I loved the First Presidency Christmas Devotional on Sunday. I look forward to it every Christmas, because I feel like watching it is the perfect way to start out the season in the right frame of mind. I made ginger bread cookies and we invited Aaron's dad over to watch with us (Aaron's mom is in OR visiting Aaron's sister). The kids did pretty well. They were very mobile throughout the broadcast, but I felt like I got to hear everything that was said, so I'll chalk it up as a success.
My favorite part was this quote from President Monson's talk:
“However, it is easy to get caught up in the pressure of the
season, and perhaps lose the very Spirit in our lives we are trying to gain. Overdoing,
is especially common this time of year for many of us. The causes for this
might include too many Christmas activities to attend, too much to eat, to many
expectations, and too much tension. Often our efforts at Christmas time result
in our feeling stressed out, wrung out, and worn out, during a time we should
feel a simple joy of commemorating the birth of our Savior. Finding the real
joy of Christmas comes not in the hurrying and scurrying to get more done. Nor
is it found in the purchasing of gifts. We find real joy when we make the
Savior the focus of the season. We can keep Him in our thoughts and in our
lives as we go about the work He would have us perform here on Earth. At this
time particularly, let us follow his example, as we love and serve our fellow
man.” –President Monson, First Precedency Christmas Devotional, 2012
I think I am often guilty of overdoing it by having too many Christmas activities to attend and setting too high of expectations. If I remember right, President Uchtdorf addressed this subject last year, and at that time it also struck very close to home. Why don't I learn? :) As my mind contemplates all the things I'd like to do for this Christmas season, I find myself stressed out, wrung out, and worn out before I've even started doing them...not to mention broke. :) This year especially, pregnancy is making me physically unable to "get more done." And I'm trying to sit back and heed the council of our prophet, and not let myself feel guilty about what I'm not doing. Because I notice that many of the things I'm not doing don't fall under the description Pres. Monson gives of the criteria to find real joy.
"We find real joy when we make the Savior the focus of the season." I've been trying to do this by having/attending events with a nativity theme rather than a Santa one, and doing art projects that are more focused on the symbols of Christmas rather than the commercialization of it, and playing more spiritually themed music as opposed to worldly, etc. And none of these things are bad things, and they do help to put Christ into Christmas, but by themselves they are not what brings real joy. And when they are done in excess (like the way I've been trying to over do them the past few years) they just add to the stress, hustle, and bustle.
Pres. Monson's solution seems simple, "We can keep Him in our thought and in our lives as we go about the work He would have us perform here on Earth." Stopping to think about this sentence, I know my kids are so much better at this than I am. Here I am, thinking I need to coordinate all these many things in order to show them that the true meaning of Christmas revolves around the Savior; and all the while, here's my five year old begging me (yes begging, and all of his own accord) to come up with a list of chores he can do and get paid for, because he wants to pay tithing to help poor people. And here's my five year old again, wanting me to help him write a letter to his cousins so he can tell them that Christmas is Jesus's birthday and that's why we open presents. And here's my three year old skipping out of preschool with a bag of jelly beans, so excited, not to eat them himself, but to share them with his family. And so concerned all day long that nobody eat the last one because he wants to save it for when Daddy comes home to share with him too. And here's my two year old, carrying the baby Jesus from our nativity set around with her wherever she goes, rocking him and singing to him, and so distraught that I won't let her bring him into the grocery store (because he might get lost) because she doesn't want him to be all alone in the car by himself.
I have good kids. And by some magical force that has nothing to do with me, they already know about our Savior and how to remember him at Christmas time. And I'm afraid that if I don't chill out a little bit, I might be the cause of them unlearning what they are already doing so well. I need to be a better example of trying to do the right meaningful things, instead of just trying to do everything.
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