One night during Christmas break I was keeping score for an intense game of HAND AND FOOT (I'm not part of a couple, hence the scorekeeper). I was a little bored so I got out a piece of paper and started jotting down some of my thoughts. This is what I came up with. Don't judge, I was running low on sleep and I'm not professional but this is one of the ways I can express how I feel about something.

Christmas
What does Christmas time mean to me?
Baby Jesus and shepherds on bended knee?
Candy canes, snow, and presents too?
This Christmas season, what will you do?
Do we remember our Savior and what He did?
Or do we just buy gifts for the lowest bid?
This holiday season I will dedicate to Him
The light of mine will not be dim
For our Savior’s birth we celebrate now
I will remember Him; but how?
Remember the legacy He left behind

These thoughts at the forefront of your mind
Think of His life and the gifts that He gave
He is kind, gentle, loving and brave
Teaching and leading, walking through the towns
Showing nothing but of how much his love abounds
Preaching in the temples and healing the sick
Using the priesthood, now that is the trick
The most precious gift given to you and me
Is the pain that He suffered in Gethsemane
He bled from each pore for each one of us
Tremendous pain but still in the Lord He did trust
Carrying His cross, not murmuring a complaint
"Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews" marked in paint
His mother stood by watching as people spat and yelled
And slowly, ever slowly our Savior surely paled
He never quit believing or praying to our God
In our Savior’s footsteps we should always try to trod
Every year we have reminders of the lessons He taught
Christmas isn’t about the candy or the presents to be bought

IT’S ALL ABOUT OUR SAVIOR, LORD, OUR BROTHER JESUS CHRIST

So today I got to hang out with Abby and her two youngest girls, oh and the babysitting boy Tyson. Emery and I went and ran some errands because Abby had some work to do and she needed to go to the same places as me so she just made a list and off we went. While driving it was sprinkling a bit and Emery asked,"Is it raining?!" "Yeah, can't you see it?" "No I can't see it, just the water on the windshield." Well Emery....HERE'S YOUR SIGN!!! But I thought it was cute anyways. We continued to talk about the weather and she said,"I know why it rains." I was curious to hear what she had to say. "So all the dried up, dead plants will grow green again." I was a little surprised to hear how close to right she was. Then it was like she was in her own world thinking so I had some time to think about the rain too. Why does it rain? To water the plants, clean out the air...I was having a hard time thinking about other reasons. To make people happy, but then I've heard so many people complaining about it that I had to cross that one off my list. Then I remembered that this was MY list.
-It cleans the air
-It water the plants
-Makes for some great photography
-There's a steadiness of the pounding on the roof
-Mystery :-)
-Romance
Okay these all seemed like fine answers but I wanted to find the answers for ME!! Then the song that I sang at my baptism popped into my head so Emery had a little duet while stopped at a stop light.
"I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain. And ponder on the beauty of an Earth made clean again. I want my life to be as clean as Earth right after rain. I want to be the BEST I can. And live with God again!!"
How wonderful is it that God sends rain to remind us of how we can be and what we should do to be that way!!! I LOVE THE RAIN!

"In our lives there is bound to come some pain, surely as there are storms and falling rain; just believe that the one who holds the storms will bring the sun.”

AND sorry to everyone!! I have tried to post but at the last second I deleted it and then it saved so....ya you can only guess how angry I was hahaha but I'll post a few more before Christmas :-)

Kisses

I've been thinking of kisses lately. Not so much of the ewww gross kinds but of the tender ones, special and unique. But NOW that I'm thinking about it there are quite a few different kinds. So, you can't talk about something unless you KNOW about it so I have done some research on kisses. These range from the simple but sweet kisses that are blown to the kisses that shouldn't be talked about...ANYWAY, I just love kisses. How sweet is it to get a butterfly kiss from a little one? When your cheeks get so close and you can feel them breathing. Then their little eye lashes intertwine with yours and suddenly your heart beat matches the batting of your eyelashes as the little one giggles and backs away. Or the tender eskimo kiss. This is one of my favorites, although very simple. Tiny noses rubbing back and forth, with a innocent little smile. But looking into their eyes you realize that you didn't need to see the smile because the evidence of their love is looking you straight in the eyes. Thinking about these kisses, I thought how wonderful would it be to actually get a letter signed with X's and O's like it seems to always happen in the movies or in songs. I guess the best kind of kiss is the kind of kiss I recieved today :-0 Yes I know you are ALL so interested now!!!! The little boy I work with was having a rough day. When I say rough, I mean he was crying all day and looking outside and running out of the room and everything that goes with being a little boy. So when 5:00 rolled around I was at the door and ready to leave!! But with him, I make sure I get down to his level so we're eye to eye. I tell him it was great playing with him and I can't wait til next time. I need to make sure that he knows that I am talking to him and then I expect a response. Well the normal response is bye with a nod and if I'm lucky he'll actually look at me when saying this. So today I grabbed his little hands and said," Bye Tyler, I can't wait to see you on Wednesday!" All the sudden before I know it he had puckered up and put a wet one right on my lips!!!!! He then said bye while looking me straight in the eyes! Talk about going from one extreme to the other! His mom thought it was so sweet but I was thinking "What the world have you been letting him watch???!!!!" But on the way home I got to thinking about it. I can only imagine him having a conversation in his head with himself. I am grateful for the little blessings like this that let me know that he does care and appreciate me being there. I LOVE KISSES!!!

"I can express no kinder sign of love, than this kind kiss." ~Shakespeare

Grade

For anyone who was wondering about how well I did on my presentation, I FOUND OUT LAST NIGHT!!!! 97 out of 100....I was chewing gum. Oops!! I didn't even realize it!!! But I figure that is still a pretty good grade :-)