Desert is better

     Recently I went back and visited the northeast coast to visit my uncle and his family. It was so green there and I appreciated the beauty of my surroundings. However, after a week of being there, I found myself missing home. Suddenly, the green place I was in didn’t seem as beautiful as the scenery waiting for me at home. Some may call me crazy, but the desert was more beautiful to me than the lush, green forest I was visiting. Nevertheless, more importantly, I love Mesa at Christmas and it is during that time of year where I feel the most that Mesa, Arizona is my home.

 

     Here in the valley, we don’t receive snow too often, and when we do it usually only lasts for a couple of hours. Therefore, Arizonans are not used to the normal Christmas everyone else in the country tends to look forward to. We don’t have sled rides, or snowball fights, or the magic of a white Christmas, but we have something better. In Mesa, AZ, we have the LDS Christmas lights display on their temple grounds, Merry Main Street, and the Landmark.

 

     Every year my family and I go to the LDS Temple to look at the Christmas lights. There are exactly 1 million lights on display every year! Going there helps my family and me to understand the true meaning of Christmas. Inside the visitors’ center located next to the temple, we watch a movie about the birth of Jesus Christ and his life. It helps me to remember that Christmas isn’t about getting lots of presents, but so much more. I feel closer to my family every year after visiting the temple and that means feeling more at home.

 

      Mesa is full of many historical buildings and what better way to see them then every year at the Merry Main Street Christmas celebration. At this celebration, Main Street decorates its street and stores to get into the Christmas spirit. All the stores stay open late and there are even fun things to do with the kids there. I always walk these streets with my friends during Merry Main Street and we laugh and laugh and just have so much fun.

 

      At last, the third thing I love to do at Christmas is go to the Landmark restaurant for my company’s annual Christmas lunch. The Landmark restaurant was actually the first church built here in Mesa. After closing, the church was later restored into the Landmark restaurant, but still has the same design as it did back then. The funniest part about going to this restaurant is that down in the basement, there are pictures all over the walls of what Mesa looked like when it first started out.

 

      To me, home is where memories are built. In addition, with memories like the ones I get every year at Christmas in Mesa, and year around, I will always call this town my home. I don’t know why anyone would want to live anywhere than in Arizona.