Archive for December, 2011
My Favorite Ornaments And What They Mean To Me
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
I’m sure that each year, as you’re putting ornaments on your tree, you get a little sentimental about certain ones. You pull it out and go “Awwww, this is from when…..”
Well, I have several ornaments that have meaning to me and I thought I’d share them. I saw this idea on an other blog so I can’t take credit for thinking of this blog idea myself!
1. Katelyn’s First Christmas Ornament.
Awww… wasn’t she cute? Being the first baby, I have several “Babies 1st Christmas 2005″ ornaments. But this one is my favorite.
2. Madelyn’s First Christmas Ornament.
Sigh. Another “awww…” moment. Cuteness! I’ll be buying Jocelyn an ornament this year!
3. Our First Christmas Together.
This is actually one of our engagement pictures. (JC Penneys. Before all the artsy, fun engagement pictures were popular.) Our first “official” Christmas together was in 2000, the year we got engaged. I have an ornament that I consider to be our first married Christmas together but it doesn’t include a spot for a picture. 200o was our real first Christmas together.
4.Remembering Our Troops ornament.
I think my inlaws gave me this ornament. I love it because it helps me remember each year to think of and be thankful for all our service men and women who won’t get to spend Christmas with their families for my freedom. It’s also a reminder to pray for their safety and return home.
5.Sock Monkey Ornament.
My family will laugh and get a kick out of this ornament. I had a sock monkey just like this one when I was little that was my “lovey”. My great grandmother made it. I carried that thing around everywhere. I still have that poor, battered thing and it’s falling apart. I’ve had to keep it away from my girls because they want to play with it. But, if I let them, he’ll be in pieces in no time!
6. “Melissa” Ornaments.
My parents gave me several ornaments with my name on it the year before I got married. It reminds me of my last Christmas living at home with my parents. I think my mom gave me this one!
7.Ornament From One Of My Favorite Students.
When I was a preschool teacher I got many wonderful gifts from my little students. I received this cute ornament from one of my favorite the toddlers I had in my class when I was a toddler teacher. I just love the simplicity and quality of this ornament. Wait. Did I say favorite? Of course we didn’t have favorites! Psshhh.
8. Katelyn’s First Homemade Ornament.
Katelyn made this angel when she was four and at her little preschool she went to three days a week. It’s missing a wing but I think it’s so cute. Maddy has yet to make an ornament but when she does, I’ll be hanging it up!
9. Dunkin’ Donuts Ornament.
This ornament was given to me by either my inlaws or my friend. If you know me, you know how much I LOVE Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. Mmm.
There you have it! What are some of your favorite ornaments?
How Our Family “Does” Christmas.
Thursday, December 8th, 2011
Now that we’ve had children we’ve really had to think about the how and what of Christmas. How do we teach the girls the real meaning of Christmas? How are are we going to keep it Christ centered? What are we going to tell them about Santa?
A couple of years ago I learned about the Elf On The Shelf. I thought it was a really cute idea. You buy this little elf and hide him around your house each night so your kids can find him in the morning. You tell the kids that the elf is “always watching” and will tell Santa if they are naughty. The kids enjoy trying to find the elf’s new location every day and are more aware of their behavior and how it might affect what they will get for Christmas. I thought this was a cute idea so we got one. My girls named him “Diego”.
See him? He’s trying to blend in with all my other ornaments, waiting to be found by Katelyn and Madelyn.
We liked the Elf On The Shelf idea until we started thinking about how wanted to “do” Christmas for our family as our kids were growing up. Did we want Santa and his Elf to be the main focus? Did we want our girls to base their behavior on “Santa watching” and being put on the naughty girl list and therefore get less presents for Christmas? After our girls started getting a little older and understanding more what Christmas was about we really wanted to make Christmas only about Jesus. And family. And thankfulness.
We were finding it hard to focus on Jesus when the girls were thinking about Santa and getting lots of Christmas presents. Katelyn started really asking about Santa so we finally told the girls the truth. They weren’t really bothered by it. Plus, they were still young enough for it not to rock their world that the jolly man didn’t really exist! We did give them the order that they may NOT TELL THEIR FRIENDS THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA. We explained that many children still believe in Santa and that they would ruin the surprise if my girls walked around telling their friends he doesn’t exist. I know that “doing Santa” is a personal decision for each family and it’s not my job (or my children’s) to take away that choice from them.
We haven’t erased Santa completely from our home. We are actually going to learn about Saint Nicholas and who he was and where Santa originated from. The character of Santa is actually derived from a man who did some wonderful and charitable things!
We still read stories about Santa and watch Christmas cartoons with him in it. Then there’s the Christmas songs on the radio. But we do all of these things knowing that the spirit of Christmas is Jesus. And we read lots of books and listen to lots of Christmas songs that talk about Jesus’ birth and real reason for the season. I will share some of the Christ centered Christmas activities we’re doing in a later blog post.
