Christmas! My favorite time of the year!

Yeah! It is Christmas time again! It seems like we have spent Christmas many different places since we have been married and this year we are in Montana. This last week we have had the first load of snow that is sticking around because the temperature is dropping. The kids spend after school sledding on the hills around our house. I found myself laughing to tears as I watched Spencer and Brooke struggle to build a jump for the sleds toward the middle of the hill... once finished it was Makenzie they sent down first to test it out. I just love a winter Christmas again. There is definitely a feel to it.

I'm so glad for why we celebrate Christmas. It isn't just a time for new items and decorating and wonderful cooking.... It is a time when somehow all of us seem to feel closer to our Savior. I'm so grateful for the birth of the Savior! I'm so grateful for the spirit that is His at Christmas. My favorite Christmas song is "O Holy Night" ..... "Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth, A thrill of hope, The weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.... Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices, O night divine.... Chains shall he break for the Savior is our brother, And in His name all oppression shall cease." What beautiful words, but even more beautiful is the reality of it all.... that this really took place and Christ lived and died for you and me.

Several years ago I attended BYU Jerusalem. I remember that we went to Bethlehem and at night went out into the fields that surround Bethlehem and looking down on that village at night under the stars, there was a special spirit that was undeniable.... that this was the humble beginnings of something miraculous.

O Holy Night....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jr-2eyRtV4

My friend Cindy sent me this video.... love it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vStl9PXWtiw