Christmas Letter 2008

For some reason, we are feeling particularly grateful this Christmas season. Perhaps it is because we are reading A Christmas Carol or just watched Polyanna. Or maybe it is because we haven’t spent a week in the hospital with Joseph since January. It could be the joy of being halfway done with law school, the smell of diesel fumes from the Beast (yes, that 18-year-old gray van still runs), or the staccato of gunfire at the range. It might be the comfort of food storage, the invigorating aroma of fresh bread and cinnamon rolls, or the peculiar pleasures of simplicity and frugality. The feeling might be inspired by the views we take in when we run up our nearby mountain with the children bundled up in the stroller, especially when the cold weather keeps others inside.

Joseph, no doubt, is grateful for his one-year-old legs that can get his hands off the cold floor and move him quickly to fun buttons that he can push (i.e. the computer) or books that he can pull off the shelf and peruse. He tells us how grateful he is not through words, but through smiles. For Caroline, gratitude is directly related to having plenty of dresses (since that is all she wears), music to dance and twirl to, and lots of good books to read. Shaela is glad to have helpful friends all around the village, a saxophone that she has started playing again, and an Institute class that brightens her week (the calculus class is nice, but it doesn’t brighten much). Of course it helps to have a husband who is home and helpful except for the summer months when he is in exotic, distant Marine Corps locations like Twentynine Palms. Eldon is just humbled to have great classes, outstanding professors, good friends, and a wife and children who make coming home the best part of the day. “Boogey man” beats “law student” any day. But as we wind down at the end of the day with dinner, baths, stories, scriptures, and prayers, we invariably recognize the true reason for our gratitude: the Babe of Bethlehem, even Jesus Christ.

He brings light to our dark and dreary world. He brings hope to our failing hearts. He brings peace to our troubled souls. He heals us when we repent. He is the Way and the Truth; Life, Light, and Salvation. Each day, we find more reasons to be grateful for his birth, life, atoning sacrifice, and continuing care for us. We hope you do too. As we celebrate his birthday this year, we are reminded now more than ever that He will come again soon. It is our prayer that we will receive Him now and be ready to receive Him then.

Love,
Eldon, Shaela, Caroline, and Joseph Beck