Jesus said - Day 24

3 Nephi 17: 16-10

And after this manner do they bear record: The eye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard, before, so great and marvelous things as we saw and heard Jesus speak unto the Father; and no tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things we both saw and heard Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the JOY which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father.  And it came to pass that when Jesus had made an end of praying unto the Father, he arose; but so great was the JOY of the multitude that they were overcome. And it came to pass that Jesus spake unto them, and bade them arise.  And they arose from the earth, and he said unto them: Blessed are ye because of your faith.  And now behold, my JOY is full.

JOY.  

Christmas is JOY.  

JOY to the World, the Lord is come! 

 Let earth receive her King!

We spent the tail end of Christmas eve with Jordan and her family, helping get the kids to bed and then helping her with Christmas morning preparations. And in no time at all, it was Christmas morning and what excitement there was!  Santa came!

It was pure JOY to be with the children and watch their excitement on Christmas morning.  Even though they will always miss their daddy and some tears were shed and probably always will be, they continue to enjoy the joy of the season.  I'm so proud of this daughter of ours.  She is strong, brave, resilient, kind, good, fun, hard working, intelligent, and a true believer in Christ.  It is a JOY for us to be her parents.

Claire and her family came over and the excitement of the children reached a crescendo as they enjoyed each other's gifts and excitement of Christmas morning!  We enjoyed a lovely breakfast prepared by Jordan and then Rick and I got ready to leave.  It was hard to leave.  I'm not going to lie.  But we needed to go and spend some time with my mother who was alone in Logan on Christmas day.  Our good daughters and their families went on to have dinner with Rick's mom and all the extended family and we drove to Logan.

Mom had spent Christmas eve and morning with my sweet sister Carol.  She was alone when we arrived to her apartment, and she was expecting us.  We ate dinner with her in her dining room with about four other people (all the rest had gone to be with their families) and we visited until we left to spend the night with my sister Carol and sit in her marvelous hot tub.  I'm so glad we went.  It was a sacrifice to leave our own family, but in this case, it wasn't that much of a sacrifice.  She is my mother dear and I love her so much.  We talked about ALL the wonderful Christmases we spent growing up and all the effort she and dad put into the meals, the gifts and just the love that filled our home.  I owe her a lot and it was a good to spend Christmas day with my dear Mother.  She may not remember that we even visited her on Christmas and she will never know that is was hard to leave our family, but I know she would have done the same for us. She may not have many more Christmases with us and I'm glad we could be with her. I also really appreciate Rick driving me there and being so good to my mom.  He is my dear love and he was so sweet and generous to me this Christmas.