The Twenty Seventh Day Christmas Celebration

Well, my Christmas celebrations are half way done and I am not sure how I feel about that. 


I went to a Christmas orchestra performance tonight of my neice Annie.  I love when my neices and nephews invite me to go to things like that.  I have missed those opportunities for years now and so I quite enjoy it.  the music was festive and Annie did a good job. 


Then I did a little Christmas shopping and drove around looking at lights.  I made some pumpkin toffee bars.  They are really good if you like pumpkin.  I must admit not everything I have made this season has been as wonderful as I had hoped.  I made some cranberry orange muffins the other day and they are so good.  But the little lemon tasties that I made with lemon curd, a new thing for me BTW, were not as great.  Oh well.  At least that keeps me from eating them all. 


As I was looking the mirror the other day all of the sudden I noticed a little black hair growing out of the side of my face and I was shocked.  I thought, when did I get old enough, or Italian enough that I would have a little black hair growing out of the side of my face. (I served my mission in Italy so I would know about Italians a little bit)  Needless to say, I plucked the little thing right out of there, but here is the lesson that I learned.  I thought, how many things do I miss, do I not notice, when they are right there in front of my face!  I know that I could do better about what President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said in last general conference about slowing down and taking time to reflect and notice little things. 


Jesus Christ's birth was kind of a little thing in a way.  It was in a stable, He came quietly, birth happens all the time, Mary and Joseph were not people of significance, etc.  Many people missed noticing it at all.  Those that did notice it, took time to ponder on it.  Mary did.  I know I need to do better at this as well. 


We should all be a little bit more like Mary and keep somethings in our hearts and ponder them trustingly, for we too know more than we can tell.


And we, like the Christ child, need to spend a season in an Egypt (so to speak) of patient preparation and waiting, trusting in the Lord's wisdom and timing.  This isn't always easy, as I very well know.  But trusting in the Lord is never wasted.