As December started it seemed that the weather had forgotten what to do with itself and remained unseasonably warm, so much so that all the trees in my yard had barely lost any leaves. In essence it felt like September which meant it DEFINITELY didn't feel like Christmas.
I was really bummed out about it because I LOVE Christmas, but it just didn't feel like it. I even put up my Christmas tree the second week of December rather than the day after Thanksgiving. I was sure that the world had forgotten about Christmas what with the hard pressing economic times and wars going on. But then I decided I needed to do something to make me feel like Christmas.
And just what does Christmas feel like? To me, it's the feeling of joy and happiness, of wonder and thankfulness, that seem to permeate the world at this time of year and that's all due to the joy, happiness, wonderment and thankfulness that was brought into the world the night the Savior was born to His mortal mother, Mary. And as Jesus' life was full of giving, I decided I neeeded to that. So I picked out a young child from our Sub for Santa tree to give something to. My ward also was doing Sub for Santa and last week I helped them wrap up all the gifts and then I offered to deliver to a family that lived near me. This particular family consisted of a single mother of eight, count them EIGHT boys ranging from 15 years down to one year old. They had many presents and when I showed up at their home, the mother was so extremely happy. She didn't speak English very well but what she spoke with her smile and eyes was more than enough. As I hauled their gifts in, back and forth from my vehicle, it was all I could do to not cry. Their home, from what I saw, consisted of a small couch, a wicker end table, a 13" color TV on the floor and a space heater. The lights weren't on and it was quite cold in there. But seeing that mother's face made it so much warmer for me and for them. I just loved knowing that I had totally changed their outlook on Christmas.
In the mean time, very trivial things have happened to make it feel more like Christmas. The snow has started, the family parties have been had and have been great, feeling even more like a great time than previous years, and any minute now Santa will be arriving with some gifts. Which means I had better end so he doesn't skip my house.
Merry Christmas everyone! And may God bless you with all you stand in need of, whether spiritual or temporal.
