Christ Centered Christmas: Missing a Loved One

Organization is a big part of being able to keep your traditions centered on Christ. Every year begin preparing for Christmas by buying an inexpensive notebook to jot down all ideas and plans with an overall view of focusing more on the Savior. This can be a three-ring binder, a composition book, or a simple spiral book. You can decorate it with your scrapbook paper stash to make it look festive. You want something durable because you will be seeing a lot of this notebook in the coming weeks. A small notebook is easy to carry around with you so it is readily accessible for when the spirit hits you.

The Christmas planning notebook may be divided into sections such as:
*Budget
*Gift lists
*Menus, recipes, and baking ideas
*Calendar
*Christ centered traditions
*Spiritual thoughts and ideas for family lessons or study
*Service
*Cards and letters to write
*Ideas for children and family activities
*Service ideas and plans
*Anything else you need to write down.

Start organizing sections in the notebook early, even before Halloween, and add ideas and plans as you think of them. The entire purpose of this Christmas planning book is to help your family have the time and energy to focus more of your efforts and time together on the most important part of Christmas, the Savior.

This notebook will be your 'brains' for the next few weeks and next year you will have a great resource to draw from.

Now that you have your notebook and you are well on the way to being organized, we want to share with you some of our ideas and traditions for having a Christ Centered Christmas. The posts on this blog will provide you with various ideas that you can file away in your notebook and utilize to make your holiday Christ centered.

PLEASE SHARE any ideas you have with us. Either comment on an existing post or email Sarah at famtreeclimber AT hotmail DOT com.

We are excited to share the true meaning of Christmas together!

Monday, November 29, 2010

Missing a Loved One

This Christmas will be our ninth Christmas without our beautiful son Daniel. He was the one in our family who loved holidays most of all. The night before a holiday (ANY holiday) he could barely sleep, rising very early and greeting us with shining eyes. He simply loved his family and any excuse to celebrate.

Dan, Sarah, and Anna -Christmas 1989

Because of him, we feel a greater desire to celebrate Christmas, even though we miss him terribly at Christmas. As we focus on the Savior, we truly feel joy at this time of year. Because of our Redeemer, we find peace and comfort in knowing that we will yet see our Daniel and have many more celebrations with him. Now that is something to be joyful about!

Dan's grave is located in a small cemetery that has a very beautiful tradition at Christmas. Every Christmas Eve families come and place luminaries on the graves of loved ones. It is so sweet to see all the lights flickering in the dark night on the eve of the Savior's birth. Jesus truly is the light shining in the darkness. May we all focus on that light and drink deeply of the meaning of His life and the comfort and hope that He has given us.

Simon Dewey: "For Unto Us a Child is Born"

2 comments:

The Thompson Family said...: Thank you for sharing these memories of your son.; December 4, 2010 at 12:52 PM
Allred Family said...: Ruth - you are such an amazing woman. I love this blog and thank you for making a difference in my life and the lives of many as you share your thoughts. May you have a very wonderful Christmas.
DeVonne; December 12, 2010 at 1:28 PM

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We are two sisters, Sarah and Anna, and our Mom, Ruth working together to compile and share traditions that are centered around Christ.

We love traditions that bring us closer as a family and help us remember our Savior at Christmas. Our family has enjoyed many of the ideas listed on this site and we have many happy memories resulting from the traditions established through the years.

We also love trying new things and searching through the creative ideas of others on the internet. We hope to be able to bring all these ideas together to share the true meaning of Christmas, our Savior.

There are a lot of resources yet to be added. Check us out often!