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" 

Peaceful Christmas

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It is so easy to be caught up in the commercial aspect of this time of year even if you try your best to avoid it. Often our intentions are well meaning and we are swept away without intending to overspend. Then we are faced with the nagging pressure or guilt etc., that robs us of the very feelings we were trying to create when we overspent.

One way to help bring peace to the season is by simply starting to keep a small Christmas planning notebook and dedicating a small portion of it to figuring out your budget. Check out the ideas for making a planner on this site. Once you have one, you will wonder how you managed without! Make your lists and check them twice. Spend spare moments thinking and plotting exactly where your money will be spent and the best ways to accomplish the intentional ways you wish to celebrate. Time spent now focusing on a deliberate plan will be a key part in having a more peaceful Christmas.

We have heard many lamenting the fact that due to economic times, this will be a lean Christmas. Maybe there is a blessing hidden here. It does not cost any money to sit around the table and play a game with our children. And taking a walk on a clear winter's night, looking at the stars and talking about the special star that appeared in the heavens long ago does not cost anything either. Many of the ideas on this sight cost little or no money. Small and simple things like these are the stuff that memories are made of and that bring us closer to each other.

Our family is going to try to focus more on these quiet joys this season.

"M" and "M" poem

This little poem is a simple reminder of the real meaning of our celebrations this time of year.


The M and M Nativity

As you hold these candies in your hand
and turn them,
you will see
the M becomes a W, an E and a 3.

They tell the Christmas story,
it's one I'm sure you know,
It took place in a stable,
a long, long time ago.

The E is for the East where the star shines so bright.

The M is for the Manger
where baby Jesus slept that night.

The 3 is for the wise men bearing gifts,
with haste they came.

W is for Worship, angels sang praise to His name.

So as you eat these candies
or share them with a friend,
Remember the true spirit of Christmas
and never let it end!

This poem could be attached to a small snack packet of M and M's or a large bag of M and M's to give to a neighbor. We saw this at a craft boutique with the poem and small bag of M and M's packaged in a small clear bag tied with a ribbon. There are several versions of this poem all with the same basic message. Elementary age children really like the symbolism in this poem.

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The White Stocking

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Some families hang a white stocking that stands out from the other Christmas stockings. It is hung early in December and is a special reminder to do kind acts of service for the Savior. When an act is performed, it is recorded on a slip of paper and placed in the stocking. These can be read out loud on Christmas morning.

Christmas Crafts

Sarah posted here about how she loves to display her little artists' renditions of the Nativity scene during the Christmas season. This is such a wonderful idea because children sit and think about the birth of Christ as they are crafting, you benefit from the output of adorable decorations, and your child is reminded in a personal way of Jesus Christ and the reason we celebrate Christmas when they see their art displayed.

Here are some more craft ideas that would be fun to share with your little ones.

Click here for instructions on how to make:
Stick Nativity Scene
Isaiah 7:14 Bible Scroll
Baby Jesus in an Envelope Manger
M&M Christmas poem

String Art is a fun activity for older children. Here is a pattern for a Christmas Star

The Power of Music

The Philadelphia Opera Company staged an event at a huge Macy's dept. store. They were dressed as shoppers and suddenly burst into a beautiful rendition of Handel's Messiah. It is at first humorous to see the reaction of the shoppers as they are astonished by the outburst of their fellow "shoppers". Watch this:



What a contrast between the commercial aspect that Christmas has become and the true meaning found in this beautiful music. The power and majesty of the music says it all.

Christmas Books to Share

I remember helping mom put out the Christmas decorations and my favorite part was when Dad would heft the large box of Christmas books out of the storage room. These books were special because we only broke them out once a year. We would read this books together at bedtime throughout the season in place of our usual storybooks. This is a tradition I would like to establish as I am starting my own family, but I'm not worried about buying a whole bunch of books at once. You can build a collection with one new book a year.

The following is a list of beautiful Christmas stories you might consider adding to your own collection.

Picture Books:
Dozen Silk Diapers by Melissa Kajpust

Christmas Oranges by Linda Bethers
The Gift of the Magi
A Dress for Ellen by Thomas S. Monson
Christmas Trolls, Wild Christmas Reindeer, Christmas Trolls by Jan Brett
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechoski
The Story of the Three Trees
The Christmas Visitor by Annaliese Lussert
Santa Mouse by Micheal Brown
This is the Star by Joyce Dunbar
Carl's Christmas by Alexandra Day

We also enjoy books about how other cultures celebrate Christmas as well as books with illustrations from various cultures depicting the nativity of Christ.

Chapter Books:
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
Christmas Jars by Jason F. Wright
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Does your family have a favorite book to read around Christmas time?

Change in your Pocket

One smart mom thought of a way to help her young children feel the spirit of service in the midst of the season. She enlisted their help doing small jobs around the house, paying them for the jobs completed with the understanding that the money they earned was to be used for a special purpose.

 When she ran errands with her children, they were to place their earned change in their pockets. Then when they came upon a bell ringer for the Salvation Army they got to place the change they had earned in the metal bucket.

 What fun! What a great tradition to carry out through the whole season!

