GRANNY ENCHANTED'S BLOG: "Christmas Spirit" 2013 Digital Scrapbook Kit for the LDS Blogtrain

I love being part of the LDS Blogtrain every year. For our December 2013 Blog Train we've named it

"Christmas Spirit." Nine years ago I was very pregnant and expecting a baby in mid December. Clear back in October I did my Christmas shopping and preparations, knowing how I'd be adjusting to our new little one in December. It was a good thing I did because I spent November on bed rest. I have polycystic kidney and polycystic liver disease and we'd just discovered it that pregnancy making my pregnancy high risk. The day that I was officially 37 weeks I got the okay from my doctor to clean my house. Oh beautiful day. It was so hard to watch everyone scurry around doing my job. And as predicted, getting up and on my feet induced labor. Just like that, literally ten minutes after staggering into the hospital I was holding my baby. This is the year I learned what the Christmas Spirit really was. There we were with a new November baby and all of December to focus on Christmas with no shopping to do, no running around crazy, just us and the prospect of loving and serving others all month long. It was our most Christ centered Christmas ever. For the first time since childhood I was looking around in wonder and awe at the beautiful Christmas decorations that were so thick with Christian symbolism, I found myself stopping in to visit old friends and walking down the street to greet neighbors in need. I found myself at the kitchen counter making gingerbread houses and laughing with our children. Every year since then I try, and usually fail, to finish Christmas business early, but I end up saving some time these last two weeks to slow down and remember the Savior, who I am to Him, and who He wants me to be.

So please, enjoy our little Christmas blog train this year. Use your freebies to scrap those memories because the best part of scrapbooking is being able to live your happy moments again again and again and again. That means making those happy moments on purpose and standing by with your camera. It means being ready to look through that lens with love and gratitude for the blessings around you. Time is not something we have or own. It is something we make for what is important to us. Wishing you lots of time and pictures of what is important to you this year. ~Sheryl C.S. Johnson

Blog Train Roll (Be patient. Our time zones differ):