A Celebration

Usually, preparing for Christmas would bring to mind faith themes for me. My life is about the Lord and this is HIS holiday – a holy day.

This has been a really rough year for us, though, and right now all I want to do is sit back, relax, and enjoy the atmosphere! Christ is the center, as always, and a big part of preparing for Christmas for our family is preparing our hearts and minds for the spiritual mindset appropriate for the season. It is, after all, a celebration of the birth of our Savior, and this year I want to actually celebrate!

It’s been a huge relief for us to turn on the Christmas music and break out the decorations. My husband is working a full time job, going to school full time (finals are next week!!), and also working on our home in exchange for rent… in his spare time. (Please hear my sarcasm there, I beg of you!) So, it’s a rare moment when we can just relax and have fun. This Christmas season, though, we are making a point of it!!

We got out the tree and decorations this past week, and by the time this post is live hubby will have the lights up outside. This weekend we are decorating the rest of the house – we have poinsettas, candles, garlands, and artwork of all sorts for almost every room in the house! We usually get all of this done the weekend after Thanksgiving, but we have been so pressed for time that we are doing it in spurts. It’s still enjoyable even if it’s not the way it always has been.

We also took a family trip and rode the Polar Express! That was so much fun, and I can’t even express what a joy it was to just have time with the family and no other obligations. Just a fun train ride in east Texas, eating cookies and drinking hot chocolate, and singing in the van all the way there and back. Family time is really precious to us this year.

In all of this preparing, my extended family is also preparing for the birth of a new baby boy – my nephew will be here by the time this is posted as well. Every child is a blessing, and the pending arrival of my new nephew is helping remind me and keep my heart on what a celebration Christmas really should be.

Our Savior is born!! What great news, and what a celebration we will have!

 

How does your family celebrate?

Ornaments for Christmas

Jesus is the reason for the season, of course. Not taking away from that, my post talks about one of our ‘traditions’ around Christmas time.

Years ago, when my first child was still fairly young and my second hadn’t yet come along, my mother-in-law got our family a Christmas ornament for the tree. We didn’t have a tree of our own but we put it on the tree at their house. Each year she would give us an ornament. She started, when the kids were older, giving an ornament specifically to the kids. I gather from listening to stories of when my husband was growing up that they used to make ornaments (salt dough) for the tree.

Looking for a new ornament for the tree, even if just one, has become a tradition for our family. I’ll be honest and say that we’ve never purchased an extra special ornament for this. Generally we purchased the package of simple ones and decorated them ourselves. I am going to re-start the old tradition that my husband had of making some ornaments. Last year we, the kids and I, used felt squares and embroidery thread to make cloth ornaments to give to family members. This year we are going to try cornstarch and baking soda dough for porcelain like ornaments.

It’s interesting how different families and people prepare for Christmas. Some plan for their tree, some plan for the meal, some plan for the decorations. When I was growing up, for personal preferences of my parents, we didn’t celebrate Christmas so I have no traditions surrounding this season to share with my kids. We’ve had to make our own. Actually, I suppose we are rekindling one started with us and making it our own.

Here are some links to recipes for making beautiful ornaments:

On my Crafts board on Pinterest, I have a couple other pins for ornaments but the two above are what we will be using to make our ornaments. We will make a few for ourselves and many to give away.

How do you prepare for Christmas and what are some of your traditions?

Wrapping it All Up

Am I weird?  I LOVE wrapping presents.  I love coming up with creative ways to create pretty wrapping.  I mean, who doesn’t love to get a pretty present.  I know that the paper and such ends up in the trash moments after being received, but I think that a pretty wrapped present is like the cherry on top of an ice cream.

While I love wrapping presents and trying to make them pretty, I DON’T like spending a fortune to do so.  My favorite wrapping paper is just plain brown paper!  It sets a nice, neutral background that can be dressed up all sorts of ways.  I’ve even been known to use paper grocery bags.  When using the brown paper, you have so many options.  In the past I’ve also used pretty ribbons, jute twine, homemade cinnamon ornaments, salt dough ornaments, pinecones, homemade cards, rubber stamps, and pretty much what ever I could think of to dress up the brown paper. I always get compliments on how the gift is wrapped, and I have to admit, they do look rather pretty! I buy cloth ribbons at after Christmas sales and whenever I find it on clearance or at garage sales. You can really dress up the brown paper and gives your presents a bit of homespun appeal. It’s also fun to see how you can change it up from year to year.

Below are some examples of wrapped Christmas presents from years past.  Altogether, the ribbon and decorations cost about $10 to wrap all the gifts (about 30 gifts total). The wired ribbon was $.95 cents a spool at Walmart. The decorations were bought at Walmart and Family Dollar for about $.99 cents for 2.  You can get even cheaper if you stock up after Christmas when everything in on clearance.

I really like to include the ornaments in the wrapping, because the person who receives the gift can use it year after year.  I’ve been known to even hand make ornaments for the packages.

Focus on Preparation

You may have noticed that this week’s posts all fall under the same theme. This month’s theme is a week of Christmas prep. To be completely honest I don’t have a great deal of experience in this area.

In the past I have dreaded the end of October because that meant that the holiday season was upon us. My prep for the holiday season has looked markedly different from most people. Rather than being a time of thanksgiving and celebration, more often than not Christmas was just another day of fighting and forced smiles.

Proverbs 17:1 says, “Better is a dry morsel with quietness, than a house full of feasting with strife.” That was how I felt about holidays. During my childhood family Christmas was usually a disaster. We drove to a relative’s house and tried (in vain) to pretend that our family wasn’t broken. These mandatory performances left me feeling dirty and fake. The lines we carefully rehearsed ahead of time were never quite convincing enough. It got to the point where I didn’t even want to attend family events. It was easier to celebrate with just my younger sister than it was to endure the awkward silences of people who didn’t know what to say to say about the latest scandal my family had caused.

This year is different.

I no longer have to hide my faults.

I no longer have to pretend to have it all together.

No, my family has not changed. Yes, the same scandals and gossip that left scars in the past are still occurring. So what has changed?

This is my first holiday season with Christ as the center of my life.

I no longer have to hide my faults; Jesus Christ paid the price for my sins.

I no longer have to pretend to have it all together, Christ has everything I miss.

Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, our savior. Christmas prep in my mind has a lot more to do with your attitude than it does with lights, presents, and Santa Clause. So yes, recipies are important. Planning for family to come into town is stressful. But we need to be diligent in keeping Christ the focus of Christmas.

Coming Soon: A Week of Christmas Prep

Don’t miss out on our Week of Christmas Prep theme week all next week!  We have lots of great posts coming up all about preparing for Christmas!  You’re not going to want to miss them!