Archive for the ‘Christmas’ Category
It’s Beginning To Look (And Feel) A Lot Like Christmas..
Saturday, December 19th, 2009
You probably won’t be seeing a lot of me around the bloggy world the next several days. My parent’s arrive this evening for a week and a half visit and we already have a lot of plans! And….it’s Christmas! Even a blogging lover like me isn’t crazy enough to spend the holidays blogging away. If you want to keep up with what we’re doing you can read updates on Twitter.
It’s really starting to look like Christmas around here! We had a big snow storm this weekend and everything is white. That’s nice for Christmas and all, but it’s welcome to skidaddle it’s way on out of here once January comes.
Keeping this holiday month simple this year was tough but we’ve managed so far! I’ve purposefully made myself not stress about certain silly things and I’ve made myself say “no” to other things. For instance, I wanted to do all sorts of different baking the past two weeks. Well, I left it for the last minute so I was only able to do a little bit. I had planned on making some treat baskets for my Chiropractor’s office and hair salon as a “thank you”. I’ve been going to both for a long time now and I’ve had the same hair dresser for several years! Both are small businesses with a handful of employees so I wanted to share some Christmas cheer with them. Well, several sets of events led me to not being able to do that. And, boy, did I struggle with guilt! And I kept trying to think of something quick and inexpensive I could do for both (I had appointments at both places on Friday). Fruit basket? Gift cards? But I scratched both ideas because both would have been too expensive. I finally decided that I just wouldn’t be able to give them anything this year and that it was really ok. I gave my hairdresser an extra big tip and that was it. I could have let that bug me for days and I decided to let it go.
Another example: Katelyn had a $5 gift swap at her school and I hadn’t reread the newsletter before the day of their Christmas party. So, thinking I had all the correct info on the swap down pat, I bought a $5 toy at CVS on our way to the school. It was a little dog in a pinkish box that when you pulled it’s tail and vibrated and moved all over a flat surface. I thought, hey, this is perfect for boy or girl although with the pink box I hope it goes to a girl. I didn’t know how the teachers were going to do the swap and figured they’d choose the children that the gifts went to. Or something. Boy was I wrong! I got there and was the only one who hadn’t wrapped their gift and didn’t seem to realize that the name of the child( a boy) our gift was going to was taped inside Katelyn’s take home folder.
Duh.
So, I told the teachers I’d go home and wrap the gift and bring it back with the tag on it. They were very gracious and said that was fine. I’m sure they were thinking why do parents not read the newsletter?? WHY??. I used to think the same thing when I was preschool teacher. And I did read it! I just didn’t read it correctly. And it was a long time ago. So I’m all angry with myself and thinking that dog is way too girly for a boy. I don’t want him being disappointed in a gift from Katelyn. So, I was going to return the dog to CVS and find something else more appropriate for a boy, in my opinion. Except that, I had already had other errands I was planning on running during her school time and doing that was going to throw a kink in my plans. I started feeling stress creeping in. Over a stupid toy! So I made myself calm down and decided that dog was perfectly fine for that boy. It wasn’t going to stay in the pink box. Once it was out it looked like any small, stuffed dog. So I went home, wrapped it, slapped a bow and the tag on it and took it back to Katelyn’s school. And didn’t give it another though.
Ahh… that felt good.
We had no Christmas parties to attend this year and I decided to not host anything of my own. We’ve had most Saturdays free, which has been nice! We’ve had to do minimal rushing. It’s been kinda nice! Oh, we’ve had church and school Christmas events but those have been fun and pretty stress free. All Katelyn’s teachers (Dance included) got gift cards from us this year. All of our gifts are wrapped, except for a couple of things. So, now I’m ready for a fun time with my parents. I’m sure we’ll be doing a lot of running around but it will be fun running around.
Here are some pictures I’ve taken recently-
Baking Cookies
Since I have a tiny kitchen and not much counter space I decided to set up on their train table.
Madelyn got a little too care free with the green glitter….
The end result!!
Wrapping Paper Fun!!
The girls really wanted to wrap stuff of their own so I gave them some old wrapping paper and let them go to town. There are several “gifts” under the tree that they wrapped. I have a feeling I’ll recognize these gifts…..
