We made it!\u00a0 It is finally upon us – Christmas Eve followed by Christmas Day.\u00a0 My favorite holiday of the entire year.\u00a0 I am so excited for tomorrow.\u00a0 I even stayed up late wrapping every gift tonight so that tomorrow I can enjoy my time with my family without stressing over the mounds of gifts waiting to be wrapped.\u00a0 And the best part of all is that my son will be calling home in just over 24 hours from now \u2013 I can hardly wait :).<\/p>\n
As this is my last blog before Christmas Day I wanted to take a moment to share what I feel to be the most important part of Christmas \u2013 Christ.\u00a0 I think the following excerpt expresses it best:<\/p>\n
\u201cFinding the real joy of Christmas comes not in the hurrying and the scurrying to get more done. We find the real joy of Christmas when we make the Savior the focus of the season.<\/span><\/p>\n Born in a stable, cradled in a manger, He came forth from heaven to live on earth as mortal man and to establish the kingdom of God. His glorious gospel reshaped the thinking of the world. He lived for us, and He died for us. What can we, in return, give to Him?<\/span><\/p>\n I love the words penned by the English poet Christina Rossetti:<\/span><\/p>\n What can I give Him,<\/p>\n Poor as I am?<\/p>\n If I were a shepherd<\/p>\n I would bring a lamb.<\/p>\n If I were a Wise Man<\/p>\n I would do my part,<\/p>\n Yet what can I give Him?<\/p>\n Give my heart.<\/p>\n Our celebration of Christmas should be a reflection of the love and selflessness taught by the Savior. Giving, not getting, brings to full bloom the Christmas spirit. We feel more kindly one to another. We reach out in love to help those less fortunate. Our hearts are softened. Enemies are forgiven, friends remembered, and God obeyed. The spirit of Christmas illuminates the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world\u2019s busy life and become more interested in people than in things. To catch the real meaning of the spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable, and it becomes the Spirit of Christ.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 – Thomas Monson<\/p>\n May we all remember the true meaning of Christmas and may we celebrate the holiday in a way that pays tribute to him and the sacrifice he made for all of us.\u00a0 I think the best way to do that is to follow the advice given in this statement:<\/p>\n “If you desire to find the true spirit of Christmas and partake of the sweetness of it, let me make this suggestion to you. During the hurry of the festive occasion of this Christmas season, find time to turn your heart to God. Perhaps in the quiet hours, and in a quiet place, and on your knees\u2014alone or with loved ones\u2014give thanks for the good things that have come to you, and ask that His Spirit might dwell in you as you earnestly strive to serve Him and keep His commandments”\u00a0<\/span> – Howard W. Hunter<\/p>\n I want to wish each of you a very, merry Christmas full of love and laughter and family and friends and wrapping paper and presents and happiness and joy.\u00a0 I wish each of you to have whatever Christmas miracle you have been praying for.\u00a0 I believe that magic happens at Christmas.\u00a0 I truly do. And may all of us remember the person whose birth we celebrate, Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n Merry Christmas to you all, and to all a good night \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n ~Amy<\/p>\n PS.\u00a0 I won’t be posting Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.\u00a0 My next blog will be posted on the 26th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We made it!\u00a0 It is finally upon us – Christmas Eve followed by Christmas Day.\u00a0 My favorite holiday of the entire year.\u00a0 I am so excited for tomorrow.\u00a0 I even stayed up late wrapping every gift tonight so that tomorrow I can enjoy my time with my family without stressing over the mounds of gifts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59,"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":[947,3028,105,348,3036,3040,179,3038,2928,92,51,1202,3035,30,792,1316,3041,1387,29,3042,451,237,3031,1501,464,3033,3037,35,2930,80,3039,1665,3030,1293,3026,3032,2936,2558,1782,3027,275,3029,3034,3025],"class_list":["post-4137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christ","tag-christina-rossetti","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-eve","tag-christmas-spirit","tag-commandment","tag-dalton","tag-enemies","tag-excited","tag-excitement","tag-family","tag-forgiven","tag-getting","tag-gift","tag-gifts","tag-give","tag-give-thanks","tag-giving","tag-god","tag-good-night","tag-heart","tag-holiday","tag-howard-w-hunter","tag-jesus-christ","tag-joy","tag-lamb","tag-less-fortunate","tag-love","tag-merry-christmas","tag-mission","tag-obey","tag-pray","tag-president-monson","tag-reflection","tag-savior","tag-shepherd","tag-softened","tag-soul","tag-spirit","tag-stable","tag-stress","tag-thomas-monson","tag-wise-man","tag-wrapping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4137","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=4137"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4139,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4137\/revisions\/4139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}