None of the LaMar and Marilyn Holt family kids can deny the fun that was spent on Christmas Eve with our cousins the McIntires. While some of that fun may have been things that we'd want to sweep under the rug and forget about they were all caught on vhs video tape by Dad. I remember Dad setting up the camera in the entry way holding it there with the huge box that held the vhs tape in tow as well. Its interesting that those videos only rarely surface with all of the back ache that must have come along with them.
Every year for Christmas Eve our family would get together with the McIntires. We'd switch years. One year at our house, the next year at their house. There were usually some games attached with some kind of food. There was always a white elephant gift exchange. Many of those white elephants, like the jar of shredded cash from Dad's office desk, returned to the white elephant gift exchange as regularly as the white elephant gift exchange did itself year after year. While the rules of the game changed year after year slightly, the game was always played and still is even though we don't get together with the McIntires hardly at all now that we all have our own families. That same night we'd usually sing some Christmas songs and growing up the kids would all perform the songs they were practicing on the piano or other various instruments - Alisha even broke out the accordion one year.
The reason for the vhs tape not coming out regularly is because it may be seen as a form of blackmail. The film, though none of us really knew it then, captured all of our fine moments of singing, playing the piano, and acting. Each year we would all dress up in various outfits from robes to twinkly halos to perform the nativity. This usually included the typical Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus - sometimes with a doll, others with the newest cousin addition. It also included various animals, shepherds, wisemen (and women - depending on the year). While each year we got together and had fun playing games and singing, we knew that our parents believed in the birth of Jesus. We also learned that we celebrated Christmas each year because of the birth of Jesus. One of the many things that each of the LaMar Holt family kids were blessed with was a set of parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents that all had faith in our Heavenly Father and a testimony of Jesus Christ. This was shared throughout our growing up years not only through their words, but through activities like this that helped us understand their beliefs - and how to act on those beliefs.
The nativity has continued. We do it each year that we get together with the LaMar Holt family. Kelly and I also have started a tradition with our boys and their friends on the street. Each year we get together with them and share a brief (5 minute max) reading of the nativity while the kids "act" it out. Most of the fun is in getting together with friends, dressing up, and eating some fun, festive snacks afterwards, but I hope this tradition will instill in our children's minds not only the "reason for the season" but also the testimonies that Kelly and I have of our Father in Heaven and our Savior, Jesus Christ. I also hope it will carve out a little memory in their minds of fun times and things to look forward to each year, just as I did growing up. As I've written many times over the past few weeks, I am amazed at the effort our parents went through to serve each of their kids. The time, effort, anxiety and sometimes fear that goes into lessons, activities, planning and praying is endless. I pray that my children will have the same blessings that I did growing up and will not be one of the lost generations spoken of in the scriptures. Thank you to Mom and Dad, aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends and neighbors, for directing me and keeping me on the path.
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