The Count Down BEGINS!

Now that Thanksgiving is over I can officially start the countdown to CHRISTMAS! I love the Christmas season. And not just because it's a time of year where I can ask my parents to give me things that I really don't want to buy myself. Since I love making lists, let me list the top ten reasons that I love Christmas!!!

1. The smells. MMMMM I love Christmas smells. Like when you go to the mall and you get to smell those yummy glazed almonds! And coming home to the smell of homemade caramel and fudge! And pumpkin and cinnamon too! Oh, and don't forget the smell of Christmas trees! Come on, admit it Scrooge, that alone is worth celebrating.

2. Hot Chocolate. My family is full of hot-chocolate drinkers. My parents both love it so we have a huge variety of flavors in our cupboard like mint chocolate, raspberry chocolate, peanut butter chocolate, hazlenut, regular, and there are other ones I'm sure but you get the idea. I love hot chocolate.

3. The excuse to give. Let's face it, it would really be ideal if we could give to the poor all year round, but that just isn't reasonable for all of us. We have other things to worry about and deal with. But I love that service and love are so highly emphasized this time of year. It is the time of year where people dedicate their time to standing outside stores in the freezing cold winter weather to collect any amount of money that people are willing to give. It's the time where my friends and I go around from neighborhood to neighborhood caroling for money that we use to provide gifts for those in need. It's a time where we really can have the excuse to focus on other people! I love it.

4. Everyone is happier. I realize there are exceptions like those that hate Christmas due to some past event in their childhood or have chip on their shoulder about whatever it may be, but I think overall people in general love giving and getting gifts to their loved ones, like to be reminded of the important things in life, and enjoy the Christmas buzz that can't be avoided this time of year.

5. It makes the snow a little more bearable. I hate snow...but having snow on Christmas is not that bad.

6. The LIGHTS! If you know me, you know that I like things that catch attention. Like big, bold prints, bright colors, rhinestones, diamonds, anything shiny, and anything big. Therefore, Christmas lights are like my thing. I love love love going around to look at the lights that people put up on their houses. I also love the lights that are on Christmas trees. It just makes them so pretty!

7. Having family around. I love having all of my family come into town and be together. I have a huge family and having all of us together all at once is rare. So I love that Christmas gives us all a time that we can get work off and get together to do some good wholesome celebrating :)

8. The music. I love Christmas music. It can match any mood that you may have and it all has a good meaning! No sexual dirty nasty hidden meanings. Well, unless you're a Lady Gaga fan. Have you heard her song Christmas Tree? Wow...that's all I have to say. I love singing Christmas hymns in church. By far one of my fav fav FAV parts of Christmas. One time when I was in seminary we almost an entire day just singing Christmas hymns. It was one of the best things I've ever done.

9. Traditions. My family is HUGE into traditions. It could be because that's just how my family is, but it's probably because my parents are more obsessed with Christmas than I am. Therefore, we have things that we do every single year and I love those things! Making goodies for neighbors, doing secret santa, and don't even get me started on Christmas Eve/Christmas morning. We have had the same traditions for those two days my entire life and we have rarely, if ever, ventured away from those traditions. Maybe in another post I will go into more detail about those two days. In fact, yes, I will. I will dedicate a whole blog post to describing my Christmas eve/morning traditions.

10. Last but certainly NOT least...focusing on the Savior Jesus Christ. Wow, I'm getting old because as I was typing that I got that stinging feeling in my nose/eyes that felt like I was going to start crying. I love my Savior so much and I love learning more about Him and His life here on the earth. I am so grateful for the faith and strength of Mary and Joseph, that they were able to give birth to the Son of God! I am so entirely grateful that Jesus Christ was born onto this earth to help us and to dedicate His life to us. I understand how some people get sort of worked up about this because this shouldn't be the only time of the year that we focus on Jesus Christ, and I agree with that, but at least we have a time of year to focus on Him! What a great opportunity to give as He did, to serve as He did, and to love as He did. I love having that focus in my life this time of year and I believe wholeheartedly that it is the reason that people are so happy this time of year! Ahh I could go on forever. I love it!

So there you go folks. If that didn't get you excited for Christmas then...you're hopeless! Hahaha just kidding. But you should probably get working on that. So Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!