 Maybe we should all keep some change in our pocket!

Door-bell Ditch at Christmas

One of our favorite traditions through the years has been sharing a nativity with another family. Early in the season (now is a good time to look) I purchase a nativity set and wrap each piece individually and tie with a pretty ribbon. Then, beginning either at the first of December or 12 days before Christmas, we leave a piece of the nativity at the doorstep of someone who is new in the neighborhood or someone who may need a little lift. Each night we deliver, ring the doorbell and run! The last piece that is delivered is the baby Jesus. Ruddy cheeked conspirators head home to mugs of hot cocoa and laughter over nearly being caught!

The Gift of Service

We were so impressed with the young man in this video and his example of being a true disciple of Christ. He found a way of giving meaningful service.





Serving is a great way to center our Christmas on the Savior. Coming up with ideas can be a challenge. Have you had an experience you would be willing to share? Any ideas you have seen or been the recipient of? Please share by leaving a comment. Thanks!

The Divine Gift of Gratitude

We have been trying to focus on showing gratitude this month using President Monson's talk from conference entitled "The Divine Gift of Gratitude" as our foundation for daily devotionals with our girls. As we have studied his words and read the accounts of our Savior in the scriptures we have reflected how wonderful it is to have a period of thanksgiving to prepare our hearts to draw closer to Him, and how appropriate to ponder our blessings in November in preparation for celebrating His life and birth in December. What better way to lead into the season of celebrating His birth, than to contemplate all that He has done for us?

President Monson shared from the book of Matthew in the Bible the story of the loaves and fishes. "And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude."

President Monson continues "notice that the Savior gave thanks for what they had ---and a miracle followed."

I believe a beautiful way to prepare to have a Christ centered celebration during the Christmas season is to express gratitude and contemplate the beautiful meaning, and life and example of Him whose birth we celebrate.

May we take time to give thanks and ponder the matchless gift He has given us. Then watch for the miracles to follow.

The Living Christ Challenge: Memorize by Christmas

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Discover the Scriptures has posted a study plan to help memorize The Living Christ by Christmas. 

The idea is that memorizing this inspired document about our Savior will help our families come closer to Christ and make the season leading up to Christmas more Christ-centered.

Currently she has study aids for the four weeks in October. 

You can download them from her sight HERE.   Look for more to come.

The Innkeeper's Key

The Idea Room posted a great idea to make a small gift to share a bit of Christmas spirit. It is called the Innkeeper's Key and it is intended to help us to remember to make room in our lives for the Savior.

For those of you who celebrate Christmas and believe in the Bible, this idea is really universal. It would make a nice simple and inexpensive gift for a neighbor or friend.
Here is the poem:

A Prayer for December


Dearest God,
Please never let me
Crowd my life
Full to the brim
So like the keeper of Bethlehem's inn
I find I have no room for Him.


Instead, let my heart's door
Be ever open,
Ready to welcome
The newborn king.
Let me offer the best I have
To Him
Who gives me everything.
-author unknown

After Christmas the key could be placed on your key ring to remind you all year to make room for the Savior in your life. Thanks Amy for sharing this great idea!

Clay Pot Nativity

We had so much fun with our grandchildren making nativities out of small clay pots, large wooden beads and felt. The one pictured above was made by our 5 year old grandson. Total cost for materials for one set was less than $2, but I think the result is priceless!

Materials needed:
2 small clay pots
1 small clay saucer
2 large wooden beads
1 wooden clothespin or wooden craft person (for baby Jesus), could use wood craft stick
scraps of felt or other fabric
rafia or hay
glue gun
paint or perm. marker for faces

12 Days of CHRISTmas

A new book published this year The Twelve Days of Christmas by Betty Van Orden, has so many ideas for carrying out the 12 days of Christmas for your family and loved ones.

We were particularly interested in her ideas for 12 days of focusing more on the Savior. She Chooses a theme such as Following the Savior, or The Reason for the Season or Angels Among Us and brainstorms ways to carry out the theme for 12 days teaching about the Savior and creating memories for her family. For instance one day there might be a new Christmas book to read together and beautiful beads and cord to make family bookmarks. Another day she would plan a service activity or present the story of Teach the Children (found on this site) with a small bag of objects that correlate with the story.

We found her ideas to be a wonderful mix of ideas that enhance teaching moments and ideas that are just fun and create lasting memories. Reading her book was a great spring board for creating plans for our own family, one idea led to another.....this would be as much fun to prepare for as to carry out. She would prepare for all 12 days, choose stories and activities and wrap each day individually, then place them in a big plastic storage container, even preparing these for family members who lived far away.

We can all thoughtfully and prayerfully consider ways to bring our family closer to each other and to the Savior (and have fun at the same time).

A Jesse Tree

A Jesse tree is a small tree decorated with symbols portraying the spiritual heritage of Christ. A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse. (Isa 11:1) Jesse was the father of David who was to establish a royal family. A thousand years later Jesus was born in this royal line in Bethlehem.

