And a very Merry Christmas to you.....

I have to admit--I didn't really have the best attitude as we were approaching Christmas Day.  For one thing, I had really been missing Ben and Tosha and her family all month.  Even though it was my idea to spend the weekend in Provo and spend some extra time with Ben, I just wanted to stay home, hang our stockings on our fireplace, and wake up to our Christmas tree. I worried that Jena wouldn't have a good time. I wanted to see our grandchildren and enjoy their delight with their new toys.

Friday night as I said my prayers, I prayed about my attitude and asked for help.  I had been trying to figure it out on my own but that wasn't working.  I have to say that prayers really do help us. Saturday morning as I woke, I finally was excited about our plans and some ideas came to me to help things work better.  We cleaned and wrapped and packed and headed out for Provo in the afternoon.

It is amazing how much space it takes for an overnight stay and bringing Christmas for four people.  I remember those few times we did Christmas trips by plane or car over the years with all of our kids.

And some Christmas donuts to start the holiday trip off right---

We stayed at an hotel in south Provo with a pool.  Afterall if you are going to stay in a hotel on Christmas Eve you might as well swim!

Jena pushing our luggage and gifts to the room

We got Panda Express for dinner and headed over to visit Ben.  We had gotten permission to bring food and to watch some movies with him (usually visits are restricted to 30 minutes-although we have often stayed longer.)  Since the three other kids have gotten married, Chinese food and movies have been part of our Christmas Eve New tradition and it was nice to be able to spend that time with Ben.  Ben had asked for "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" but as I was packing, I could only find our cartoon version not the "Jim Carrey" one that we like.  I brought that one and we enjoyed the much shorter version of the story.  Ben had also asked for us to bring a couple of other DVDs because he was hoping he could keep them on the unit.  One of them was "Legacy" the LDS movie about the early history of the Church.  So Christmas Eve we watched that movie as well.  Not your traditional Christmas Eve movie, but it brought a sweet spirit to me.  How much more has our understanding of Jesus and the significance of his life and mission increased because of the restoration of the Gospel.  I am so grateful for that knowledge in my life and for all of the blessings which I receive as a member of the Church.

After eating, talking and watching movies (and Ben unwrapping his Christmas Eve pjs), we headed back to the hotel and to swimming.  We had the pool to ourselves.  The water was a bit colder than I like so we spent most of the time in the spa.  I think it was the first time I ever went swimming on Christmas Eve.

Since we were wet and changing clothes anyway, Jena opened her pjs a bit earlier than normal so we spent the rest of the evening in our pjs.

Then we had Christmas Eve treats (crackers, dips, crab salad, and cheese) and watched more Christmas movies on TV.

One of the things I felt bad about was not having a Christmas tree in the hotel, so we made our own out of banner paper and construction paper.

Jena's Snowman

(Below) This was Gary's contribution.  I thought it was an angel.  However Gary told me that it had started off as a bow tie but then he saw that it looked like a hatchet and left it like that.  Who puts hatchet ornaments on their Christmas tree.  I still think of it as a angel which Jena thinks is so funny. The hatchet ornament was her favorite one.

This is a "sad" tale as we have had the same stockings for a very long time, but they do not have names on them and the kids always remind me each year which one is theirs.  So in the morning when I was packing, I wasn't sure which ones were Jena's and Ben's so I grabbed Gary's and mine off the mantel but had to wait to ask Jena who was gone shopping with Gary.  And of course, I forgot, until we were in Provo at the hotel.  So Jena used this grocery sack for her Christmas stocking (she thought that was so funny as well.)

No mantel in the hotel so we improvised and hung them up on knobs in the room after our traditional train (very short this year) following Gary around the hotel suite.

 (Gary and I have matching ones so I know which ones are ours.)

And after Jena fell asleep, our presents were placed carefully around the "tree"....

Including the one thing Jena wanted--a guitar case.  (She was a little alarmed on Christmas Eve day because she apparently couldn't see where the guitar case was.  She reminded Gary a couple of times that day that she had told Santa she wanted a guitar case.)  I felt very happy that our tucking of it under a blanket in the back of the car had really worked.  Gary went out into the cold late at night to bring it in.

It had been raining during Christmas Eve day especially on our trip down to Provo.  But Sunday, Christmas morning we woke up to this...........

I am definitely NOT a snow person, 

but snow on Christmas Day is a traditional idea in the US and it was beautiful.

We only had Jena in our traditional morning shot of the kids in their pjs--

so Gary joined in the back as the caboose (which is where he often has been but not in the picture.)

And we opened presents....

Those of you with excellent memories or close family members who have shared Christmas day with us in the past will remember that since Jena has taken over the job of wrapping presents from Gary to me from her sisters she has added her own personal touches on the "To and From" tags.  These are some examples from this year:

This paper was shiny gold so it reflected nearby papers in the photo

From: Santa Claus cute guys.

 My personal favorite (inspired, I think, by the guitars and other rock and roll things on the paper):

We decided to add to Gary's Christmas t-shirt collection with another Grinch shirt.  I think he has wore his old one for the past 10+ years to our Christmas parties and other holiday events.

And if anyone ever hears Gary complain about my love of traveling and planning trips, remind him that he was the one that bought me this awesome book of places to visit in the the US and Canada.

