Wrapping Presents

Wrapping presents is hard in this house! Gone are the days of putting the kids in bed, shutting the door, and wrapping presents on the dining room table. I don't think I really appreciated how good I had it back then!

Now, there's always someone, with some reason, why they can't go to bed until 11. And we have early birds who like to be out here at 7 in the morning. Which totally isn't a problem, unless I want to sleep. And I want to sleep.

So I do all the present wrapping in my room. Usually on my bed. I guess I'm just getting plain old, because my back is not very happy at all with this arrangement anymore.

ALL my presents wrapped, ready to go under the tree.

But I did, indeed, finish all my wrapping today. In my bedroom. On my ironing board!

The black thing on my bed is my laptop, on which I watched a Christmas movie while wrapping. The wrapping project went quickly, and my back thanked me for using the ironing board!

I'm done with wrapping, the kids do have  few things left to wrap, but I'm done!



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We Are Blessed

Last night, after reading our Bartholomews Passage Advent reading, we were talking about how the kids in the book only got 2 meals a day. And how in some countries, the people don't eat 3 meals a day like we do.

Our youngest, 10, said "Then why do we eat three meals a day?"

I said because we are blessed.

He said "That's a blessing we want to keep."

I want my kids to know how blessed we are. I want my kids to know that Jehovah Jireh is the one who provides for them.

That's why I love this series of Advent books so much, they are full of opportunities for conversations with the kids.

If you haven't gotten any of these books yet, I highly recommend you get them now so you have them ready for next year.

Our Christmas

We have a lot of family traditions for Christmas. We start with decorating right after Thanksgiving. The kids love to hang lights everywhere.

We celebrate Advent with an Advent Wreath and a Jesse Tree. We drink egg nog on the first night of Advent and on Christmas Eve. We always have a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas Eve.

We always bake Christmas cookies including sugar cookies. We build gingerbread house, with everyone having their own small house.

We always have a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas Eve. And we always have homemade cinnamon roles for breakfast morning.

We love to go as a family to a live nativity in a near-by town.

The drive thru Living Nativity

Here are some of the decorations around our house:

Cabinet in dining room

Pillow I bought at Dollar Tree a couple years ago

Nativity Scene

Wall decorations and piano

Nativity Scene and Advent wreath. Yep, kids were watching tv. lol

Christmas Tree with tree skirt I made

One of the pillows I made to put under the tree

Kids stockings hanging on front door

Shelf in living room

My favorite Christmas decoration- Kneeling Santa

Shelf on living room wall

Living Room

Living Room

Candles on the coffee table

The kids favorite Christmas decoration

Here's a short video of the kids favorite Christmas decoration.

We have had Frosty for over 15 years. Every year I think Frosty is gone for good. But he always turns up by the time we pack up the decorations.


I hope you enjoyed this little tour!  You can also read about how we celebrate  Advent  and  Chanukah.



For more Christmas, visit:
Sharing Christmas
Christmas Ornament Show & Tell
Beautiful Christmas

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Tackle It Tuesday
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Uncle Eben's Christmas - A Book Review

Uncle Ebens Christmas by Stephen Alan Slater

From the back cover:

Eben Johnson, the owner of a home-improvement store forbids his employees to say "Merry Christmas", and winds up in a "Christmas Carol" experience, where he faces some sobering realities in a dream - or is it a dream?


Taking a journey into the past, present, and future, Eben gets a more relevant experience than that of the Dickens' story - one that asks an eternal question that we should all ask ourselves: are we individually ready for that which is beyond the grave?


Uncle Even's Christmas looks at the state of an unbeliever who profits from Christmas, yet fives none of the glory to God. It's a story of one man who is surrounded by Christians who he finds as poor, deluded, misguided individuals, yet is in his own bleak sate about to get the wake-up call of a lifetime!

Although Uncle Eben's Christmas has a Christmas Carol feel to it, don't write it off as "been there, read that". Uncle Eben's Christmas goes far beyond a Christmas Carol.

The book starts out by following Uncle Eben around his store, where he is considering firing an employee for saying "Merry Christmas" to a customer. You also read about him spending time with his sister and her 2 children, that adore him, and he them.

Then Uncle Eben is visited by an Angel.

The Angel takes Uncle Eben to the past, in the church where he made the decision NOT to follow Christ. Then shows him how the decision effects his present. And finally, the Angel shows Uncle Eben what his future will be like without a Saviour.

I'll save the ending for you to read. :)

I really enjoyed reading Uncle Eben's Christmas. It is a quick read, at just over a hundred pages. Just the right size for reading during this busy time of the year. It would also make a great family read aloud. There are lots of discussions opportunities available when reading this book.

