The Christmas season is finally here!

Last Thursday was a great feeling. I finally turned in all of my assignments for the semester and now I can finally start focusing my attention on two things: (1) Christmas, and (2) Finals. This past week Jill and I journeyed across the street, over to Smith's grocery store to buy our first Christmas tree. We also drove to a couple stores to get a tree stand, lights, and some ornaments--it's finally starting to feel like Christmas! What really made the season feel more like Christmas though was going to the annual Bonneville stake Christmas concert to see Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband, Sam Payne, and many other famous LDS irish music ensemble musicians. They performed many traditional Christmas songs and hymns while also adding their "bluegrass" flavor, which made the performance all the more better. It was a great show that helped me really start feeling the Christmas spirit this season.

The hard part of this time of year is trying to balance the joy of the Christmas season while preparing for a stressful week of finals. Christmas is associated with love, service, giving, gratitude, and peace while finals week is associated with stress, hatred, frustration, and...well...anything BUT being happy...except for when the week is over. When I compare these two opposites, it's hard to focus on the positive but I've decided to anyways. I've realized that it's such a huge blessing to be a student at BYU and to be able to further my education and become a better person. Finals is a stressful time but I'm becoming a better person because of these tests--and isn't that what life's all about--become a better person? I've said goodbye to Jill for the week because I'll only see her for a few hours at most but when the week is over, It's Christmas time..and let the joy begin!