On Christmas

The Brewer family often does letter gifts for their family. Each year everyone is given a topic to write on and submit. The letters, stories, and/or pictures are compiled and copied and each family receives a set. This year our topic was on Christmas. We REALLY enjoyed reading all of them on Christmas Day from everyone. Carl and I decided to do a little different spin on our letters and write them to our unborn child. Carl wrote all about the tradition of decorating cookies, complete with descriptions of particular cookies from Christmas' past. I wrote a bit more of a traditional letter, a 'reason for the season' type and for posterity's sake thought I'd share it here.

December 2010

Dear Baby Brewer:

During this Christmas season we are full of anticipation and excitement. We are so excited to have you come into our family. We can’t wait to meet you and watch you grow! We are also excited for all the delicious treats that come around at Christmastime. I’ve been anticipating listening to Christmas music since September. There’s always the anticipation and excitement of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I look forward to the tradition of fondue dinner on Christmas Eve and, of course, the presents on Christmas Day. I often look forward to people opening the gifts I got FOR them more than the presents that have my name on it. I love this season! I love sitting by the Christmas tree decorated with twinkling lights, fire ablaze in the fireplace, and a mug of hot chocolate in my hand.

I hope that you’ll come to love and anticipate these traditions with our family too, but most of all, I hope and pray that we can all always remember the true ‘reason for the season’. Amid the anticipation of all the fun things at this time of year I hope we remember the great anticipation the world had of the Savior coming to the Earth. I hope we can remember the excitement of the Son of God making his appearance here to live a life that we could try to emulate, to teach us the importance of love and forgiveness, to give hope to the poor in spirit, and ultimately to die for each one of us so that we could return to our Heavenly Father someday. There is no better gift He could have given us.

As I have been pregnant with you during this holiday time I have thought more and more about Mary. Your father and I have felt so grateful that our Heavenly Father has entrusted us with your care. He is relying on us to teach you the best we can and raise you in righteousness. I can’t imagine the pressures Mary felt knowing that she was being entrusted to bear and raise the Savior of the world. I’m grateful for her faithfulness and example…and grateful I won’t have to cross a desert on a camel when I’m 9 months pregnant!

You’ll see as you grow up in our home that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the most important thing to us. We try to base every decision we make on how our Father in Heaven would want us to live. We try to follow our Savior’s perfect example by giving service, loving our neighbors, and giving glory to God. We do our very best everyday to live the gospel. We are not perfect. We falter. And for this reason we are ever grateful for the Atonement. You will mess up too – and we will love you anyway. Someday you’ll have to make your own choice whether to attend church, whether to live the gospel as you’ve been taught, and to gain your own testimony. We hope you’ll choose what we have found to be the greatest joy in our lives. We hope we’ll have been able to show you the tremendous blessings that come from living God’s way. It gives us hope when times are rough, direction when we aren’t sure which way to turn, and the knowledge of our potential eternal family that brings indescribable happiness and comfort. We want nothing less than this happiness for you.

We love the Savior and His gospel. We love our families. Know that we love each other…and we love you already. Merry Christmas, little one.

-Mom