surprise blizzard

This morning, Santa decided to be extra generous to Utah today and give us some early morning Christmas snow on Christmas Eve. Little did we all know, that this light snowfall quickly turned into a screamin' blizzard. 

Mum, Pops, the brother and I were on our way up to sissy's house for some afternoon gift exhange and quality time when we found ourselves on the side of the road with our hazzard lights on. Surprise! Another early Christmas gift for our family; a banged up car and four frantic hearts. My first initial thought was to break down and be angry. Angry with the amount of "bad luck" my family and I have been receiving and the amount of pain we have felt for months. 

But instead, I took a deep breathe and remembered a phrase from a devotional talk that President Uchdorft (one of the 12 apostles of the LDS church) 

gave two Christmas' ago. He said: 

I then realized the amount of love from my Savior and his atonement. That he is feeling the exact same pain my dad, mum, brother and I are feeling in this exact moment. It was time to reasses my thoughts and feelings rather than being angry, to being grateful no one is hurt, grateful that we are all home safe and grateful none of us are facing Christmas in the hospital or a death bed. 

You may read the entire talk from President Uchdorft here.

And thank you Tiffanie Allen, for bringing me to tears with your inspirational blog post this morning. Below is a small bit of what she has posted about her take on Christmas and how "true love" is the meaning of it all

"There's been an ongoing quoting from a book going around all throughout 2012: "We accept the love we think we deserve." Yes, I would agree. Christmas break has helped reassure me that I am worthy of accepting love, and not just being the one to give it. But what about the love we don't deserve that we can choose to accept anyways? What about our older brother Jesus Christ who loves us and died for us individually to not only pay the price for our mistakes and imperfections, but to be our comforter too. Do we really understand that? Do we understand that He knows it all. He's felt the devastation from every car accident, from each bad grade. He's felt the panic and worry as you did when you lost your child at Disneyland or in the grocery store. He's felt the abuse; all of it, every word, every beating you've taken. He's felt the hunger with you as your bank account is drained and your cabinets are emptied. He's felt your anxiety as you wait for a date to pick you up. He's understood every heart break, every broken bone. He's felt when your heart stops. He's felt when you succeed and your team wins! He knows every weakness we have, every strength and talent that we keep hidden. He knows every insecurity, every flaw, every stress... all of it. And after everything, after we don't deserve any of it, 
He's the one, and the ONLY one willing and able to take it all away, 
to stand by our side through it all. He is there."

But to read her entire blog entry, read Here; Christmas Love

May you have a Merry Christmas and keep God and his birth/atonement 

in your hearts always; especially during this Holiday Season.