Christmas Thoughts

As Christmas quickly approaches I have wanted to share my thoughts and feelings of this Season. So hang on tight..... As a child one of my most favorite stories was a true story of a young named Virginia who wrote a letter to the New York Sun seeking an answer to her question...Is there a Santa? She had begun to doubt because her friends told her he did not exist. Virginia's Father suggested she write the paper saying "If you see it in the Sun it must be so."

Dear Editor—

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

Her letter reached one Francis_Pharcellus_Church. He struggled how to answer this young girls question, but it is his answer that touched me so much.

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Although this correspondence was from 1897, I believe that Mr. Church could have been speaking to our day.

I believe that our world has become so politically correct that we have lost sight of what Christmas is about. Store clerks say Happy Holidays in lieu of Merry Christmas as not to offend. Christ's Name is taken out of signs. Even Adam's daycare this year has not one Christmas decoration in the hallways or up front and have only been placed sparingly in the rooms. Santa represents the joy, peace, and love were given to this world at CHRIST's birth. My wish is that we never loose sight of the real reason for this season. "Christ!"

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Christmas Time

You may be wondering...Is this their dining room table? No this was our way of watching the The first Presidency's Christmas Devotional. We gathered around the computer and ate dinner.

Adam loves the Christmas Tree and thinks that it is fun to get behind it and turn on and off the lights. The ornaments are not staying on either. Guess it is good that my glass ball ornaments are in a large vase on my table.

Decorating day.

Lauren's Gingerbread House Master Piece.

Winter Wonderland

Welcome to our winter wonderland, normally in sunny Las Vegas. One night last week Lauren was watching the news with me, when the weather report started her ears perked up. SNOW!!!! That may have been the only word she had heard. But with that she began to pray for snow. "I think it would be great if it snowed." Well Monday came and went in our area of town there was no snow. The mountains looked beautiful with the dusting they received. I thought she would be happy to see that. But Lauren needed to touch the snow. So she continued to pray for a little white stuff. Her pray was answered with the wildest snow storm on record in Las Vegas in 30 years. While at work today we went to the pool deck of the Venetian and watch the snow. It was beautiful. The best sight was Lauren's face as I pulled up to the house. She was outside playing. Building a little snow man on our front step. Jeff and I went outside with her and helped her build a bigger snowman. He was almost as tall as she is.
She was so wet and very cold when we came in, but she had a blast. She begged me to get a Ziploc bag so she could get some snow to bring inside. So I have a gallon bag of snow being saved in the freezer for an art project. (That is what she told her dad.) I think she is saving it so incase it melts that she will not loose that memory. She was even more excited to find out that school has been cancelled do to the weather. I am sure my niece and nephews in Utah would get a kick out of school being closed over 3.6 inches of snow. Guess it pays to live in a town that has not snow plows.