These are some thoughts we had that really helped make the Santa/no Santa decision for us:
1. Do I want my kids being good because it’s the right thing to do and GOD is watching? Or because an Elf is going to tell Santa about how good or bad my kids are being and that reflects on how many gifts they are getting. I didn’t want my girls only focused on getting lots of gifts.
2. How could I, in good conscious, let Santa play the starring role on the day we celebrate our Savior’s birth? I felt like trying to do both would only confuse our girls.
3. In trying to teach our girls responsibility with money, being happy with less and being thankful for what we do have, I want them to know it is us who buys them their gifts. Not only do we want to set a good precedent but I don’t want Santa getting credit for our hard work! And trust me, our girls get plenty of gifts. Whether they get 5 or 15 gifts we want them to be thankful for their gifts and understand that hard earned money was spent on their gifts. And that our family isn’t going into debt so they can have a ton of gifts to open.
4. We want them to understand that their behavior is not going to affect how many gifts they get. Being extra good isn’t going to get them more and more gifts and being “bad” isn’t going to make us buy them less. We’re not going to hold a grudge the whole month of December for any kind of naughty behavior and on Christmas morning give them a lump of coal. Our parenting should reflect love, mercy and grace. We deal with naughty behavior as it happens, they apologize and all is forgiven. We don’t keep a Naughty Or Nice list.
The elf still makes his appearance each Christmas season. But it’s not to keep tabs on my girls’ behavior. Each night I hide him before I go to bed and the girls can’t wait to wake up the next morning and try to find him. Then once he’s found they hide him for me. I think this will be a fun tradition to start.
I write this blog post to share with you how we celebrate Christmas and “do” Santa etc. Not to judge or tell others how they should do it. As I mentioned before, each family has to celebrate Christmas as they feel lead to. I hope I was able to coherently and concisely convey my heart on this subject!
How do you celebrate Christmas? Do your kids believe in Santa?
Pregnancy Update:Week 13
Friday, December 2nd, 2011
Meet Quatro! Or, as my husband likes to call him/ her “Mucho Quatro”. Our friend Marian came up with this name for our little guy or girl until we know what gender they are. This ultrasound was taken 2 (almost 3) weeks ago. See? Quatro is waving hello!
I’m 13 weeks and 6 days so thought I was time for an update! There are no pictures of me since I didn’t stop looking pregnant after I had Jocelyn so I won’t be posting pictures until I actually look like where I’m supposed to be in my pregnancy. Which probably won’t be until 6 months! Haha.
So far this pregnancy has been going well. We still can’t believe we’re having number four and that it happened this quickly. I’m out of the first trimester which I’m so thankful about. More for the whole “past the critical stage” than because of nausea and fatigue. Fatigue I pretty much have all the time ( hello, 8 month old who doesn’t sleep through the night yet) and nausea I’ve never really suffered from too much. (Please don’t throw things at me!) I’ve been blessed in that area, I guess.
At 11 weeks I did have a little scare. I started randomly bleeding one afternoon and almost had a heart attack. This was, of course, the day after I got the above ultrasound taken and everything looked great. The bleeding went away thankfully and never came back! Of course I wanted to rush to the doctor and demand another ultrasound to make sure everything was ok. But, I have to trust that the Lord has this baby in the palm of His hand. I’m assuming everything is still ok and I go for my OB appointment today. I’m praying for another strong heartbeat in there!
I’ve had several almost migraines and have literally begged God to keep them away! Thankfully no full blown migraine yet. Those are the bad side affects of pregnancy I dread.
I’ve been diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes already. I have to go back to testing my glucose levels four times a day and eating a carb restricted diet. It hasn’t been too bad. I’ve already lost five pounds! It’s sad I need to be pregnant and get Gestational Diabetes to lose some weight. He he!
I’ve definitely been a little stressed over being pregnant and trying to take care of a baby, preschooler and 1st grader. Homeschooling has definitely not gone as smoothly as I would have liked this year so far. But, I’m slogging away! When my days get a little crazy I really start to feel God’s peace about not having any more kids. I mean, really. I’m having to say “no” to so many things right now. And I feel so guilty about it, but that’s the way it goes at this point in our life. I can’t have any more stress in my life right now. I have to focus on being pregnant, taking care of Jocelyn and the two big sisters and homeschooling. And let’s not forget taking care of my house!
God is good. We’re so thankful for this new little life. We can’t wait to find out what we’re having. Hopefully in January!
Will it be a Logan? Or some- other- girl- name -that- we -can’- agree- on -right -now? (Yeah, pray for us in the girl baby naming area. If this baby is a girl she may go nameless for the first few days of her life. We can’t agree on anything!)
Thanks for the support and prayers.
