A Great Christmas Idea

Blake and I are going to be at our house this year on Christmas day with our kids (something that has never happened before!). We are sad to not be with family in Oklahoma and to not be down with my family sooner, but we are really excited to start some traditions of our own and be able to celebrate this day with our little family! I have been thinking a lot about traditions and what kind of things we want to incorporate into our family during the Christmas season. We have been reading Advent passages (not 100% faithfully mind you!) to prepare our hearts for the true meaning of this season, when Jesus "who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant,being born in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:6-7).

I have loved reading what other people do during the Christmas season with their families and have tried to find ideas that will point us back to Jesus. I want to share a very simple, but I think very effective idea to get our hearts and minds in the right place.

"I thought of you..."

On Christmas mornings ever since my now six foot tall sons (3) were little, we GIVE our gifts. The pile by each person has the gifts they are giving, not getting, and "I thought you could use this Dad" or "I thought of you the minute I saw it" can be heard instead of "it's MY turn".

This was on one of the GirlTalk blog posts (one of my favorite websites) about Christmas traditions. Check out the full post here.

What a great way to turn the attention from what I am getting to what I am giving! I am looking forward to starting this with our family this year, and praying that this little practice will assist my little ones to be more mindful of giving than receiving.

The Past Three Months....

Well, three months have passed since my last post. I thought I would get back into this with some highlights and pictures of what has been going on with our little family in the past few months!

I had the wonderful opportunity to get away with some college girlfriends one weekend in October. This was the first time in 2 years that I went away without my kids! It was a big deal! I was a big mess of emotions: excited, nervous, guilty, sad, happy! It was crazy! On the way down the a song played and contained this line, "I miss everything about you." I had to change the channel! I was getting a little emotional thinking about my kids! Such a mom! : ) Blake had a wonderful weekend with the kids (his very first time with them by himself for an extended amount of time!). He informed me that he made it church on time with the kids (a feat we rarely accomplish with two parents home, hmm....maybe that says something about me...!) and he even put a bow in Karis' hair! Wow! I was totally impressed, and informed him I would plan another weekend getaway since he is daddy extraordinaire! While I was away he even got out and about and took the kids to a pumpkin patch! As much fun as I had with my girlfriends, I was a little jealous that I missed this moment with my family. Here is a picture of the fun they had...


Next we come to Halloween. We had a fun get together with our small group from church, where we encouraged everyone to dress up! Karis and Owen were adorable as a bunny rabbit and a monkey! (Yay for hand-me-down costumes!)



We spent Thanksgiving down at my mom's house, and had a mini family photo shoot. Here are some shots from that day...






And now for the current update. Blake finished up his semester at school almost a week ago. It has been so nice to not have the stress of tests and assignments on his mind. He has one class this spring (a pass/fail course, so shouldn't be to difficult at all!), and then, HE WILL GRADUATE!!!! I can't believe are coming into the last semester of his seminary career! It's exciting! But, we don't know what we will do post graduation yet. Lots of prayer is going on for sure!

One last picture from our small group Christmas party last week. Get excited for Christmas friends! Jesus came! His birth, death, and resurrection gives us hope! Praise the Lord!

Merry Christmas!
(almost!)