You're not going to be here. For a few minutes, you can leave the hustle of the season behind while we take you to Bethlehem,

a place we've spent much time.

Come on an armchair journey.

Hello, we're Scott and Maureen Proctor, and this is Meridian magazine's

Come Follow Me, Podcast.

Today we are celebrating Christmas,

and the title of the lesson is Good Tidings of Great Joy.

Scott, we have 11 children,

and so Christmas Eve for us when they were young could be daunting.

After they went to sleep, our Christmas work was just beginning and it was such a big job. I remember being exhausted and looking at the

instructions for toys that needed some assembly and seeing that there were 37

steps and thinking how could we ever do it?

Yes, I remember that on that circle where we lived,

lights would be on in every house around us

where parents were working away,

and then one by one they would go out as parents

finish their jobs but not for us with the extensive work we had to do our light

was always to last on 1 a.m. 2 a.m. sometimes 3 a.m. or later. So tired. We almost hurt. When we were finished all

11 children had a spread of presents that looked like Santa

sleigh had overturned.

And two dead parents.

Those were wonderful times and tough times being that tired.

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