As we are planning a trip to southern Canada in August this year, I have already beginning plotting the additional spots we need to visit along our journey.

After a buffet at the hotel, we loaded up Ben's gifts and stocking (we reused Gary's stocking for him) and headed off to see him.  He had had a good morning already as the local community provides a stack of Christmas gifts for all of the people at the state hospital at Christmas time.  He got treats, a watch, a "throwback handheld gaming system", and several items of clothing.  We added some more clothes, treats, and games for him.

Our car is under all of this snow.

 It was beautiful to drive through town with the heavy snow.

After our visit, we hurried back to the hotel to change clothes and headed off to find an 11:00 Church to attend.  Unfortunately the Church's website doesn't list the times for Church on Christmas Sunday. The first steeple we saw, their meeting was just ending as all three wards in the building had held a joint meeting at 10:00.  However, Provo is filled with church steeples so we headed to another close by building and arrived in time for the sacrament.  We had to sit in the foyer for a bit but it was nice to look at the beautiful art work of the Savior during the quiet as the sacrament was passed. After the sacrament, we slipped into the back of the meeting and were able to enjoy the rest of the meeting. They started with four musical numbers by members of their ward and then they invited people to come to the pulpit and share something about their favorite hymn and then the congregation would sing one verse of the song.  Although most of the hymns selected were not Christmas songs it was fun to sing some non-traditional songs about the Savior on Christmas Day.  I cried through "I believe in Christ" and "How Great Thou Art"--great hymns about the Savior and perfect for the day we celebrate his birth.  It was fun to sing "Praise to the Man" as well since we had just watched "Legacy" the night before.

A couple of friends have commented how they like Christmas on Sunday and I really do as well (Another friend on Facebook posted that she had wished that she had known that their 9:00 Church had been cancelled on Sunday due to snow before she had gotten her 9 children all ready for Church.  Many of the stakes in Salt Lake Valley cancelled Church today because of snow.)  I think it provides a sweet balance to the other activities of the day to partake of the sacrament and gather with other Saints to worship.

We headed back to the hotel to spend some quiet time (meaning a nap for me) at the hotel before we headed off for our next adventure.  The original plan was to visit the temple grounds for both the Provo City Center Temple and the Provo Temple to show them to Jena.  However I had not packed for the type of snowshoeing that would be required to walk the grounds so we settled for drive-by sightseeing and photos.

Provo Center Street

 Provo City Center Temple on Christmas 2016

These people were more prepared and braver than
us as they walked around the Temple grounds in the snow.

A quick stop at the entrance to BYU (poor Jena had to re-hear some of our BYU memories as we drove--the other kids are grateful they missed that part)-- "Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve" . I love that quote.  I hope that I represent that as a former student and graduate of BYU.

And the Provo Temple--we were married here on a very similar blizzard day in March of 1978.  The grounds have changed and been expanded since then, but its unique style and design remains (at least for the moment) as it was when we were married there.

After our "trip on memory lane" which included a drive through a neighborhood to see if the house I lived in during my senior year was still there (it was, although I am not certain which one it was), we went to visit Ben again and play some games (after all, it is Christmas!)

Weird I know to include a picture of the state hospital logo, but it is the factor that has made this Christmas unique,  It is too early to tell if Ben's stay here will be productive and useful for his overall health.  However, it is part of his (and our) journey to learn about his illness and work to develop the best life he can have.  This is a mortal battle that will end when we are all with our Heavenly Father again.  How proud we are of Ben and his efforts to be his best self in trying times.  The Utah State Hospital is part of that effort now.  Nurses and staff often tell us what a kind and sweet person Ben is. We know, we have lived with him for a long time.  We are glad that they can see it too and it is a tribute to the kind of person Ben is in spite of his very difficult trail.

Although the weather had been foggy and overcast all day, when we left the State Hospital to start our trek home, the setting sun was beginning to make its way through the clouds and made for some gorgeous views as the sun reflected off the snow.  These pictures give only a taste of how beautiful it was:

The sun's reflections on the snow made the trees and everywhere it touched look like it was lit with Christmas lights.  I guess they were--lit with "nature's lights".

We traveled to Salt Lake and made a quick stop at my Dad's and Karla's home where Gary was able to shovel their driveway from all of the snow.  It made me wish that we lived a bit closer to help with little things like this from time to time.  Then we headed home to end our little Christmas trip.

It was good to spend some extra time with Ben this weekend and despite my worries, Christmas still came--unlike the poor Whos, we had our packages and bows and  a paper tree (although our feasting was a bit sparse--I hadn't thought through the fact that Christmas Sunday was not going to be the best time to locate food to purchase.  We ate our crackers and cheese for lunch and dinner until we found an open McDonalds when we were almost home around 8:30ish.)  There were sweet moments with Jena and Ben, tender remembrances of memories from the past, and the sweet Spirit of the holiday felt through movies and attending Church.  Christmas like the Grinch learned those many years ago is truly more than the traditions of the day and even more than being with all of your family, it is about Christ, his birth and life, and his death and atonement for us. It is about loving those who travel this journey with us--our families and friends.  It is about allowing that feeling to fill your heart even if you are spending Christmas in a hotel in Provo because your son is at the State Hospital.

And so I say, a very Merry Christmas to you and to you and to all of you!!!