Christmas Devotional

I love this picture of my nephew's first Christmas last year.  So precious.

Tonight was the annual Christmas Devotional.  I have been going since I was born.  I remember as a kid mom and dad would pack all of us up in our church dress and we would watch the broadcast from SLC.  It was always cold, dark, and there was usually snow.  I have looked forward to this every Christmas season.  When I lived in SLC we would go to the Utah Institute of Religion, where we would watch the devotional and afterwards we would have a Christmas sing-a-long.  One year we actually got tickets and went with some girlfriends.  It was so fun.  Two years ago I went to a live nativity before we watched the devotional.  That was a wonderful way to start the Christmas season.  And that year was one of my very favorite and most memorable Christmas's ever.  This year we went over to a family in our wards, where we joined several others in watching it.  I loved the film they showed wish depicted the birth of the Savior.  If you missed it you can view it on www.lds.org.  It was fun to get to know some of the families in our ward.  Several of the men in our ward some of which I grew up with let me know they are looking forward to finding me a husband here.  I just laugh and tell them good luck!
Our tree is up with nothing on it except for lights, still.  I really hope we get that fixed this week.  It looks a little bare.  I sure miss my home and the Christmas decorations that I put up.  There is always next year.  One of my favorite parts of my Christmas decorations came from Sister Middlebrook.  She gave me these old lights that I put in some greenery and placed on my mantel.  I loved turning out the lights and then turning on only the tree and mantel lights; with a cup of hot chocolate it was always relaxing.  And when I turned the fireplace on it was even better. Oh, the memories!

This was our Christmas Cookie Exchange last year.  See the mantel and the tree?  And my previous roommates from years ago.  Oh the memories!