Top Ten

Why I Love Christmas:

1. Lights on houses. It makes the shorter days worth it, because I love driving around when houses are all lit up and festive. I wish people would keep them up year-round.

2. Christmas cookies and treats. Yum. New favorite: my mom turned my on to these peppermint shortbread cookies that she heard about from my sister, who read about them on her friend's blog (I love the world wide web).

3. Christmas decorations. My house looks so fun inside. The rest of the year, I am a horrible decorator. OK, that's not exactly true, I'm just a non-decorator. Once Christmas is over, my house goes back to boring, boring, boring. For a few fun weeks, however, I have decorations up.

4. Watching people give service, quietly, not for recognition from anyone else, but out of love and selflessness.

5. Telling Wyatt about the Nativity story. Pictures and creches with baby Jesus are a little confusing, though. Wyatt keeps calling him "Baby Micah." :) But he really likes hearing the story.

6. Telling Wyatt about Santa Claus, and the rest of Christmas. Wyatt loves Santa, although he is (not-that-surprisingly) much more interested in the reindeer. We got a stuffed Santa at Walgreens, and he has been carrying it around everywhere. But when we start talking about Santa, he always interrupts and asks about the reindeer.

7. Spending time with family and friends. It can get kind of hectic, but so worth it.

8. Buying gifts for those I love. And the rest you. ;)

9. Christmas music. I tune in to it as soon after Halloween as possible. If you know me at all, you know I am ALWAYS singing, and the Christmas season just makes me that much more obnoxious.

9a. Hearing children sing. The primary kids sang in church last Sunday, and it was the sweetest thing I have ever heard. Little tiny angels.

10. Feeling the Christmas spirit, thinking about our Savior's birth, and taking the time from everything else to ponder the true meaning of Christmas. I love the Christmas story. The simplicity and humble circumstances of Christ's birth stand in stark contrast to the chaotic, glitzy, loud, fast-pace of our modern Christmas celebrations. Don't get me wrong, I love all the celebrations that happen this time of year. Its just that its easy for me to get overwhelmed by all of it, and become stressed. I try to remember and focus on what its really all about, and my heart is filled with gratitude and love of the season, for my Savior's birth and life.

I wish you all a very merry Christmas! I hope it is a wonderful holiday for you, filled with happiness and peace!