Merry Christmas 2017

On Christmas Eve I read a moving talk by Elder Holland given in 1976.  In the talk he discusses how mixed up and wrong the first Christmas must have appeared.  Two teenagers, far away from home, in a dirty barn, shepherds coming to gawk.  That is not how it should have looked in preparation for the Savior of the world to come.  Elder Holland articulated my problem.  I have an idea of how Christmas should look, how my family should look.  Then I feel resentful and disappointed when my life more resembles the dirty barn.  This Christmas was no exception.  My carefully purchased, matching Christmas Church ties went unused for my oldest two boys.  Wilson wasn’t present for any of the family gatherings.  Cooper dropped the fbomb on me in a spew of verbal vomit hours before our Rippy family Christmas dinner.  Christmas was pocked with contention, ingratitude and confusion.  It’s not the way I thought it should look.  Here was the reality:


The scriptures do not record Mary and Joseph complaining.  In fact, Mary’s response to the angel was totally faithful, accepting and humble.  As an avid anticipator and planner I must figure out a way to accept how things turn out without attaching expectation.  The greatest event in history didn’t look  right, but it was right.  It didn’t look perfect, but it was.  The same could be said for the Lundberg Christmas.

Gratitude

On Thursday night I texted Cooper goodnight and reminded him to lock up when he got home from a party with his friends.  The thought came to me that Cooper would be at a party with drinking.  I considered asking him to come home, but new he was 18 and it was no longer my responsibility.  We got a call at 7:00 on Friday morning.  Cooper was in the ER and had been in an accident.  He had driven home a friend who was drunk.  Another friend came to pick him up to take him home.  Cooper argued with the friend to let him drive, but ultimately gave in.  That was the last thing he remembers.  Coop walked in the cold for an hour before finding a house and asking for directions to the highway.  He thought he had been in a fight because he was all bloody and bruised.  The lady who deliver the newspaper found the driver and the police found Cooper shortly thereafter.  They were taken by ambulance to the ER.  Coop had a severe concussion and a compression fracture of T5 in his back.  The driver miraculously had no broken bones.  The car was totaled.  Both of them should not have survived.
This is the third life threatening accident Cooper has had.  It seems very obvious to Tony and I that Heavenly Father has a great plan for Cooper yet in his life.  Our prayer is that Coop will know this too.  Tony said we are not going to talk about lessons, regrets, woulda- shouldas.  We are just going to focus on gratitude.  Gratitude that Cooper’s life was preserved, that the driver has an opportunity to address alcoholism without terrible consequences, that we aren’t planning a funeral at Christmas.

Happy Birthday Marcos

My baby just turned 11.  It’s hard for me to believe that 11 Year’s ago we got the news about a little boy in Guatemala.  I fell in love with you Guido when Ingot the phone call.  You didn’t want a birthday party this year, but we had one anyway.  All your friends came over and had a delicious Audrey cake and then we all went to the first basketball game.  It was a wonderful night and you were in pure joy of 5th grade boy silliness.  You are driving us crazy with the following phrases:  “no peas, your mom, or is it?”  You drive Max and Eliza to exasperation.  On the other hand, when your best buddy Joel’s dog died, you took all your birthday money and bought him a football to cheer him up.  When I asked you what you wanted for Christmas, you said you wanted to go to a basketball game with your brothers.  I pressed you a little further and you suggested that you would just like Wilson's water bill paid so he doesn’t get it shut off.  Sometimes your sweetness and innate compassion overwhelms me.  Your favorite activity is, hands-down, sports videos on the iPad, followed closely with books and basketball practice.  Dad and I love you so much and feel thankful every day that
when everyone else is gone, it’s you we get to end with.