Christmas and Miracles

Okay. Christmas. Yes, I know it's January. But let's pretend it's not. Let's pretend it's December 29th. That'd be a more acceptable date. Okay, maybe we'd have to pretend it's January 2nd. Yes. January 2, 2009.

1. Alaina came and stayed with me the night of the 22nd while she did some training before she left for Mexico after just having come home from Russia - while I finished up a last half-day of work, and then we hit the road. It felt so good to be going home!
   
2. Christmas was bee-yoo-tee-ful. Full of games and good food and time with the family. It always amazes me how much everyone changes even in just one year. But even though everyone is changing, there's still that comfort of being home - and that same feeling is there every year.
   
3. My grandparents live just around the corner from us, and each year, they get lights put on the giant fir tree in front of their house; complete with giant star at the top. It's the most beautiful sight, and one of my favorite things every December. People in our neighborhood love it too...and it's my grandparent's "gift" to the neighborhood. Totally better than the brownies and candies. But those can keep comin' too... :)
   
4. Yes, that is a picture of my mother right after she put her face straight into the bowl of muddy buddies. :)
5. New Years was fun. But we were so ridiculously tired at midnight!!! As you can see. Although...watching "Wait until Dark" after watching the ball drop (which I find lame, by the way...) sure woke me up!
   
6. Okay. The Christmas miracle. This doesn't belong in a list.

The day after Christmas, I left a family party a few hours early to make it to the Bountiful Temple to a session with one of the girls I served with in Nauvoo. She and one of the guys I served with in Nauvoo were getting married in Nauvoo the next week, but their reception and all other Utah things were that night and the next day. She had invited me to go to the temple with them that night, and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. But the weather was not so good that night - the roads were terrible.
However, I was optimistic, and just planned to leave two hours before the session would start - giving me a whole extra hour and fifteen minutes to battle the roads. Just in case. To say the going was rough would be an understatement. The session was supposed to start at 7:00 p.m., and at 6:45 p.m., I finally saw the temple from the freeway. For anyone familiar with the area, you'll know that from about the time you see the temple from the freeway (coming from the north) it still takes a good 7-10 minutes or so just to get to the exit and get into Bountiful. Let alone get up the mountain to the temple, park, go into the temple, get changed, and be seated all by 7:00.
I saw the temple and started to cry a little because I knew there was no way I would make the session. But remember the part where I had been driving for almost two hours at this point? Just to be there? I couldn't just give up! So I prayed really really hard and told Heavenly Father how important it was to me to be there, and begged Him to just...somehow...and I had no idea how...but somehow help me to make it to that session. I said it didn't matter if it somehow got delayed, or if I hit all green lights, or if somehow the roads would magically clear, or could he just slow time down a little bit? ...whatever. I finished the prayer, and I started crying a little bit. But then I told myself I just needed to focus and give Heavenly Father a chance to help me out.
Anyway. I know this might sound silly, but within seconds of that prayer, the roads were suddenly clear. I could drive at a normal freeway speed again. (I had been driving about 30 mph the whole time. TORTURE!) I made it to the exit, and drove into Bountiful...and really...hit every single green light all the way from the freeway up the mountain. I only ever had to stop at a few stop signs, and no one was ever coming in either direction. I drove straight up there, and parked in the parking lot underneath - and glanced at my clock, glowing 6:59. REALLY. I didn't even stop to think about possibly missing the session. It was just too close!!! I ran to the front doors, walked as quickly as was reverently possible, got changed like lightning, and went up to the first nice little temple lady standing at the corner, and glanced at the clock on the wall. 7:01 p.m. Then I turned to the lady and started to ask her if I had missed the 7:00 session, or if she thought I could make it....but I couldn't hardly get the words out of my mouth...I just broke down in tears. I couldn't even stop crying long enough to ask my question!! AH! Looking back now, I'm sure she must have thought I was so silly! But I just couldn't bear the thought of actually missing it and being so close. She told me she thought I probably had - you know - since the sessions usually start on time. Odd. But she told me she'd check.

Not two seconds after she left my side, another lady was right next to me and told me to run with her. Really. RUN. I made it into that session - just as they were about to close the doors. I sat in my seat, and my friend turned around just as I saw her, with the biggest smile on her face, and her fiance, also a wonderful friend of mine, turned at about the same time with the same grin on his face. That's when the tears really started. I knew Heavenly Father had answered my prayer, and that it had not only been important to me to be there, but it had been important to them as well - and He knew that. It's really so small, but I know I never would have made it from that bend on the freeway with the temple still a tiny speck on the mountain to sitting in my seat in only 15 minutes.

The reception and everything else was absolutely beautiful, and they were so happy and beautiful together! But the part I will never forget about their wedding was my little Christmas miracle in getting there. I'd have to say it was probably the best Christmas present ever given to me - besides the obvious one of the birth of the Savior. I know my little miracle was so small, and may seem so insignificant in the grand scheme of everything...but I really learned that night that even the little things are important, and Heavenly Father knows about all of them. I knew that before, but I guess I learned it all over again, and that lesson is a little dearer to me now because of that experience.

The end. :)