have much to look forward to without support from community members.  The kids are having fun and so are the adults.

When I first came to this school I started the tradition of having a sing along on the last hour of the last day before we go out on our 2 week break.  My music teacher was skeptical, but being a really good person, she did as I asked and created a wonderful powerpoint with words and pictures, synched to music for the kids to sing to.  The whole school (more than 600 kids) gather to sing fun holiday songs.  We sing all of the favorites like Frosty, Rudolph, and Jingle Bells.  We always end with Feliz Navidad which the kids love.  More than half of our students are from Mexico and Central America and they LOVE this song! I had no idea until the first time we sang it and I thought the roof was going to come off of the building!

I'm just enjoying the children and appreciating our teachers and their love and commitment to teaching and learning.  I'm looking forward to the time with my family as we celebrate and enjoy each other. In the meantime, we're having fun at school!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

This week I've finished decorating the house and most of the shopping is done.  (A few items still to pick up.) I'm grateful for the plenty I've been blessed with, spiritual plenty and temporal plenty. I'm missing Dad and I've had episodes of grieving but beneath the feelings of sorrow are the feelings of assurance that the Savior lives and has overcome death.  My gratitude deepens and grows as I go through this process.

This week a family in our ward lost their 26 year old son to the ravages of depression.(Depression is an illness.)  This fine young man took his own life, leaving a young, sweet wife behind. It makes my heart hurt to think of the agony his family is going through -- realizing that he was in such great pain that taking his own life seemed like the best option.  When our precious children are suffering so much it's total agony.  When they take this option -- it's worse -- as you realize how much they have suffered.  Our knowledge of the Atonement is the only thing that makes this bearable.

I was deeply moved last week in Relief Society when I was asked to read the story in Mark about the woman who had had an issue of blood for many years and just wanted to touch the garment of the Savior in order to be healed.  She was successful and the Savior acknowledged her great faith. I identified with her desire to be healed and her trust in the Savior that he could heal her.  Both times when I've had cancer I've experienced healing and through Priesthood blessings was assured I need not fear -- I would be healed.  I will never forget the feelings of relief and joy as I experienced the promised healing.  I realized that the healing came about because of faith in Christ. I've also experienced emotional and spiritual healing as I've faced the adversity of life. I've needed to be succored as only the Savior can succor. He's never let me down or left me alone.  He's always healed me. He hasn't always answered my pleas in the way I wished them to be answered and sometimes the answers resulted in deep loss but he's always succored and carried me.

Well, there's more baking and cleaning and shopping and wrapping to be done.There's visiting teaching to complete and friends to visit. There are Christmas songs to be practiced and meals to prepare.  More importantly, there is more pondering to do and more gratitude to express at this most wonderful time of the year.

Oh Now It's Christmas Time!

I LOVE Christmas! What's not to love? Christmas is a celebration of the greatest gift given to all of the world -- the Savior.  This year it is taking on an even deeper meaning to me than ever before because I know that it is because of this wonderful gift that I will see Dad again and that we enjoy an eternal relationship as father and daughter. I'm missing him so much but I'm grateful for the knowledge of why we're here and where we're headed.  I can't begin to express my gratitude for Dad's life and for his righteous example and selflessness.  He understood what it meant to follow the Savior and he lived the Gospel.

I'm loving the music, the decorations, the gift purchases, the planning, and I'm anticipating the fun! I'm reading the Four Gospels (a tradition I began in the last couple of years between Thanksgiving and Christmas). I find that reading about and pondering the life of Christ makes me more open and more receptive to the Spirit of Christmas -- which is the Spirit of Christ.

The First Presidency Devotional opened this season with a sweetness and focus that blesses our whole family.  I loved having the boys and Amy here for dinner and to watch the devotional. It felt warm and sweet and joyful to be here and listen to the living Prophet together as we were reminded about the real meaning of this wonderful, important season.