I have to mention that Madelyn is really good with scissors. When I worked in preschool one of the skills we worked hard on with the kids was cutting correctly with scissors. It was hard for some of the children to hold the scissors correctly. Madelyn is a pro!
And last but not least, I just had to share this picture frame. As many of you know, when we went to Texas in October we had pictures taken with our whole family. I had ordered a picture of my sister and her family and my brother. I was having the hardest time finding a good frame for those two pictures until I came upon this one at Kohl’s. It was in the clearance section ($2.50), it was perfect and it was the only one! The colors of the frame go perfectly with the colors in the photos and I love the words on it. I had to post it so my sister and brother could see themselves proudly displayed on my wall. Isn’t it perfect?
I’ll be putting a small post up the day before Christmas but until then, see ya!!
Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
This past weekend we set up our Christmas tree. We listened to some Christmas music (hello Carpenters!) and had a great time. It took us longer than we expected to actually get the tree set up and ready to be decorated. Let’s just say the girls had waited all day for it and we didn’t start decorating until about 7:00 pm. Madelyn was starting to get a little tired and cranky by then.
If you’ve been reading my blog for a few years you know we have a white tree. Mike bought a train set to put under the tree this year and it has yet to stay on the tracks and not fall off. We had to rearrange the living room a bit and put some of the smaller pieces of furniture upstairs for right now. I lost my Bible reading corner for the Christmas season! (sniff)
You may be wondering why I chose this picture to post as you can’t see anyone’s face. I love the lighting and how our tree looks in that corner!
Not even Christmas decorating stopped us from using the potty. Madelyn insisted on playing with one of the ornaments while she did her business.
Daddy has the job of hanging the high up ornaments and putting the angel on top.
“K for Katelyn!”
They dressed up in garland for a bit. They take every excuse to “dress up”!
The finished product!
Thanksgiving Recap
Monday, November 30th, 2009
We had quite the Thanksgiving weekend! Not only did we eat way too much, go see a movie on Thanksgiving day and go Black Friday Shopping we also bought me my Christmas gift from Mike-EARLY!
I’ll share some of our story with pictures.
*Note*- You won’t see that many pictures of Madelyn because she seems to be allergic to the camera. Every time I tried to take her picture she would duck, turn her head, run off or get really grumpy!
The girls and papa enjoying the delicious feast
My brother in law, Bob and Mike bonding over heaping platefuls
Us minus,well, me.
Katelyn adding some decorations to Mike and Bob’s shared birthday cake (Both November babies)
Katelyn and Madelyn also get a turn blowing out the candles
Watching “Planet 51″ with nana and papa on Thanksgiving day.
It was Madelyn’s first time and Katelyn’s second to the movie theater. Katelyn doesn’t look to happy here because she was more than ready to leave and didn’t want to stay a minute longer for a picture. Movies are still a tad too long for her ability to sit still at this point. Madelyn did way better than I thought she would! She was quiet and sat in our laps for most of the movie. I was impressed!
This is Zoe and Chloe. Zoe is the yellow one and Chloe is the white one
I’ve wanted some pet birds for ages (no, really! AGES!) and Mike finally decided to surprise me by planning on taking me to the pet store to pick some birds out. This was a huge gesture on his part because he hates birds. He thinks they’re noisy and messy(which they can be) and has sworn we would never own any.We went on Black Friday to get them. I chose parakeets. I tried to convince Mike to also let me get two finches but he wouldn’t have it. Maybe next year….?
Katelyn and Madelyn love them and think Zoe and Chloe are theirs. I’m letting them think that for the next few years. These are going to be the most spoiled birds!!
