Like this little nativity set that was mine as a child. Caroline absolutely loves it and in her own words, loves to tell Harris the Christmas story at breakfast every morning. Melts my heart!
Sometimes it gets a little off, like "Harris this is baby Jesus' brother and he sat next to baby Jesus in the manger so he could have a friend" :)
This year we let the kids pick out and decorate their own tree for their room.
Caroline's was, of course, pink and decorated with princesses. She is such a girly girl!
Sweet thing has redecorated it and played with the ornaments over and over again. This is the beauty of the kids having their own trees - it keeps them away from the ornaments on the big tree!
Harris found a real tree just his size and chose colored lights. Instead of buying ornaments, I thought it would be a good place to put our homemade ornaments that we are going to make this year.
there is nothing like going shopping for trees in shorts and camo - ha!
As for our real tree, it took us quite a while to find the perfect one. For those of you that know Jeff, you may remember that he is VERY serious about the tree search. This year it took 3 lots to find the perfect one. I give him a really hard time about it, but truth is it makes my heart so happy to have a husband that gets into family traditions and Christmas time. He really is the best!
Clark Griswold, hard at work
success!
"The goal of Christmas traditions is not to do the most elaborate and difficult things, but to help your children love Jesus, revere Him, enjoy His story, to transport the beauty of the Christmas carols so deeply into their hearts... that when they hear the familiar carols as adults, it will flood them with deep memories cherished even from the rocking chair of their mother... We need to look at little children as Jesus did–they have innocent hearts, they freely love, they adore great stories, surprises, fun and giggles–they want to be generous and give of themselves without self-consciousness. And so we approach the season with their sweet minds in consideration."
-Sally Clarkson
"The goal of Christmas traditions is not to do the most elaborate and difficult things, but to help your children love Jesus, revere Him, enjoy His story, to transport the beauty of the Christmas carols so deeply into their hearts... that when they hear the familiar carols as adults, it will flood them with deep memories cherished even from the rocking chair of their mother... We need to look at little children as Jesus did–they have innocent hearts, they freely love, they adore great stories, surprises, fun and giggles–they want to be generous and give of themselves without self-consciousness. And so we approach the season with their sweet minds in consideration."
-Sally Clarkson
I've been thinking a lot about Christmastime and how to instill a desire in my children to give instead of focusing on getting. It's such a balance! Of course we want to bless them with good gifts just like our heavenly Father, but it seems to me that one of the greatest gifts we can give them is a heart to serve others. That's why I've tried really hard this season to keep the focus on giving instead of getting. It's funny how Jeff and I have not even mentioned the word list or Santa or "what do you want for Christmas this year?" and yet Caroline has already picked up from her surroundings that Christmas is about getting presents. I hope and pray that God gives us the wisdom to know how to find that balance - of blessing and yet keeping the focus on Jesus.
On that note, this is one reason why I love celebrating advent and attempting to do something special with my little ones everyday leading up to Christmas. I say "attempting" because I know full well that there will be times when the daily interruptions of life will not allow for another craft or outing. But, we will try our best and it really helps us focus one day at a time on what the Christmas season really means, while also enjoying a few little blessings along the way.
We've also been doing our little devotionals that go along with the calendar and it has been (mostly) a success :) There have been moments of fighting over the cards or who gets to place the ornament and Jeff and I just look at each other and laugh. But, the beauty of it is that we make it a habit, but Jesus knows we are all a mess and need his grace daily - that's the best part of the Christmas story, right?? Jesus came because we had no way to help ourselves. He gives us beauty instead of ashes! But, anyway, it has been nice for us to develop a habit of reading the Word every night before dinner.
On to the pictures!
Here are some things we did before advent started...
Caroline's school had an operation Christmas child drive and we joined in on the fun.
There are so many reasons why I love Samaritan's Purse! But, this project has to be my favorite. It was so tangible for my kids, to be able to pick the gender and age of the child they are buying for. We hit up the Target dollar bin section and found most of the goodies there. The best thing is that you can now track your box and find out which country it went to! I can't wait to see where it ended up. When we lived in Mexico, a team from the states came to the orphanage to deliver similar boxes to the children and I will never forget how excited they were to get their own special box from a family that cared about them. Lord willing, I can't wait see that look on a child's face again!
A few weeks ago when BG was here we went to Sierra Madre for dinner and they were having a tree lighting party. We got to ride on a horse-drawn carriage!
Day 2 of advent - new Christmas PJs! (well, not really new - C's were a steal from a consignment sale!)
Day 3 & 5 - hot chocolate and the Polar Express!
confession - daddy was out of town last week and I swapped the cards so we could do this twice. We were in survival mode! I guess I have another year until Caroline can read and I won't be able to get away with this anymore :)
Day 4 - snow playdough!
We also went to a drive-through nativity. I was just me and the kids, so no pictures. And, the kids got to open their Christmas ornaments & books for the year. The goal is not to collect more stuff, but so that the kids, when the are grown, will have their own special box of books and ornaments with a memory from each year. Harris got a little football ornament and the book "Humphrey's First Christmas". Caroline's ornament was little ballet slippers and her book was "The Crippled Lamb". As for baby Hannah, she received "The Pine Tree Parable" and we are working on a salt dough footprint ornament for her first Christmas - still haven't perfected it yet. Anyone have a recipe they would like to share that is smooth and doesn't crack??
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing all of this! makes me feel like we experienced it to! I love your mentality behind the Advent activities- a reminder of sinners who are a mess and need Jesus! Great reminder. Such sweet pictures too. I love the one of Harris at the dollar section and sweet caroline in her ballet gear! I tried salt dough with 4c flour and 1c salt and some water and they never got that hard, especially the bigger ones. Send me your success recipe!
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