I Love Christmas!!!

I make no bones about it. I love Christmas! I love the music (I could listen to Christmas carols all year long and frequently play them in mid-summer.) I love the lights and decorations. I love the smells that come from greenery brought into the house and emanate from the kitchen the whole blessed season. I love the feeling in the air...the excitement, the anticipation, the friendliness, and yes, even the love. There is definitely more love at this time of year. People thinking about other people, remembering some they haven't thought much of all year. People going out of their way to drop off a little remembrance that says, "I was thinking of you. I love you." I love selecting gifts for people! The only thing I really hate is packaging them up and mailing them but Amazon now does a wonderful job of sending them on and if you are a Prime member, shipping is free! Does it get better than that? They even have a wish list. I just accessed my college granddaughter's list and picked out two things on there, had Amazon send them on with a gift card and she will be one happy camper this Christmas! I love the decorations in the stores and the Christmas music playing, filling the air with happy sounds of Christmas. And I love getting Christmas cards from friends all over the world catching us up to date on their families. I love doing the 12 days of Christmas for people in our retirement center in our ward. We started doing it for six families or individuals around 1995 and it grew to 10 families before we went on our mission to Armenia in 2001. We turned it over to the Relief Society at that time, and now it has blossomed to about 25 families. A huge undertaking I'm happy we aren't doing alone! I love turning off all the lights except the Christmas tree and sitting by the fire listening to soft Christmas music curled up next to hubby. Sweet moments! And on the other hand, I love it when all the family descends and it is pandemonium with grandkids opening presents amid squeals of delight. Incredibly wonderful times! I love the Christmas programs at church, playing the Christmas hymns on the organ, organizing special musical numbers for Sacrament meeting so we can hear Christmas music the congregation doesn't normally sing. And I love the Christmas story, contemplating the birth of our Savior, Mary's wonder, the shepherds and wise men, the angels, and tender Joseph watching over his family. Maybe that's why I keep adding to my collection of nativity sets which represent in so many different mediums the miraculous, wonderful, happy, glorious story of The Birth of the Babe.