Merry Christmas To You!

I wanted to wish all of you a Merry, Merry Christmas! I hope it is amazing for you and all those you hold dear. I will be taking the rest of the week off to spend time with family and enjoy the holiday. 🙂 No new recipes until the first of the year. I will however be back next week with the annual posting of My Personal Favorite Recipe Posts of 2013, followed by a post listing the Top Ten Most Popular Recipes from 2013. Before I sign off  for the holiday, I wanted to share a little bit of Christmas joy with you.

Last week my little family traveled to downtown Salt Lake City (just a 40 minute drive) to see the beautiful lights at Temple Square, and to soak up a bit of Christmas Joy. It seems there is always so much hustle and bustle this time of year, the true reason for the holiday is often lost in the shuffle. I was eager to have my family spend some time thinking and pondering on the birth of Christ, and the amazing man that he was and is.

I have to admit, our trip to Temple Square was the best hour and a half I have spent all month. Isn’t the temple stunning!

In the last decade or so the LDS Church has built a gorgeous  reflecting pool in front of it. Beautiful!

Magical. 🙂

The lights were of course a delight to see…

as always.

My kidlets…

Inside one of the visitors centers there is a really cool replica of Jerusalem at the time of Christ.

Outside is a beautiful manger scene where the story of Christs birth is told.

It’s a magical place, that did my heart a lot of good.

I know I don’t mention my faith very often on this little food blog of mine, but my membership in the LDS Church, and my testimony of Christ and His amazing gospel are two of my most prized possessions. At this time of year I am especially grateful for the life of Christ and particularly his message of kindness, charity and love.  This scripture is one of my favorites…

“And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:32

Leaving you today with this short 3 minute Christmas video from The Mormon Channel on brotherly kindness. If you watch it, and would like to see more inspirational videos,  several more options will appear in the video screen for you to choose from, or visit The Mormon Channel by clicking HERE. For more information on the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, click HERE.

Happy Holidays, everyone!!!!! May it be merry and bright. 🙂