I recommend Uncle Eben's Christmas for the whole family.



~Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Bring it On Communications to review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Everything Christmas - A Book Review

Everything Christmas is the ultimate Christmas book. This book has everything related to Christmas.

Don't let this books small size fool you. It's full of useful and fun information. I think everything that you could ever want to know about Christmas is in it. From the history of Christmas and the songs and traditions of Christmas to how Christmas is celebrated around the world. Including what they eat for Christmas dinner is 11 different countries.

Everything Christmas has Christmas Scriptures, poems, Songs, Carols & Hymns, Stories and Traditions as well as Christmas Trivia and Humor all at your fingertips.

Since Everything Christmas has everything about Christmas, there are lots of recipes, Christmas crafts and decorations and gift idea lists. Wow! That's everything!

As if that wasn't enough, the book is organized into a daily reading format, for every day in December. An excellent way for the entire family to learn more about Christmas together. Of course, you don't have to read it a little each day. I didn't. To make things easier, the book has an awesome index (6 pages!), making it so easy to find what you look for.

I really loved Everything Christmas. I have found so many useful ideas in this book that we have been able to incorporate into our Christmas celebration. The kids are making one of the craft items for Christmas presents. I can't say which, as people who will be getting the gifts read here. :) I have also had fun quizzing my family with the trivia questions.

Everything Christmas is a hard cover book with a beautiful paper jacket. It's smaller size makes it handy for referring to not just at Christmas time, but all the year through as your preparing for Christmas. The pages inside are gorgeous. They are tinted an eye pleasing color, making the text easy to read.  It really is a beautiful book, which makes it a great Christmas present.

You can see a sneak peek into Everything Christmas, this is a pdf, so it takes a couple of minutes for the images to load. See what I mean about the tinted pages? I love them.

I hope you enjoy Everything Christmas as much as I did.



*This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

Our Advent Season

We have celebrated Advent for over 10 years now. I do wish we had started when our older 2 children were little, though. Celebrating Advent leading up to Christmas is a great way for families to keep Christ in Christmas.

About 4 or 5 years ago, we added a Jesse Tree to our Advent celebration. With devotions, and ornaments added to the Jesse Tree daily, this is a great way to involve the kids in the events and history leading up to Christs birth. This is the book we use:

    

The Advent Jesse Tree gives the book owner permission to copy and use the illustrations in the book on their tree. They also have a list of ornaments that you need to go along with the devotions in the book. You can look around your house and through the ornaments you already own to find some to use. So no need to go out and buy a lot of ornaments. You also don't need a special tree. If you have woods nearby, you can find a little tree to use. Some people like to use a long branch hung on the wall to hang the ornaments on. There are lots of frugal options available.

Our Advent Jesse Tree in the dining room

All the ornaments waiting....I love the giant toy grapes and the stuffed camel....

Drawings from book we colored, David's sling shot I made

Beaded Angel made by my husbands Aunt, wheat that grew in our garden,  a scroll made with toothpicks

In our celebration of Advent, we also light the candles on our Advent Wreath.

Our Advent wreath in the living room

 If you don't have an Advent wreath yet, you don't have to go right out and buy one. You can use any wreath you have and put candle holders you already have inside. Like I did. :)

If you don't have a wreath, you can get evergreen branches outside, or make a wreath out of wood. Or even just put the candles in a circle with the white one in the center. You can start celebrating Advent for just the cost of the candle sticks, using one of the free Advent readings linked below.

We have used these three books for our Advent readings since we first started celebrating Advent. The kids love these books. Ok, we adults do, too! Each book is a continuing story that lasts the whole Advent season, with a devotion at the end of each days story.



Jotham's Journey,         Bartholomew's Passage,        Tabitha's Travels

The three kids are in all three books, which helps to make them like old friends. This year, we are reading Tabitha's Travels. In several parts of the book, she gets to meet up with Jotham & Bartholomew. Our youngest is 10 this year, so I hope we still have a few more years of reading these stories before they think they are too old for them. Hopefully they never do!

We light the days candles and read the story with only the candles and the Christmas lights on. We do this last thing before they kids go to bed.

From the warm family gatherings in the candlelight living room, to the learning about Christ together, Advent has been a great addition to our families Christmas celebration.

Here are some links to help your family get started celebrating Advent.

Advent in Church and Cultural Tradition

Online Advent calender

12 Days of Advent

Advent readings crafts and activities

Free Jesse Tree Advent Devotional Book




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