Pre-Holiday Madness

Christmas is next week....

I can barely believe it. It feels like I have been off in my own little world for this past month. I have been in what seems like a never ending loop on work, Christmas shopping and sleep. However, I believe my Christmas shopping is done and now I just have to get through everything else. And when I say get through, I actually mean I get to do some pretty amazing things throughout this next week.

Luckily I traded my RS lesson this Sunday with the second Sunday teacher so I don't have to plan for that this weekend. I am however, singing in our branch's Christmas program this weekend and a little nervous about that. But even before Sunday rolls around I am most looking forward to tomorrow night, our Branch Temple Trip.

I have been terrible at using work as an excuse for not being able to go each month to the Temple. The carpool leaves at the same time that I get off work and I would still have to change and walk the dog, etc. But for tomorrow, I have given myself a no excuses rule. I am just going to leave work an hour early. It will still be tight on time and I will miss the pay, but I am determined to make this trip work out.

Our branch is make a big shindig out of it. True we won't really get to do our regular baptisms for the dead, but there will be lights and programs and a living nativity scene, and the EQ is bringing hot chocolate, cookies, chili and other deliciousness. I can already feel the excitement growing stronger inside me.  I have never had the chance to see the Christmas lights at the Oakland Temple, or any temple in person, so I know this will be special.

But more than anything I know that it will give me a chance to be with beloved brothers and sisters, and I will get to share in their spirits as we enjoy the warm feelings that this season tends to bring on. How truly grateful I am to be able to attend this trip. I know this is where I am suppose to be tomorrow and that makes me even more excited, I might explode. Most of all I believe that this trip will continue to remind me to have an attitude of gratitude this holiday season.

"There is no better time than now, this very Christmas season, for all of us to rededicate ourselves to the principles taught by Jesus the Christ. Let it be a time that lights the eyes of children and puts laughter on their lips. Let it be a time for lifting the lives of those who live in loneliness. Let it be a time for calling our families together, for feeling a closeness to those who are near to us and a closeness also to those who are absent.

Let it be a time of prayers for peace, for the preservation of free principles, and for the protection of those who are far from us. Let it be a time of forgetting self and finding time for others. Let it be a time for discarding the meaningless and for stressing the true values. Let it be a time of peace because we have found peace in His teachings." - Thomas S. Monson, "A Bright Shining Star," 2010 First Presidency Christmas Devotional