Christmas Re-Cap

Krista and I have had a very wonderful Christmas celebration with our families. It was, over-all, I believe, a Christ-exalted time. I am thankful for both our families and for their love to the Savior. I have been both nourished and encouraged, as well as stuffed full of good food.

Some of the highlights of the week:
1) Krista and I exchanged gifts on Wednesday, due to the number of parties that we were attending throughout the week. We spent some time in prayer, reading scripture, reading advent poems, and signing some good Christmas hymns and it was for me...a thoroughly blessed time with my wife. We've also started a tradition of giving each other a biography of some famous Christian figure from our heritage. This year I gave her the biography of the three wives of Adoniram Judson, and she, in turn, gave me the biography of Jim Elliot. It was wonderful.

2) Christmas with the Arricks, that is Krista's family, was a time of great laughter and joy. We were able to rejoice in sharing gifts with one another and there was a great amount of fun that came from watching our nephew Bryce on the first Christmas he was old enough to take part in.

3) Christmas with my family too had some wonderful treasures. I was particularly blessed by the reading of Scripture and family prayer that we have been doing since as far back as I can remember. The fact that my parents committ to this every year, even after their children are older, is a testimony to their love for the Word of God. I am thankful for this and for their loving my wife and their daughter-in-law in such an astounding way.

4) The eating was for me, particularly, a wonderful part of the festivities. Good food is always a joy, but the amount of hard work put in by each individual who cooked is quite an amazing part of the season. That people are so willing to work toward making others happy is a wonderful part of celebrating Christmas as famalies.

5) Being able to remember the birth of our Savior and Lord with those whom I love was a beautiful and wonderful thing. Whether it was through song, reading the scriptures, or simply visiting and talking about the incarnation. Praise the Lord that even something like this, which is nowhere perscribed in the Bible, can have such a blessing to His people. I pray that the Lord was glorified in the way we celebrated.

I am thankful for the number of ties, shirts, and coats that I recived as gifts this year but I am mostly excited about the additions to my library that were gifts. I look forward to reading and writing reveiws of many of these books.

What was the highlight of your holiday?