Silent night, holy night

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I have spent some time remembering how much I love Christmas Eve.

In my own experience, my favorite family traditions occurred on Christmas Eve. We always had a good meal; some years prepared solely by us kids. I particularly remember the year that I made lasagna and my youngest brother John made three lemon meringue pies. We always watched the Santa Alert and were completely convinced by the news anchor that Santa was indeed, making his way over the mid-west and would be in our neighborhood soon.

For many years, we acted out the Christmas story to the amusement of the myriad of guests we invited into our home. It seemed that Marty was always Mary and I was the angel bringing good tidings of great joy. John was Baby Jesus a few times and Gil always looked good as a shepherd or as Joseph. In the recent past, we have spent Christmas Eve decorating the tree and laughing at all the crazy ornaments we have all collected over the years. That is one thing we are never lacking in our family, something to talk and laugh about.

But my favorite Christmas Eve tradition that we carried on for years and years was that all of us kids piled into the same bed and stayed up all night talking and laughing. When we were younger, we all fit pretty well into a bed but as we got bigger, we would run mom and dad out of their room and pile into their king size bed for the night. Later, we had to be satisfied that we could all fit in the same room, some in beds, others on the floor. But no matter what, we were all together and it was fun.

To me, it was as if the magic Christmas lights cast some sort of spell on us. Usually, if the four of us were in close quarters, like a car or the dinner table or the pugh at church, there would be some sort of scuffle :) Brothers and sisters are like that, always picking and playing, I'm sure at the exhaustion of my parents! But not on Christmas Eve, I can't remember one fight or skirmish on those evenings. And whether my memory is completely accurate or not, those moments of togetherness are dear and sacred to me.

Of course, time passes and lives change. There had to be that first year when we weren't all together for our Christmas Eve slumber party. I was serving as a full time missionary and was in Colorado. I was happy to be a missionary but missed the fun and the togetherness. Since then, there have been less Christmas Eve slumber parties. We've added new siblings to our family, a brother-in-law and a sister-in-law, and now there are two new little Shaw grandbabies crawling around, adding their own light to the magic of Christmas Eve.

This year, Christmas Eve will be quiet. Instead of being Mary in our play this year, Marty will be at her in-laws, cuddling her own beautiful daughter and pondering those things in her heart. And our little brother John, who played the Baby Jesus not so long ago, is serving our country in Iraq. Yes, Christmas Eve will be different. Holidays tend to highlight the changes in life and be painful for us. I'm sure my mom is a little sad that all of us won't be piled in a bed in the next room this Christmas Eve and I know my sister-in-law is sad that John won't be here to play Santa for Riley's first Christmas.

Yes, it will be different but the Reason we celebrate on Christmas Eve will be the same. That's what brings the joy and light to this season of the year. And even though the years will pass and things will change, the light and love the we can receive from that Holy Infant born so long ago will never fade or change. I am so thankful to know that Christ was born and lived and still lives to lift and love us all.

I hope that each day of each year that passes for us all can be filled with a bit of the true Christmas Spirit - the Spirit of perfect love and sacrifice. That way, no matter what changes occur, our hearts can be filled with the peace and happiness knowing that with our hearts filled with His love, we can spend our days and nights knowing that all is calm and all is bright.