Only 10 days til Christmas!\u00a0 I can\u2019t even believe it!\u00a0 How did that happen so quickly??!\u00a0 Good heavens I am not even kind of ready yet!\u00a0 Thank heavens for Amazon Prime two day shipping is all I can say!<\/p>\n
Maybe I am the only one that feels this way, but picking out Christmas presents is so hard!\u00a0 You want to give something meaningful, but it seems like the closer you get to the actual day the more you resort to just buying anything that can be delivered in time for the holiday which takes all the meaning right out of the gift.\u00a0 I have always admired those people who do their holiday shopping months in advance\u2026I wish I was that organized myself, but alas, I am not\u2026.maybe someday\u2026.<\/p>\n
I have to say that I am SO EXCITED for Christmas Day!!!!\u00a0 Not because of the presents though. I am super excited because on Christmas Day I get to talk to my son Dalton who is out serving a two year mission for the LDS Church in Louisiana right now.\u00a0 He has been gone for 18 months and I miss him like crazy!\u00a0 As a missionary they are only allowed to call home twice a year, once on Mother\u2019s Day and once on Christmas Day.\u00a0 And those two days are the greatest days in the world at our house.\u00a0 We are all so excited to talk to him we can hardly stand it.\u00a0 We get to video skype with him so we will be able to see his fantastic smile that day!! Merry Christmas to Me!!!!!\u00a0 So yeah, I am excited for Christmas Day!<\/p>\n
As we get closer to Christmas I wanted to start sharing some of my favorite Christmas poems and stories with you.\u00a0 Today I will share one of my very favorites – it is a great reminder of what brings true Christmas joy.<\/p>\n
True Christmas Joy (by Tennett Morrell)<\/span><\/p>\n ‘Twas the day before Christmas, a long time ago<\/span><\/p>\n And our beautiful earth was all covered with snow;<\/span><\/p>\n Down the street with their sleighs came two manly boys,<\/span><\/p>\n Who paused at the window to look at the toys.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Already two others were there looking in;<\/span><\/p>\n But their faces were sad, and their clothes old and thin.<\/span><\/p>\n And the little one said, “is it because we’re so poor<\/span><\/p>\n That Santa doesn’t come to our house anymore ? “<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The older one patted his wee brother’s head,<\/span><\/p>\n And hugged him up closely, as softly he said:<\/span><\/p>\n “Oh, maybe he will come tonight, little Tim,<\/span><\/p>\n If we ask in our prayers for the Lord to send him!”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The little face smiled, but the boys saw a tear<\/span><\/p>\n In the eye of the one who quelled little Tim’s fear.<\/span><\/p>\n Then slowly and sadly the waifs went their way<\/span><\/p>\n To the place they called home, where that night they would pray.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The boys, with their sleighs, followed closely behind,<\/span><\/p>\n And neither one spoke, but in each childish mind<\/span><\/p>\n A beautiful thought said as plain as could be:<\/span><\/p>\n “I’ll share with those poor boys what Santa brings me.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When the two reached their home, to their father they ran,<\/span><\/p>\n And eagerly told him their unselfish plan.<\/span><\/p>\n He was proud of his boys, who now felt that same love<\/span><\/p>\n That sent our dear Savior from His Home above.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Next morning, still thrilled with their beautiful thought,<\/span><\/p>\n They scampered downstairs to see what Santa brought,<\/span><\/p>\n And they, with the help of their father and mother,<\/span><\/p>\n Selected the presents for Tim and his brother.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And as the first light of dawn came into view<\/span><\/p>\n The two went their way with the toys bright and new,<\/span><\/p>\n And crept very quietly up to the door<\/span><\/p>\n Where they’d seen the boys enter the evening before.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As they hurried back home toward their own Christmas joys,<\/span><\/p>\n They could not even dream how the other two boys,<\/span><\/p>\n On finding that Santa had really been there,<\/span><\/p>\n Sent their joy to the One who had answered their prayer.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That night, when the “Santas” were ready for bed,<\/span><\/p>\n With a hand of their father on each curly head,<\/span><\/p>\n They knew, as they thought of two poor, happy boys,<\/span><\/p>\n What’s the truest and choicest of all Christmas joys.<\/span><\/p>\n ~Amy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Only 10 days til Christmas!\u00a0 I can\u2019t even believe it!\u00a0 How did that happen so quickly??!\u00a0 Good heavens I am not even kind of ready yet!\u00a0 Thank heavens for Amazon Prime two day shipping is all I can say! Maybe I am the only one that feels this way, but picking out Christmas presents is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[168,919,2927,368,1557,1151,105,2926,163,179,2552,2897,2928,961,450,30,1316,1387,29,55,180,276,629,1501,464,764,2264,2930,80,351,53,1180,143,2780,2929,2781,1096,1668,2812,2925,145,1556,191,344,2924,2931],"class_list":["post-4115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adversity","tag-amazon","tag-amazon-prime","tag-believe","tag-boys","tag-charity","tag-christmas","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-courage","tag-dalton","tag-donate","tag-donation","tag-excited","tag-generosity","tag-generous","tag-gift","tag-give","tag-giving","tag-god","tag-happiness","tag-happy","tag-heavenly-father","tag-inspiration","tag-jesus-christ","tag-joy","tag-lds","tag-meaning","tag-merry-christmas","tag-mission","tag-missionary","tag-motivation","tag-organized","tag-poem","tag-poor","tag-presents","tag-rich","tag-sacrifice","tag-sad","tag-santa","tag-santa-claus","tag-service","tag-shopping","tag-toys","tag-trial","tag-true-christmas-joy","tag-true-joy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4115"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4117,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4115\/revisions\/4117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}