Here on the east coast we had no snow (at least not where I live) but the temperature was brisk. Our church services included only an extended Christmas Sacrament Meeting and a session for Priesthood/RS/YW/Primary (not necessarily in order of importance). The program in Sacrament Meeting was outstanding – I think primariliy because I wanted it to be. The teaching in my ward is just fine because the ward membership is engaged in what is being taught. If we took the attitude that we needed to be entertained each week we would probably be bored to tears – and I’m sure some of the members are – because they choose to be. The classroom is just a forum for discussion and the presentation is usually as interesting as the people who attend.

Many years ago I moved across the country, away from the vast majority of my family and so we don’t typically see them during the Christmas Holidays. We miss them and enjoy talking over the phone with them but in reality we’re glad we have our own Christmas traditions in our own home. If your aunts, uncles, BILs and SILs bother you that much, try spending the holidays away from them. You’ll probably learn to appreciate them a little more and you’ll find that establishing your own traditions has its own rewards.

As for Sacrament Meeting, the people who were supposed to talk cancelled the day before Christmas Eve. So rather than trying to round up new speakers on two days notice over Christmas, we decided to do something a bit different. We invited people to come up and tell us their favorite hymn and why, and then we sang it. We must have sung a dozen songs of all varieties. Several Christmas songs, of course. We also sang Battle Hymn of the Republic for the National Guardsman who is getting deployed to Iraq next month. We started off with Redeemer of Israel (and we even got to sing the 6th verse, which has great lyrics, though they read better than they sing) and finished with I Know that My Redeemer Lives. I don’t know how much people liked it — there was probably too much singing and not enough talking. But the quality of the message could not have been better.

Christmas: not white, but chilly. New York didn’t have much snow, but it was freezing and inhospitable outside. But that was compensated by warm fuzzies as we shared Christmas with the local missionaries — for all of them, it was their first Christmas away from their families. For us, it’s also hard to have been away from family — ours are all in UT, Canada, or CA — so we could all comfort each other, to a certain extent. Except those lousy missionaries didn’t bring us anything…

Church: well, it sure helps when you sleep in on Boxing Day. Sacrament Meeting was OK, regular talks, no Christmas program (we had ours on the 18th). D. played the organ and it was fantastic and LOUD!

I am really glad we decided to stay home for the holidays. I is really a headache going home not only do you have to ship presents and but both of our families live in the same place so they fight over us. It is really hard to decide what you are going to do with who.

:)

Sacrament Meeting: Our Christmas program was the Sunday before Christmas. The choir did the entire program. I have to admit: I’m really not a fan of sitting through an hour of music with occasional, interspersed “canned blurbs”. Usually, in order to fill an hour with song, the choir director chooses numbers that are too “artsy” for my tastes.

However, this year, it was well done and rather uplifting. Now if I can make it through the Easter program in April (must everything be in a minor key?).

Sacrament Meeting: The only meeting we went to (hey, we had to go home and get that food prepared) and it was fine. It was a farewell for someone in the ward (my wife’s family’s ward). Nothing Christmassy to speak of.

Church: We had sacrament meeting only- it was very nice with only 2 speakers (and 2 GOOD speakers to boot). It was our last Sunday in Ann Arbor, ever… :(

The midnight mass I attended at the Notre Dame basilica was also nice.

Can I just add that Christmas was even more inconvenient this year than most? I hate the idea of holidays in general, but I hate the idea of a holiday placed where Christmas is placed even more. It is always horribly inconvenient for most of the country to be almost shut down for nearly a week at the end of the year.

Instead of working, everyone always whines that it’s Christmas and feels a sense of entitlement to be with their families, even though they spend most of the year avoiding family like the plague. In the meantime nobody else can reach anyone they need to because everyone is “away for Christmas.” Those who don’t like the idea are labelled as scrooges or grinches. What a wonderful holiday!

I’m all for worshipping Christ and thinking of Him, but that can be done everyday, and if we need formality in our remembrances we have the sacrament every week. Christmas is nothing more than a materialistic retail-imbibing fraud of a fantasy.

Thank heavens it’s over for another year…