How Are You Keeping Christ In Christmas?

It saddens me just how much Christmas has become about presents and all things material. Every fiber of my being desires to keep Christ at the center of our family's Christmas. After all, that is what Christmas is all about, the one most precious gift that is the exact opposite of material. The birth of our Savior who made the ultimate sacrifice so we could have the ultimate gift...unconditional love, grace, forgiveness, eternal life. That gift will not break, will not go out of style, and will never be outgrown.

If you want ONE great way to keep Christ at the center of your Christmas I suggest ADVENT.

Advent means "coming". For the entire month leading up to Christmas you prepare for the celebration of Christ's birth, His first coming. There is a spirit of anticipation, excitement and longing.

Here is what we plan to do to make it toddler friendly: Each night we're going to light the appropriate candle, read a small snippet out of this family advent book my mom got us, and open one window on the advent calendar.

(PS: Thanks to some routine we've put in place after reading Toddlerwise and having our family doctor encourage us to do family devotions, we now have have a two year old that says "Voshon Time!" with joy after each meal, prays and generally listents quite well while we do the daily bread each night)

Here are some other things we plan to do to keep Christ at the center of our Christmas:

• Sheild ourselves from commercialism by keeping the TV off and recycling store flyers and catalogues as soon as they come.
• Continually talk about the true meaning of Christmas...for kiddos...how Christmas is Jesus' Birthday and make Him a birthday cake!
• Put out all of our manger scenes but keep the baby Jesus' out of them. On Christmas morning make a big deal over "Baby Jesus was born today!!!" and go put all the baby Jesus' into their manger scenes to symbolize this.

This is the first year that I've been coming up with ideas to keep Christ in Christmas tailored to a toddler because last year Ella was too young to understand. However, this year she is SO aware and we're loving it and being intentional from the very beginning. I want many, many more ideas than I already have!

So PLEASE comment and tell me the ways your family keeps Christ in Christmas!

Winter Weekend Update

It's time for another weekend update. It seems as if there is a lot of information from our ever changing lives that I've not written about. So here are some odds and ends.

Jason has not gotten a deer. Despite getting a bow and being able to hunt in the expanded archery zone, hunting as much as he could with his schedule in the regular season, and now using the muzzleloader that be begged off of a friend...still no deer. Here's hopin' for one today so he can happy, we can have deer meat and I can be reminded of what my husband's face looks like :)

Jason is loving his classes. He's begun his thesis early and has a great topic. (Don't ask me what it is...I can't remember) He retook his GRE's to get a better score on the Verbal part and scored higher than he even needed to! That means that come January, he'll have an assistantship. Sadly, he will no longer get to roam the halls of the high school looking for trouble makers and he'll be teaching college math courses! Whoah! Way to go honey! Those highschool girls are going to cry into their pillows at night when they learn you won't be back after Christmas break!

I, on the other hand, am continuing along my career path with yet more change. (translation: I'm not really sure what the heck I want to do) I am transitioning to a new job. I'll end my current job next Wednesday and start my new job the following Monday. I will be working with adults with mental health issues, helping them to gain the skills and then be connected with the resourses they need in order to live successfuly on their own. The pay will be hourly not salary, and I will have a set, predictable schedule. I like predictable. I'll keep you updated! I am also considering going back to school for my master's degree come June because re-entering the workforce I've discovered that a bachelor's degree is the new highschool diploma.

The inside of our house is decorated for Christmas and we'll be decorating the outside and getting a tree this weekend. Yay! I'll be happily listening to Christmas Carols and sipping hot cocoa in my winter wonderland by Sunday evening! God must have planned this big snow storm just for me! So I could have real snow to go along with all the other Christmas goodness!