The Evidence of Christmas at 9:16 PM

Seeing as how it's Christmas day, I thought I'd write about Christmas. Now in our culture (western Culture) Once Christmas day comes and goes we don't say anything about Christmas again until next November at the earliest. But, seeing as how I live in China, and there's not much evidence of Christmas anywhere anyways, I figure I can do pretty much what ever I want, which includes writing about Christmas even when the Christmas Season is practically over.

I've been listening to Christmas music all month, hoping that I could at least feel like it was Christmas. It hasn't really worked. Part of that is because there's no christmas lights, christmas trees, wossail, family, friends, mistletoe (I really miss this one), change in shopping habits for locals, or corner Santa Clauses.

To tell you the truth, it didn't feel like Christmas at all until I was wrapping a couple presents yesterday for school leaders. Christmas eve wasn't all that special. I basically sat in my apartment and read my scriptures and played video games, which I guess is what every LDS kid would want to do on the holidays anyways... Although, I did get some phone calls and emails from my family, which made all the difference in the world.

But I've a lot of time and opportunity to look at Christmas from a pretty different perspective. People here don't celebrate it, and in truth, they know about it, but they know about it the way I knew about Hanukkah when I was a kid, which is basically squat. It's one of those things I think you have to experience to understand. The joy that I've had from Christmas's past has carried me through this one in such a way that even though I had nothing of the things I loved around me, like family and friends, I've been fine. I could go on for ages about how much I love Christmas with my family, and how much happiness it's brought me in my life, but you would already understand and probably find it boring, but I think it's a point worth making and here's why.

When there's no evidence of Christmas, at least no visible evidence - mistletoe, Christmas trees, presents, stockings, tinsel you can see things a little more clearly. By you I mean the general you, not you the reader specifically. I mean to say that with out all the physical things, I've thought a lot more about all the things that really matter, the things we celebrate at Christmas. Our friends, our family, the spirit of giving and love, and our savior are the things that I celebrate at Christmas. Those are the things that really matter to me, and something dawned on me in the last 24 hours. Those things don't go away when the new year comes around. We may put away our Christmas decorations, take down our Christmas tree, and watch the reds and greens fade away from city centers, but all the things that I really love are still around. Maybe I don't have vacation time anymore to see them, but my family is still there. They still love me. The Savior is always there, and he always watches out for me. He doesn't care if it's Christmas, even in this remote part of the world where I'm farther away then ever before from everything I have known. I know He is mindful of me and has helped shape the experiences around me so they could be for my good. He was there for me before, and will be there for me after.

Now, my readers need not think that I'm not a fan of gifts, stockings, wossail, or mistletoe. I'm actually a big fan of all of the above, BUT thank goodness that family and all the other things that really matter are around more than once a year.