What I Learned: Tough Guys Turn into Little Boys When Trains are Involved.

I'm typically not too excited for Christmas. As much as I love it, I've always had mixed feelings because it just seems like there is so much to do to get ready. Granted, as my mom's Christmas helper, I have always had to help buy and wrap gifts for around forty people, and somehow that put a damper on the Christmas Spirit. We talk about how Christmas is too commercialized, and too busy, too complicated from how it should be. And maybe it is, but...I don't think it would exactly be 

Christmas without a little bit of the madness.

I want to love Christmas, I want to love the holiday spirit, and so I'm working on that this year. I've got my tree all set up. (A real one this year!) I've got my snowman collection out, and the Nativity out on display. I watched "White Christmas" which is my favorite of all Christmas movies.  I've even allowed the Christmas music to be played on my ipod already. That's pretty good for me! There is a sadness there, knowing this will be the first Christmas of many without mom and dad, but I also know that they are having a great holiday together and that they would want me to have the best holiday as well.

Despite all of that, I was being very grouchy and grinch-like about the ward Christmas party I got to be in charge of. It just seemed like things were falling apart. I had planned it for early on in December, (December 1st to be exact) so that it wouldn't get cluttered up with everyone's family parties and traditions. My committee and I decided on a Polar Express themed party, complete with train-arranged tables, 'dinning car' and 'forest' surrounding our train adventure. I threatened to cancel it more than once, in my head and out loud just because I was sick of having to think about it.

In the midst of running around yesterday, I was waiting for some baking to be done and so I checked facebook where I saw a post asking how to get into the Christmas Spirit. This post was from a family member, who's been through just as much this year as the rest of the family, and I could relate to her feelings. The Christmas spirit seems so hard to come by anymore. There were a lot of good

suggestions from her friends on Christmas-spirit giving ideas. Her post was still on my mind as I went to start setting up the church for the party. I had some amazing help from my friends, all of which were boys, helping me with not only setting up tables and chairs, but putting on and smoothing each table cloth and putting the train center pieces out on each table. They were all willing to take time out of their day to help me, for which I was very grateful for, but then something happened.

In the train sets that we had gathered there was one giant "North Pole Express" train set that I decided to have them set up on the stage. Imagine this, four, big, strong men, army men, lacrosse playing men, heavy metal listening men, all putting together this one train set. These four boys turned into the most excited little boys when we pulled the train set out. I just had to step back and watch, unobtrusively trying to get a picture.

In that moment, despite all the running around I had done all day, and how excited I was for the whole thing to be over and done with, I took a step back and saw the Christmas Spirit in action. I wish my blurry snapshots could capture for you the magic of that moment. There was excitement, imagination, cooperation and just plain fun.

I think I learned an important lesson. The Christmas spirit is magic. It has the ability to let each of us take a step back and look at the world around us and see the good that is in it.  It does not make everything perfect, but it can make us grateful for what we have. Yes, the way we celebrate Christmas in the world today makes Christmas about presents and shopping, madness and crazy drivers on snowy roads. And I'm not going to say that's good or bad. It's just Christmas. But when you take a moment to think past what Christmas has become, you'll see that Christmas spirit wrapped all around it.

There is a deeper reason that we celebrate Christmas. We remember what happened in a stable many years ago, and what the birth of a Savior means to us. I don't mean to take away from that reason, or the sacredness of the true meaning of Christmas. So take a moment and stop to think about how you will honor that reason. But I also think that it's okay to get caught up in the fun and the magic of the season too. Set up the trains, dress up in your Santa suit and have some fun. The spirit of Christmas is already there, we just have to look for that magic in the moments where it wraps us up and takes us back to when every Christmas tree looked twenty feet tall and every day felt like an eternity as the presents piled up under the tree. It seemed like Christmas would never come!  

My parents told me, once long ago, that although Santa Claus does not exist as I wanted to believe he did, his spirit is the Christmas magic and we can always believe in that, no matter how old we get. So my challenge for myself, and to you if you want it, is to just Believe. Believe in Christ and the Father that sent him. But also Believe in Santa Clause and the magic of the season.

"At one time, most of my friends could hear the bell but as years passed, it fell silent for all of them. Even Sarah found one Christmas that she could no longer hear its sweet sound. Though I've grown old, the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe." -The Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg