Sunday, December 30, 2012

From Old to New

As this year draws to a close, we reflect upon the many happenings of the old year and look forward to the events of a new one.
This has been quite a year for our family...

January--Julie heals from an accident and another year begins.
February--Flowers amidst the snow.
March--In like a lamb, is Spring here all ready!? Rebekah wins the School Spelling Bee and competes for the Region Scripps Spelling Bee.  The children love holding cousin's baby chicks and ducklings.  Joe and Julie attend BYU's Alumni Ball together again!  (Whew--so glad to NOT have meningitis this year).
April--Arches Trip for Spring Break with Aunt Beth and family.  Cousin Jonas is born!  We miscarry a baby on Easter (Factor V Leiden). 
May--Anniversary (and Family) trip to Las Vegas.  We see the Donny and Marie Show featuring dancer Aunt Kelene (Dave Campbell's wife) and visit friend Cassy DickersonJonathan makes and races his first Pinewood Derby in Scouts!  Sixth grade Graduation.  Schools end and Summer begins.
June--Rebekah and Hannah attend Girl's Camp (but not at Camp Shalom which is still buried in snow!)  Dear Neighbors grandson drowns and family comes to stay with us.  Joe celebrates his 40th Birthday!  We celebrate Midsummer with a new backyard firepit.  We learn at the end of the month that I am expecting another baby!
July--Older girls attend Girls Retreat at Logan Campus.  Jonathan has a SuperHero Birthday party.  Ultrasound of the tiny baby reveals--two babies, one heartbeat.  Brother and beloved Uncle, Michael Joseph Clayton passes away expectantly.  Elfi is readmitted to the hospital (her Lymphoma has returned).
August--We say our final good byes and our sweet sister and Aunt Elfi passes away.  We meet her sister, Hilde, from Austria and speak and sing in a tearful funeral.  Hannah attends her JV Ballroom Clinic.  We host Joe's Family Reunion in Mexico (Puerto Penasco), Mom Clayton falls and breaks her back.  Ben Campbell gets dog bite, Montage Get Away (with S and E) and School begins.
September--One Freshman, One Middle Schooler (at PHS--in the Gifted Program), Two in Elementary (including a bored Kindergartner), and a Preschooler.  All four schools and a tricky schedule for Mom! Another year for Julie's preschool.  Joe's work assignment changes from Actuary to head over I.T.  Brigham City Temple Dedication (with most of the family).
October--General Conference announces new age for missionary service, Ben Campbell and friend Ara visit and stay with us from Korea, children excited about Halloween and making caramel apples.
November--Mitt Romney looses the election to Barak Obama.  What will happen in the U.S. during the next four years time?  We host Clayton's Thanksgiving and count our blessings even as we miss loved ones Elfi and Mike.
December--We see The Hobbit movie opening day.  Snow!  School break!  Family neighborhood gifts of a manger for baby Jesus filled with hay.  Hannah's Christmas Ballroom concert.  Rebekah's Choir concert.  Jonathan's Winter Concert at the BYU MOA and a special Nativity painting to see.  Santa!  Viral Flu and Pneumonia.    

Three Levels of Christmas





Three Levels of Christmas
by William B. Smart
Messages for a Happier Life, (Deseret Book, 1989), 33-34.

Christmas is a beautiful time of the year. We love the excitement, the giving spirit, the special awareness of and appreciation for family and friends, the feelings of love and brotherhood that bless our gatherings at Christmastime.
In all of the joyousness it is well to reflect that Christmas comes at three levels.
Let’s call the first the Santa Claus level. It’s the level of Christmas trees and holly, of whispered secrets and colorful packages, of candlelight and rich food and warm open houses. It’s carolers in the shopping malls, excited children, and weary but loving parents. It’s a lovely time of special warmth and caring and giving. It’s the level at which we eat too much and spend too much and do too much – and enjoy every minute of it. We love the Santa Claus level of Christmas.
But there’s a higher, more beautiful level. Let’s call it the Silent Night level. It’s the level of all our glorious Christmas carols, of that beloved, familiar story: “Now in those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus....” It’s the level of the crowded inn and the silent, holy moment in a dark stable when the Son of Man came to earth. It’s the shepherds on steep, bare hills near Bethlehem, angels with their glad tidings, the new star in the East, wise men traveling far in search of the Holy One. How beautiful and meaningful it is; how infinitely poorer we would be without this sacred second level of Christmas.
The trouble is, these two levels don’t last. They can’t.
Twelve days of Christmas, at the first level, is about all most of us can stand. It’s too intense, too extravagant. The tree dies out and needles fall. The candles burn down. The beautiful wrappings go out with the trash, the carolers are up on the ski slopes, the toys break, and the biggest day in the stores for the entire year is exchange day, December 26th. The feast is over and the dieting begins. But the lonely and the hungry are with us still, perhaps lonelier and hungrier than before.
Lovely and joyous as the first level of Christmas is, there will come day, very soon, when Mother will put away the decorations and vacuum the living room and think, “Thank goodness that this over for another year.”
Even the second level, the level of the Baby Jesus, can’t last. How many times this season can you sing, “Silent Night?” The angels and the star, and the shepherd, even the silent, sacred mystery of the holy night itself, can’t long satisfy humanity’s basic need. The man who keeps Christ in the manger will, in the end, be disappointed and empty.
No, for Christmas to last all year long, for it to grow in beauty and meaning and purpose, for it to have the power to change lives, we must celebrate it at the third level, that of the adult Christ. It is at this level—not as an infant—that our Savior brings his gifts of lasting joy, lasting peace, lasting hope. It was the adult Christ who reached out and touched the untouchable, who loved the unlovable, who so loved us all that even in his agony on the cross, he prayed forgiveness for his enemies.
This is Christ, creator of worlds without number, who wept because so many of us lack affection and hate each other – and then who willingly gave his life for all of us, including those for whom he wept. This is the Christ, the adult Christ, who gave us the perfect example, and asked us to follow him.
Accepting that invitation is the way – the only way – that all mankind can celebrate Christmas all year and all life long.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas 
from our house to yours!
Dear Family and Friends, please forgive me for NOT getting out a card/newsletter this year.  Rebekah came down ill before Christmas and we have been fighting a viral flu.  Currently, I have asthma, pneumonia, and sinus infections.  Not sure that I can get back on my feet as soon as I hoped.   

Wishing you all a wonderful New Year 2013!