I Remember With Fondness

7:30 Christmas morning:  SNOW!

It has been a nice Christmas.  The last few days have contained our reverence for the commemoration of Christ's birth, some sweet moments, some laughter, some hugs, some visits and a few tears.  In other words - a pretty regular Christmas.

Frontyard snow angel

We've walked a few times over to the park to see the lights the city does there - this has been a fairly outstanding year for those lights.  We've walked over several years on Christmas Eve and had the place to ourselves.  Not so this year.  And while I'm so glad that others enjoyed our park, I remember with most fondness the years we've walked amongst the lights by ourselves and enjoyed the park's quiet peace.

Day after Christmas walk on the plowed trail.

I managed to surprise The Husband with one or two gifts.  Compared to those families around us, they were likely smaller and fewer.  I liked knowing there wasn't a thing we needed, that those things we gifted each other were small luxuries chosen with care just for each other and that upper most in our hearts was a desire to follow Christ's example and retain His Spirit in our hearts.  That attitude surely colored my perspective this year. (And in actuality it probably helped me to rein in my tongue a time or two when my emotions wanted to get the better of me. Some things will just never be as I hoped.) I'm still learning so much about this life.

I love our world.

I'm sad that our son and his wife didn't get to see her family - the weather prevented that long drive for them.  But grateful they made seeing us a priority.  Kind of balances things out for me.

We've filled up on hot chocolate, luscious homemade coconut bread, cinnamon toast and all kinds of chocolate - I have yet to open the box of my favorite little cherry hills from Rebecca's.  Tonight we'll have leftovers which is the perfect meal for the day after Christmas.

We'll see several movies over the next week or so, perhaps eat out a bit and generally use this coming week to decompress - although there isn't as much decompression needed as has sometimes been the case in past years.

My heart has gratitude.  For good health, for warm shelter from storms, for being first on someone's priority list, for contentment with what we have.  And for the Savior of this beautiful world.