Christmas 2010

This year we spent Christmas in Utah. We arrived a week before Christmas for my sister Katherine's wedding which was beautiful. Because of the wedding my family decided to spend Christmas in Utah as well so we were able to see both our families this year! It was so fun to see Gavin so excited about presents this year. He loved opening the presents and barely looked to see what he got before he was tearing open the next one. He loves his Mickey Mouse computer, RC car, books, puzzles and football. I think it's quite ironic though that the biggest hit were the $1 dinosaurs we bought him as prizes for pooping in the potty! He hasn't pooped in his pants or anywhere else since we started giving him the dinosaurs so...money WELL SPENT!

We loved seeing family and friends while in Utah. My favorite thing about visiting family is seeing how much Gavin loves to play with his cousins! At the wedding Gavin and Audrey were so cute playing together and Gavin loves playing with Elise and Melody. I have such tender memories when I was little of playing with my cousins and hope Gavin has the same.

We left a little earlier than planned to avoid the blizzard that hit Salt Lake. We cut it pretty close though because a mere two hours after we left the snows hit. We experienced rain all the way home but no snow or ice thankfully. However, the snow found us the next day in Arizona. Yes that's right...it snowed for a whole 10 min in Mesa and Gavin and I happened to be in the car when it did. It turned to water as soon as it hit the windshield of our car, but you could definitely tell it was snow. I had to chuckle to myself...apparently you can't outrun SNOW!

I am so thankful for the Christmas season where we are reminded of what's truly important. At the close of the year Jason and I took the time to look back at what we have learned/experienced. This year has been hard with Jason out of a job, me working full time and then having complications early in my pregnancy, and selling our house. However, when I look back on the year I will always remember it as the year of miracles. We have witnessed the Hand of God in our lives and seen how he sends his angels (our wonderful family and friends) to help His children in their time of need. Most of the year, okay the ENTIRE year, we were unable to financially make ends meet. And yet EVERY month the funds to close the gap would somehow appear. Most of the time it was through the love and generosity of our families. Other times it would be spontaneous reimbursement checks that would show up in the mail. One month the miracle came in the form of a broken vacuum (which I did not recognize as a blessing right off). When we went to Costco to return it for a new one they didn't carry the fancy model we had and so they gave us the simpler model and the $100 difference which allowed us to buy groceries that month. And some months the numbers just didn't add up and yet somehow there was enough money in the bank for all the bills, like the widow's flour and oil from the Old Testament. Another huge miracle was selling our house. We had to short sell as it had lost over half it's value in the market. In answer to our prayers we were able to find a house to rent in our same ward which will accommodate our growing family even better than our old house. I know without a doubt that these miracles came to us because of our faith in Jesus Christ, diligently paying tithing and our persistent and honest desire to do the Lord's will no matter how hard it was at times.

Our family has gone through the refiner's fire this year, but we have come out so much stronger. Our marriage is stronger; our relationship with and testimony of Christ is stronger; our ability to walk into the darkness solely on faith has increased and our eyes have been opened to the tender mercies of God that are evident every day if we will but look with SPIRITUAL eyes and see them. I can truly say that I thank God for our trials. I am sure there will be many more to come since Jason and I have a lot of rough edges to smooth, but I welcome them because this year has given me a glimpse of the individuals/couple/family God is helping us to become.

Through our trials we have really come to see what's important in this life: our faith, our family and our friends and serving others. Thank you OUR ANGELS for selflessly serving our family this year!