Shawna Edwards: Do You Have Room? and He Didn't Ruin Christmas

Shawna Edwards has written one of the most beautiful Christmas songs I've ever heard.

Honest.

As a gift to the world, she's shared this song online --I just wish I knew about it last year! I'm grateful to know about it now. Listen and Enjoy, and please share it if you can --on your blog, on Facebook, etc.
Plus!
What are you doing to make room for the Savior this Christmas? Share your thoughts (or a favorite Christmas memory) at Shawna Edwards Music (here or here) and Shawna will send you a free copy of the sheet music or the MP3 of the original recording of “Do You Have Room?“ I just printed off my downloaded copy and I can't wait to play/sing it myself!

P.S. April Meservy sang it!



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Yesterday, I had the chance to watch the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional online. No, I didn't get to watch it all at once, and no, I did miss some of what President Eyring was saying (I chose to watch it while kids were awake), but! I still had the chance to enjoy it. [And I'm loving the new videos they made!]

President Uchtdorf told a story about how when he was 4 years old, he accidentally started the curtains on fire, the night of Christmas Eve, with a candle from the Christmas tree. He pointed out that in his 4 year old mind, he figured he had ruined Christmas, but thanks to his parents' quick reaction and calm demeanor, he realized, the next day, that Christmas still came. He hadn't ruined anything.

Our four year old, had an interesting brush with fire on Saturday evening. No, nothing caught on fire (thank goodness), but one of our living room couch pillows got "cooked" rather well when he accidentally threw it against the glass door of our gas fireplace. The pillow is black and charred; the glass has a nice film of burned fabric attached to it (even after Brandon's awesome scraping to get most of it off). Apparently, after investigating, I learned he had thrown it against it and left it there, realized what was happening, took it off and then embarrassed, he set it down on the carpet upside down JUST as I looked over at him. I knew he was hiding something under the pillow by the look on his face (I actually thought there might have been a spider underneath it or something) and told him to hand me the pillow. When he picked it up and showed me the black, scorched, torn fabric on the other side, two things ran through my mind in a millisecond:

1. How in the world did that not catch on fire or the carpet and how lucky are we?!

2. Meh.

I was surprised at my second reaction because usually I would panic over something like that --even the potential of something that could happen. But instead, I just asked him to bring me the pillow, asked what happened and told him not to worry about it --I knew it was an accident (although part of me truly believes he had done it on purpose. Exploring. Seeing what would happen, you know? In fact 98% of me thinks this is REALLY how it went down) and it wasn't that big of a deal. It's just a pillow.

After watching the Christmas Devotional and Pres. Uchtdorf's talk, I'm even more grateful I was calm. My son learned not to lie or hide things from me, I learned to react calmly, and we both learned that in the end, things were not as important than people (something I'm constantly trying to instill in their brains). Needless to say, 4 year old Dieter didn't ruin Christmas, and neither has my 4 year old.

P.S. Just for kicks, I asked #4 if he had held the pillow against the fireplace on purpose. He spilled his guts without any provocation. That's exactly how it went down! Little stinker. :)