Our family kicked off Christmas the first weekend of December as usual. We attended the city's Christmas tree lighting in which we enjoyed hot cocoa, a hay ride, watching singers and ballerinas on stage, and the lighting with fireworks.
The next morning was the Rudolph Run 5K for our family. This year, instead of volunteering for crowd control with CERT, Neal decided to join his family for the Rudolph Run as a runner, and he ran the whole thing! I am so proud of my amazing husband. It was fun training with him--he makes a great running partner. Rhys came in first, followed by Sophie, then Neal with myself right behind. The Hancock family came out to cheer our family on, especially Neal, with signs and all! They stayed to cheer as we hit the halfway point and were making our return, too. We later found that his CERT friends positioned along the route were radioing to each other his progress along way so the next group would be looking for him! Pretty awesome support!
After the race, Keri and Sophie took off for the annual ornament exchange at the Anderson's while Neal and Rhys enjoyed some BBQ with the CERT crowd and then hit target to see the Legos. While at Target, they ran into some stormtroopers and were held hostage for a short time.
When we got back together we headed over to the Nativity Exhibit at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and checked out the nativities as well as the paintings depicting his life, the sweetest of which for me was "Agony in the Garden" by Frans Schwartz (1898). I'm sure I cannot post it to the blog for copyright reasons but it is horrible and endearing all at once. It was my favorite because after seeing such and innocent baby in a manger, viewing the pictures of the man He was in doing His Father's will--teaching, comforting, providing hope, forgiving, healing, blessing, guiding. To see Jesus, still innocent, then suffering the magnitude of our weaknesses, our sins, our illness, and our sorrow--my weakness, my illness and sorrows, my outright sin--it helped me to love Him even more. It encourages me to live better and to use Christ's atoning sacrifice in my life because He loves me more than I know, because He wants me to, because He did it for me.
The next day was Sunday in which at church, I was released from teaching the children in Primary and called as a second counselor in the Young Women program to help lead and teach the 11 to 13 year old young women, which includes our Sophie! I was sad for having to leave my Primary kids, especially two of which I have worked so hard to with they cannot deny I love them. One needed to come out of his shell and be more confident in speaking in front of the group because he had great ideas. The other, to learn to be reverent so he could personally connect with the gospel principles being taught. Connecting that he lived a particular principle when he was playing football on the field or that their will be another opportunity to live the gospel when his little brother is bothering him was were teaching became golden.
For a couple days I had a hard time with the change because the new duties are more time consuming, because working closely with Sophie can be good but also really hard for both of us at times, because I felt like I was having impact with the Primary kids--but I also know that God does not give us something to do and then hedge up our way. I know without a doubt that He provides a way for us to accomplish the task. I just don't get to see all the details of how that is going to happen but I do know it will.
It was good, after the hustle of Saturday, and the emotional imbalance of Sunday morning, to gather with my family that evening to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, to hear sacred Christmas music and feel the true spirit of Christmas!
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