Christmas

This Christmas season has been even busier than normal.

(How is that possible, you ask? I. Don't. Know. It's hard to believe. But with The Forgotten Carols, various family parties, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert - where Brans and I got to manage the signing, and stood next to Tom Brokaw and Alfie Bow all night - yes... We're super cool. And yes we got their autographs. And yes we got our picture taken with them. See? Proof. Not super flattering proof, but proof nonetheless - it's been a super busy month.)

But, the Holiday season is my favorite time of year - even with all the hustle and bustle.

I love our house at Christmas time.
I love the smell of a fresh cut tree.
I love the roar of the fireplace.
I love the sound of Christmas music playing nonstop.
I love the lights.
I love the colors.
I love the decorations.

This year, I decided to be ambitious, and I made our stockings. Aren't they cute?

(After all, this is our fifth Christmas since we've been married. You'd think I would have been more on the ball by now. But I've been busy. So I  f i n a l l y just dedicated two hours and got it done. And Now our fireplace feels even more Christmasy.)

As part of our ward Christmas program, our choir director asked me to perform the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah.

Now, I'm not bragging when I say I rarely have to practice to play in church. Not that I'm amazing, but I've been playing the piano and the organ in church since I was 11 and 13, respectively.

But this - the HALLELUJAH CHORUS - was hard. SO hard. I had a solid 4 hour practice session the day before the program, and got it down to an acceptable level. (read: not perfect, but good enough.)

I joked with our choir director - who just so happens to also be the surgeon who fixed my hands last year - that he was so willing to do my surgery so that this year, he could throw the Hallelujah Chorus at me. He just laughed. A little too hard, if you ask me.

But in all honesty, I was grateful for the challenge and super grateful for the support from an awesome family. Brans is the best organ-stop-determining-page-turning-husband of all. And Gram has been telling me for months that she has faith in me - which means a lot coming from your piano teacher. My parents and siblings came to show their love and support, and stood to sing the Hallelujah Chorus with the rest of the choir and congregation. If you know my family, you're aware at the heavy, heavy musical talent that runs through the whole fam. So, of course, they knew the parts and every word. And people in our ward keep turning and looking at them, jaws dropped, like "Who are these people?" So awesome.

 

And every year, I dream and wish and hope for a white Christmas. There's just something so magical about fresh snow on Christmas. It's so clean and beautiful. It's the cherry on top of Christmas Spirit for me. I love it. So, today, Christmas Eve, I woke up to wet, muddy brown grass. But by about 3pm, we had about 5 inches of snow. Heaven. Merry Christmas to me!

I love Christmastime. I love celebrating the birth of our Savior. That's what it's really about. It's about Mary and Joseph, and that perfect little baby.

Christmas is about Christ. 

More Christ in our lives. 

More Christ in our homes. 

More Christ in all that we do.

So, Merry Christmas.

And we wish you a truly joyous season, with a greater focus on our Savior, and a renewed conviction to be more like him.

My family has a traditional Christmas song that we sing every year. It was written by my great-great-great grandfather, George Eyre. Every Christmas morning, back in his time, the whole family would get on a party line and sing this song to each other first thing.

So from my family to yours:

We wish you Merry Christmas

A Merry Christmas all.

May the richest blessings

Ever on ye fall.

May each year be brighter

Than the year before--

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas morn!

M'ry m'ry m'ry m'ry

M'ry m'ry m'ry m'ry

M'ry Merry Christmas all!

M'ry m'ry m'ry m'ry

M'ry m'ry m'ry m'ry

M'ry Merry Christmas all!

Merry Christmas.