This year we decided to go Black Friday shopping for the first time. Katelyn and Madelyn would sleep over at Nana and Papa’s house and we would head out to Toys R Us for their midnight opening. I was kind of dreading the trip but also kind of excited for it. I’m not a night owl so this was to be a huge event for me. We got to Toys R Us at midnight to find a huge line of people, wrapped around the building, waiting to get into Toys R Us. They were only letting twenty people in at a time. Mike estimated that there were about 2,000 people in front of us and 2,000 people behind us! I tried to get a picture of the line of people but a) it was too dark and b) I didn’t want to freak people out by taking pictures of them. We waited in line for almost three hours before it was our turn to go in. So, yes, that would mean we went into Toys R Us at 2:50 am. Waiting in that line that night is kind of a hazy blur for me right now. I swear I fell asleep standing up. It was awful!! Mike actually thought it was kind of fun. He said we were making memories. I sure will never forget that memory!! Their were groups of women in front of us laughing and having a grand ‘ol time. All I wanted was to tell them to ” shut up!!”. They thought they were soooo funny…. Many of the people in line were starting their day. They had a whole shopping agenda planned for the rest of the day. I was planning on shopping for our girls and then going home to sleep.
Thankfully Mike had solitaire on his phone and I played that until both my arms hurt. It was freezing by the time we got inside the store so I couldn’t feel my feet and I was shivering uncontrollably. A catering truck pulled up in front of our line around 2:30 am. A bunch of people converged on them and were buying hot dogs, coffee, snacks and drinks! Everyone cheered when the truck pulled up! I have never seen anything like it! By then we were almost there so Mike and I stayed in line , although I really wanted a hot dog!! I got my second wind as we walked into the store. We got the shopping for our girls done with and left the store by 4:00 am. Since the mall is right next to Toys R Us we saw that it was coming to life so we headed over there to see if we could pick up a couple of things for my inlaws. By then I was like “whatever!!” when Mike asked if I’d be willing to check out the mall. We had breakfast in the food court and then walked around the mall for a bit as the stores were all opening. It was actually the perfect time to be there on Black Friday. It was quiet and peaceful. People were already starting to form some small lines at certain stores. JC Penney’s had some great deals and we were some of the first shoppers there. Unfortunately, we were only looking for one thing there and not some of the other nicely priced things. By the time were were done at the mall and got home it was 6:00 am. We were exhausted. We fell into bed and slept until noon. Then went shopping some more! Which, is when we got my parakeets. That was certainly and experience I’ll never forget. I think we will definitely try it again next year but we’ll head out around 4:00 am instead of midnight. And I’ll have a better list of what I want and more knowledge of what’s on sale etc. We are officially done with our Christmas shopping, which has never happened this early before. I may have a couple of stocking stuffers to pick up but that’s it. That in and of itself made Black Friday shopping worth it. It will definitely help in keeping the month of December a little more calm this year.
Did anyone else do some Black Friday shopping?
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Giving To Others This Holiday Season
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
a) Stress. Cooking. Baking. Stress. Christmas rush. Shopping. More shopping. Bills. Spending money. Stress. Parties. Commitments. Christmas decorating. Long lines. Christmas cards. Christmas pictures. Holiday parties. STRESS! RUSH!
OR
b) Jesus. Christmas caroling. Friends. Family. Smiling. Laughing. Church family. Christmas eve service. Giving to a family in need. Tears of joy over being blessed by someone’s generosity. Unto us a Child is born! Messiah. Oh Holy night. Jesus is the reason for the season. Baking cookies with your children. Snuggles. Homemade gifts. Celebrating Jesus. Worshiping the Savior. Happy Birthday Jesus. Hugs. Joy. Peace
A or B? Which one of these word groupings sounds better to you? If I did my job well then you will feel stress just reading A and feel a lot calmer and happier in reading B. Has A ever applied to you during the holiday season?
The Lord has been dealing with my heart recently about the holiday season. I have really been thinking of ways to keep Christmas a lot simpler this year and more Christ centered. ( Remember my “Life Words” post? ) I was also being convicted of ways to give to others this Christmas in a bigger way than I have in the past and making it a family affair. Our servicemen and women have really been on my heart and I’ve been researching some ways to bless some of our troops this holiday season.
So, after all this thinking I’ve been doing these past couple of weeks, it all came together in our church service today! The youth minister of the church we’ve been attending spoke about Advent (it starts next Sunday), a little bit about it’s history, and practical ways to make this Advent season more about Christ and family than about giving and receiving gifts.
