Kicking off another Christmas Season

Our typical tradition is to put out the decorations and the tree on the first family home evening after Thanksgiving. My husband and I have done this since our first year together, and it is always a family affair. We do it all together or not at all. Last year we got a real-live tree only to be saddened by it's death a week before Christmas. To avoid another funeral, we decided to hold off on the tree for another week, and just put up a few decorations. We also decided to put up a new kind of tree. One we made ourselves after a nice family talk.

We all took turns drawing and coloring, and talking about ways we could put mas (which means more in Spanish) Christ into Christmas this year. And each day we get to add more decorations to it by adding kind deeds and words we see and hear from each other, and from others while we are out and about. 

The kids were so excited for this activity. We have really been putting emphasis on how we talk and treat each other around here. I want our home to be a safe place, not just for those who live here, but for those who visit. That includes the Holy Ghost. We want him to feel welcome, too. By putting more focus on "what would Jesus do?" we seem to making some progress. This idea came to me during church last week and I have already seen it come to fruition and bless my little family. 

I told my kids that when I was little Christmas was my least favorite holiday, but as I have "grown up", especially in recent years, it has quickly become my favorite. And I credit it to putting more emphasis on the Savior and watching our kids grow and love each other and realize what is really important. They still talk about how their "best Christmas ever" was when we did the 12 days of Christmas to a sweet new family that moved in. As a mom, those words and memories are priceless and thankfully come without a hefty price tag. 

 

CLASSIC picture of the Christmas Crazies.

We managed to find this little tree on clearance last year and forgot we had bought it!

The kids were THRILLED to decorate their own tree and put it in the playroom.

 

 

 

In other holiday news, I submitted a story to the Mormon Channel that I wrote (and experienced) years ago while spending my first Christmas away from home. They emailed me back and told me that on December 16th, it will be read over the air five different times during the day. Here is a link to the story that I put on my old blog last year, after going through some old papers and finding it. It will be played here and archived on their site for future reference.

 

 

Have a Merry Christmas everyone. I am going to post some more exciting news and events in the next few days and weeks as we get closer to Christmas day. Hopefully it will help bring mas Christ into your Christmas, too.