Christmas 2011

Dear Gabriella,

This Christmas was a special one because I, after being married to your dad for 11 years, finally invested in some family stockings.  I found some online that I fell in love with.  I set them up and asked Santa if he would come and fill them a day early since we would be in San Diego for Christmas, and he did it!  It was also the first year you were old enough to take items out of your stocking and play with them.  Santa brought you some candy, a magna doodle, and a "Wolly Willy" (one of those faces with magnet shavings that you can put the hair on the face).

First, we spent some time with your Nana, Papa, Auntie Ashley and Uncle Chad, Auntie Jennifer, Uncle Jared, JR, and Adelyn.  You had a fun time chasing Rory and Opie around, and you loved playing with all of Nana's fun toys!

This is one of Nana's dancing snowmen (well, it's actually a snow girl)

JR, Adelyn, You, and Charlie.  (I stole these pics from Aunt Ashley's blog.)

We spent Christmas morning with your Grammy and Pa.  This year, Christmas was on a Sunday, so we first went to church, and you wore your cute little elfie outfit.  Everyone at church talked about how cute you looked.  When we got home from church, we started the Christmas festivities.

I guess you had been a good girl because you had quite a few presents under the tree.  One of the gifts you got was a five-foot long stuffed animal caterpillar.  I was strictly opposed to purchasing it for you because I hate finding room to put large gifts, but your Dad was set on giving it to you for Christmas, so I caved.  You absolutely loved it and you named it Chaka Khan (because that's what you kept calling it). 

You and Chaka Khan

You also got this pink elephant chair and a Disney princess chair from your Nana
(You were the cutest little elf in the whole world)

Thanks for the $10 Pa Bartholomew
I got you the purple Leaptop on the left

Although a great deal of our time during Christmas is spent focusing on the gifts and the good food we eat, my thoughts were often turned to Mary this Christmas.  Maybe it is because I had given birth to Charlie just a few months prior to Christmas, but I kept thinking of what a remarkable woman she must be.  She knew that she was to give birth to the Savior of the world, and yet she was not given any sort of VIP treatment.  I was able to give birth in a comfortable bed with doctors and nurses at my bedside, where she was in a lowly stable sitting on scratchy hay with dirty animals surrounding her.  I had the pleasure of an epidural where all of my pain was taken from me, and Mary had to suffer through labor and delivery.  When Charlie was born, Brandon was given sterilized surgical scissors to cut his umbilical cord, the nurses took him and cleaned him up, wrapped him in a nice clean blanket, and then handed him to me.  Next to my bed was a rolling, sterile crib where I could easily access him with the help of my bed that I could lower and raise with the push of a button.  When the Savior was born, he was wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger.  I don't know what the condition of the clothes or the manger were, and I honestly have no idea how they cut the cord, but I do know that the circumstances surrounding his birth were humble.  Although they did not have the modern advances that we have today, I'm sure that Mary wanted what was best for her son.  I doubt that she was pleased with the location and the surroundings of his birth, but I imagine her as such a fine lady that she whole-heartedly trusted in our Father in Heaven.  I picture her not complaining about the smell that must have accompanied the stable or even how uncomfortable she was sitting on the hard ground.  I think that she was overcome with joy because she saw and understood what was most important, that she was doing the will of the Lord.  I hope that I can some day learn to be as faithful a woman as she. 

Love,
Mom