I’ll be honest with you, I had not really heard the term “Advent” until I moved to New England and my family never used that word. Of course, I’ve seen it on calendars but never knew what it really meant. Me being raised a Baptist, I always thought Advent was a tradition practiced by other religious faiths. But now I’ve come to know what the season of Advent means. Here is what About.com says about Advent:
“In Western Christianity, Advent begins on the fourth Sunday prior to Christmas Day, or the Sunday which falls closest to November 30, and lasts through Christmas Eve, or December 24. When Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday, it is the last, or fourth Sunday of Advent.
Advent is a period of spiritual preparation in which many Christians make themselves ready for the coming, or birth of the Lord, Jesus Christ. During this time, Christians observe a season of prayer, fasting and repentance, followed by anticipation, hope and joy.
Many Christians celebrate advent not only by thanking God for Christ’s first coming to Earth as a baby, but also for his presence among us today through the Holy Spirit, and in preparation and anticipation of his final coming at the end of time.”
I think this is such a good definition of what the Christmas season should be about! Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE CHRISTMAS. I love the sights, the hustle and bustle, the parties, the excitement, the gifts (yes, I said it! I love getting gifts!), the Christmas baking, the decorations, the music and even the shopping in crowded malls. I love it all. But, in the past, all of this has caused me great stress. I remember one Christmas a couple of years ago that was so stressful and busy for Mike and I that all we did was fight! We breathed a sigh of relief when it was over and Mike was actually looking forward to going back to work after his Christmas you- know-from-where vacation week. We said to each other that we never wanted to have a Christmas like that again. I’m sure we’re not the only ones who have had stressful Christmases in the past. Which brings me back to the point of this post.
The youth minister today spoke of the Advent Conspiracy . Ever heard of it? Here is a great video clip that describes what it’s all about. Check out their website for more wonderful information on this movement.
Isn’t this awesome? I was totally convicted by this.
Worship Fully
Spend Less
Give More
Love all
Wow. Should be simple to us Christians shouldn’t it? But it’s not. So, here are some practical ideas and ways to give more to others this season.
1) It was suggested in the sermon today to take 1/4 of the money you would usually spend at Christmas, pray over it as a family and ask God to show you where to use that money to serve others this Christmas. I really like this idea and think it’s a great tradition to start as a family. I know Katelyn is old enough to start learning about giving to others who have less than she does. And even if you can’t take 1/4 of the money you usually spend, try buying one less gift and using that money to help someone in need.
2) Give more of yourself this Christmas. Meaning, more of your time to your family and friends. Meet your neighbors. Invite people you don’t know very well over for coffee. Invite your friends who don’t know Jesus to church or to a Christmas church function.
3) Make more homemade gifts. I’m not crafty. At all. But I can bake and I can use my computer to make picture gifts for families and friends. I know homemade gifts are the ones I remember the most. Use whatever talents you have and your imagination to make something special instead of spending a lot of money on something your loved ones may not need.
4) Do more things together as a family and start some fun traditions. We started making a birthday cake for Jesus, which I know many families do. Start a Jesse Tree.
And if you’re looking for some ideas on how/where to give this Christmas consider these options:
1)Give to our troops.
Go to military.com for a list of ways to show love and thanks for our troops this Christmas. Don’t forget these men and women who are overseas putting their lives on the line for our freedom while we sit in our cozy living rooms on Christmas day. Another great way is to sponsor a care package through the USO for a soldier in need. The cost is $25 for a $75 care package. You can also donate at Give2TheTroops. 90% of donations goes to care packages for the troops and postage (which can be up to $10,000.00 a month!)
2) Give to World Vision Or Compassion International ( my cousin Phoebe works for them!) which are both wonderful Christian organizations that help families and children in third world countries.
3) Participate in Operation Christmas Child by Samaritans Purse.
4) Give anonymously to a family in need that you know personally. Leave gifts on their front door. Mail them a card with gift certificates. Have them over for Christmas dinner.
These are just a few of the many ways you can give of yourself and make Christmas more about Christ this year. I hope you’ll join me in participating in the Advent Conspiracy this year. Mike and I had already decided we were not going to buy the girls as many presents this year as we usually do and we’ve asked the grandparents to do the same. Let’s slow things down this Christmas. Let’s cherish the things that need to be cherished. Lets have a wonderful, Spirit filled Advent season. I think God will bless us, our hearts and our families more than we could ever imagine.
