"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just like people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise.

     Life is just like an old time rail journey…delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride." -Jenkins Lloyd Jones

     That quote came to mind during an activity we recently attended. The senior missionary couples gathered one evening last week to enjoy some time together - playing games, sharing experiences, and enjoying a few treats. At one point, the couple leading our get-together asked each of us to briefly share one of our favorite Christmas traditions. Inwardly, I groaned a bit as I knew Dottie would probably want to share the one tradition we’ve managed to keep up over the years: our annual donning of Santa hats and walking the neighborhood delivering treats and singing, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” Sure enough, as soon as that thought came to mind, Sister Collins leaned over to me and whispered, “I’m doing our neighborhood singing tradition.” 

     As I’ve reflected on that evening, I realize it wasn’t so much the sharing of a tradition that concerned me as I eventually thought of one, but it was that I wanted to share something magical, a memory that equated to one of those “beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed” that Jenkins Loyd Jones writes about.

     Several days after getting together with our friends, Sister Collins and I were out working on one of our mission projects when a Christmas memory came to mind that truly was magical. While our children were young, I served as an assistant principal at a junior high school. I kept long hours, and some days I didn’t arrive home until late in the evening. One Christmas season, I took advantage of this work pattern and decided to have some fun. I deliberately came home extra late one night, so late that Sister Collins was putting the children to bed and reading them a Christmas story when I arrived. I parked my car in the street to avoid announcing my arrival and then pulled out a rack of sleigh bells I had stashed in my trunk. I carefully carried them up the driveway and then shook them outside the bedroom window where everyone was gathered. I hid myself from view and then waited a few moments before quietly walking into the house and grabbing an ice encrusted letter I had hidden in our basement freezer. I walked upstairs into the bedroom to find three wide-eyed children and then watched their eyes grow even wider when I handed them a letter from Santa that had just arrived from the North Pole. I can still feel their excitement and wonder as I think about that night.

     The resurfacing of that memory seemed to open a door and other fond memories of Christmas traditions came to mind: Christmas music recitals, family re-enactments of the nativity, watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” on Christmas Eve (even if I’m the only one watching), the excitement of blindfolded children seeing their gifts for the first time, and many more. Underpinning all of these is the celebration of Christ’s birth, the singular act that changed the world and brings us hope.

     We wish you a Merry Christmas and hope some treasured memories of Christmases past surface for you this season and that you make new ones as well. We miss you, we love you, and we hope you have the "most wonderful Christmas of all" this year.

Love,

Elder & Sister Collins