The Best Christmas

I was asked recently by a family member to recount to them the best Christmas that I had ever experienced. Now, those who know me know that it is hard for me to express myself outside of writing, but this particular Christmas needed to be shared.

          It was in a hospital, on a particularly chilly December evening. 

          "How?!" You say, "How can the best Christmas you have ever had be in a hospital?"

           My question to you, is how can it not be? Now I know that Hospitals, by their nature, are austere, cold, and have a smell of antiseptic. However, it is not the building that makes a Christmas, it is the people. And hospitals house some of the most grateful and caring people, as well as those who are the most in need of the Christmas spirit. The spirit of giving and comfort, and most importantly Love. 

          After exiting the elevator and walking down the hall, shoes damp from snow squeaking on the blue and white tile, I could hear laughter from room 667. The nurses smiled and waved at me as I walked past, I knew each of their names, they had become close friends, extended family members. Jennifer with her Mickey Mouse Santa hat, and Travis with his scrubs so bright that you had to often wear sunglasses to look at him wished me a Merry Christmas as I walked past with my sisters, arms laden with carefully wrapped presents. A high pitched giggle rang down the hall as my squealing niece came bolting out of the room and wrapped her arms around our legs, hiding from her cousins as they chased her in a raucous game of tag. 

           The room was stuffed with people and chatter, and smiles wreathed the room, the best kind of Christmas decoration. And on the far side of the room, tubes and wires running from frail wrists to the beeping monitor in the corner was my father. The strongest man I have ever known, even in that moment when his body had been through so much. I could see the happiness in his eyes as he looked around at all of us, his children, grandchildren and wife gathered together and celebrating not only Christmas but the love of our family and the feeling of being so completely blessed that he was still with us. It had been a long journey filled with ICU visits and a ravaging illness, but we were still there and still together. Brought even closer together, each of us giving of ourselves in a time when it was most needed. 

            Christmas music played from a stereo brought in by my sister, the kids dancing and spinning, laughing when they fell from dizziness; card games and family trivia going on in the other corner of that tiny room that we had resided in for 4 months. Later that night, food consumed and little bodies collapsed from exhaustion, we listened to the Christmas carolers that had come to bring a little bit of Christmas to those who needed it. My dad listened intently, humming the melody and trying to sing along, his voice cracking and tears gathering in his eyes. I never asked him what he was feeling, but I can only imagine that he was feeling, even more strongly, what I was feeling. Overwhelming gratitude that we could celebrate together and feel the true spirit of Christmas. 

             Many people, most people, have lost that meaning but in that room we found it. It is Love. THAT is what Christmas is all about, that is what I was reminded of sitting there with my family, all of us having put aside our own needs and schedules to spend time together, supporting each other. I was reminded of the never ending love of our Heavenly Father, the blessing that he gave us in sending us His son, and most importantly the blessing of my family being whole despite the trials we had been through. I will never forget that night, and what I felt there in that Hospital. 

              "How can your best Christmas have been spent in a Hospital?" You ask. 

              I only have one answer for you; "Love." 

Its A quilt! Its a Plane! Its the Last 4 Months!

Time does fly by, I have had these posts saved up thinking I would just find the time to publish them and realized today that I hadnt done so! So here's an update of our lives over the past couple of months:

September: The camry broke down in the middle of a torrential rain storm. Zach had left the house and was about a quarter of a mile from our apartment when it just stopped working. He called me and needed help pushing the car back to the house. Did I mention that it was raining? yeah, it was, torrentially ( is that a word?) So i pulled on a windbreaker and some tennis shoes and jogged to where he was waiting, he had managed to find someone to help him get it to the side of the road to wait for me. It was interesting, and by the time we got home we were both soaked to the bone, chilled and our colds had gotten worse! Yay!

October: Pretty uneventful, in all.

November: Thanksgiving! lots of food and pie. Nuff said.

December: Now comes the fun part. I decided to make wall quilts for four people this year, which I did not remember until about the second week into this very dry december. (seriously, no snow yet and its the middle of january. blech.) When I remembered my plans I hurriedly began assembling quilt tops. I made 4 quilt tops and completed 3 of the quilts completely by two days before christmas. By that time, I had sprained my pointer finger and lost my mind almost completely.

January: We got the camry working! and proceeded to get rid of it as soon as we could in case it decided to torture us some more and stop working again. We now have a 2010 Honda CR-V with less than 8000 miles on it. I am in love with an automobile! It is a great car and can transition into a kid friendly car when we decide to pop out babies.

Melinda, Mark, and the kiddos came for a visit. Which means, you guessed it, a trip to texas for me to pick them up and get them home on standby. I was able to go a day early and FINALLY see melinda's house. I have made 10 - 12 trips down there and all I had seen was the airport and a quick jaunt to this incredible morracan restaurant in downtown austin. So it was pretty cool to visit her house and have a sleep over with the kids. I even got to try some of the best BBQ around at this restaurant called Rudy's. You eat with your hands, WITH YOUR HANDS people, how wicked cool is that? The way back from Austin was a little...turbulent, to use an airline term, as far as the standby travel went. Our party got split in LongBeach because half of us got on and the rest did not. I came with the first half that got on and brought one of the older girls and the baby. Yes, I got to bring the baby, best Birth Control EVER. by the time I had gone through the terminal, ran full tilt with a baby and two heavy bags, and got settled in the very last row (I think I must have hit every single person in an aisle seat with my carry-on bag on the way back) I was ready to cut out my uterus and save my self from ever having children, and that was just ten minutes into the flight. Luckily the baby slept the entire flight home and we made it safe and sound and delivered him and his sister to his dad in Provo. Needless to say, I was totally exhausted by the time I was finished!

So thats the update! I am looking forward to the next month or so, in March Zach and I will have been together for 3 years and married for almost two! how wierd, but pretty awesome!

Ciao

New Car Ownership...

Almost 7 months ago Zach and I bought a car, a little gray camry that has since become a pain in our, uh...side? When we got it we were told that it didn't leak oil, had a new battery, a new timing belt, and a host of other things that were not wrong with it. Unfortunately for us, being the trusting folk we are, we believed them. Since that fateful day the car started to leak oil like a woman with a post childbearing incontinence problem, the timing belt snapped (about a quarter mile from our house, in the rain.), AND the battery died. Zach has been working on this beast for a solid 4 months, ever since the timing belt broke back in september. He finally got it working with a new timing belt, a new battery, and a fixed oil leak. We drove it around town a couple of times, but were extremely hesitant to do so, thinking that it just might decide to stop working AGAIN. We wanted to get rid of it as fast as possible, before it was completely worthless to us.  So Zach pulled out his trusty laptop and logged on to consumer reports to check out new-er cars. We settled on a Honda CR-V and took our car abused bodies down to the local Ken Garff Honda dealer. It was an amazing experience with an awesome, non pushy, salesman name John. I know, I know, a non pushy salesman is like finding a leprechaun. But we found him. We ended up buying the car and left extremely happy.