Christmas Eve Program

For Christmas Eve every year we have two traditions that we do, first that morning we have everyone out for a brunch and secondly that night we get together at Branden's families house for a Christmas Eve program, a delicious dinner, the first gift of Christmas and a story.  We all met and enjoyed hors d' oeuvres and revealed our "Secret Service" person.  My in laws decided to start this new thing this year and I absolutely loved it.  We drew names and we had to perform a service for that person without letting them know that you had their name.  I had my father in law and Branden had my sister in law Lindsay.  I wanted to do a couple of things for my father in law but only one was able to work out.  I took him lunch on a day that he was not able to get out and get something to eat.  I got him his favorite lunch Panda Express.  It was so fun to do something nice for him on a random day, it kind of made me think that I need to do these things more often for people and not only because I was assigned to. Branden wanted to do something nice for Lindsay but had a difficult time deciding and then she ended up in the hospital so he sent her some flowers to brighten her day.  From what we heard she absolutely loved them.  She said they made her smile everyday.  It was so great to make someone elses day for them but it was also fun to be the ones to receive the service.  One day when I was dropping off the kids at my mother in laws house she had provided me with a lunch that day and sent some goodies for my clients and ALSO sent home dinner that night.  She also took the kids early one day for me so I could get some Christmas shopping done.  She went out of her way to serve me and I was so grateful for the lunch because it just so happened that I didn't take one that day.  She serves me every week by taking my boys so I can work.  My sweet brother in law Jared had Branden and he asked multiple times to take the kids so that we could go out on a date and spend some time together.  The one day that we had planned to go out Branden got the flu, something always came up so we never got to go.  He made a huge effort to serve Branden and was very persistent on trying.  We thought it was a really fun way to give this Christmas season. 
We continued the night with enjoying our wonderful turkey dinner with all the trimmings and the table scape that my mother in law set up was absolutely beautiful.  It had the Christus in the center of the table which is the center of Christmas.  It was wonderful, the food was so good.  We decided this year since Lindsay was in the hospital it didn't feel right to have the whole Christmas program without her.  Every year my in laws come up with a theme for the new year. We have post poned the theme revealing until a time when we can do it with Lindsay.  We headed over to the hospital and watched a short film that was absolutely wonderful and had the opportunity to share our testimonies with the family.  I love hearing the testimonies from the ones I love most.  I love hearing how they feel about the Gospel and about our Savior.  It was a very emotional night and one that will never be forgotten.  I heard more than one family member say that this year they really learned the true meaning of Christmas.  We learned a lot just from having Lindsay in the hospital, there are a lot of things that we needed to realize this season and we are thankful that we had the opportunity to realize them.  We headed home and waited for SANTA to come!