A Jesse tree can be made by using a small Christmas tree or branch from an evergreen tree. It could be a bare tree branch potted in plaster of paris or placed in a vase. It could simply be created by taping a branch cut from paper on the wall.

Each day a scripture is read and a symbol hung on the tree. The scriptures begin with Adam and Eve and include such stories as Noah's ark, Abraham, Elijah, David, John the Baptist, Mary, Joseph, shepherds, and the birth of Christ.

There are many links to Jesse trees on the internet or books to purchase that include ready made ornaments that can be used as sources to create your own tree.

Much of the value in this project is in choosing which stories your family will use, reading the scripture and having your children create a drawing to go with the scripture to hang on the tree. At the end of December, a picture of the manger with baby Jesus could be hung at the top of the tree.

Names of Christ Tree

In the scriptures we read of many different names for Christ. It is wonderful to remember the innocent babe born in a stable, but even more important to think of the life and mission of Christ. The names for Christ found in the scriptures help us understand the breadth and meaning of His gift to us.

Our children helped pick out some of the names and we wrote down the name with the corresponding scripture on red paper ornaments and used red satin ribbon to hang them with. They are gathered in a basket and each morning we will read the scripture and hang an ornament on a small, simple tree. Here are the names and scriptures that we use, but there are so many others that are beautiful as well.

Emmanuel -Isa. 7:14
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God -Isa 9:6
Prince of Peace -Isa 9:6
Messiah -Dan 9:25
Redeemer-Isa. 59:20
Savior -John 4:42
Good Shepherd -John 10:14
Holy One -Ps. 16:10
Mediator-1Tim. 2:5
Prince of Life -Acts 3:15
The True Vine -John 15:1
Lord -Matt. 28:6
The Bread of Life -John 6:35
Messenger of the Covenant -Mal. 3:1
The Chosen of God -Luke 23:35
Lamb of God -John 1:29
God's Holy Child Jesus -Acts 4:27-30
Rabboni -John 20:16
The Word -John 1:1,14
The Light -John1:7-8
Bright and Morning Star -Rev. 22:16
Resurrection and the Life -John 11:25

Simple thoughts, deep meanings

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The hinge of history is on the door of a Bethlehem stable.

Ralph Sockman



The way you spend Christmas is far more important than how much.

Henry David Thoreau

Keeping Christ In Christmas

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Welcome to our blog where we strive to share ideas and traditions that are centered around Christ!

With all of the hustle and bustle and commercialism that is rampant at this time of year, we hope to create a little haven where we can share ideas that will help us focus more on the true reason for our celebrations.

Whether we want to plan activites for our families that remind us of the birth and life of the Savior, or just find a quiet moment of inspiration to bring some peace to a harried day-we hope to make this a helpful source. We would be delighted to hear from you if you would share your family traditions that turn your hearts to Christ, or if you run across anything on the internet to share. Our hope is to make the holiday season a little more Holy and to knit our family closer to Christ and to each other.

Let's begin planning now to keep Christ in Christmas!

Traditions

It is never too late to introduce new traditions into your family. Through the years we have tried many things to bring us closer to Christ and the true meaning of Christmas. Some of the traditions have "stuck" and we love doing them year after year. Some things we have tried and have not done a second time. But, there is fun just in trying new things. I figure even the things that flop, create memories for our family.

A site called Tip Junkie is talking about different ways to keep Christ the focus of your Christmas and I really appreciate all of the ideas being shared. (New ideas to try!)

As I think about the short number of days until Christmas I feel the need to keep my own thoughts focused more on the Savior. I want to slow down and truly feel and see the beauty of this time of year. I want to be part of bringing a little more peace into this world and teach my children to focus more on others.

One specific idea someone shared was to pay for the fast food order of the car behind you, or the car behind you if you were driving through a Christmas light display.

Do any of you have an idea of anonymous service, little things that can be done day to day to bring a little more kindness into the world?

We would love to hear your ideas!

I think doing kind deeds for others on a daily basis may be the best tradition of all!

LDS Publisher's Christmas Story Contest

LDS Publisher is a blog "dedicated to helping LDS authors successfully navigate the LDS publishing world". They are currently holding their Christmas Story Contest. The submittions are in and now the voting is open. I haven't had a chance to read all of them, but I have enjoyed the ones I have read. Some of the stories are just fun and others are very touching.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Christmas Star

I had the opportunity to help in the Nursery today and learned two new Christmas songs that our nursery leader taught to the children. They both are darling and easy to learn.

(This song is song to the tune "Itsy Bitsy Spider")

The itsy bitsy shepherd went up to Bethlehem.
(walk two fingers up your arm)

Down came the starlight to lead him to the inn.
(start above head and wiggle fingers down)

Out came the sunshine to start a brand new day.
(join hands, with arms raised over head)

And the itsy bitsy shepherd saw Jesus on the hay.
(cradle arms as if rocking a baby)

This second song is sung to the tune "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"

Twinkle, twinkle, Christmas star,
How I wonder what you are.
Shining high up in the sky,
Showing all where Jesus lies.
Twinkle, twinkle, Christmas star,
How I wonder what you are.


Simple, but oh so sweet!

Gifts for the Savior

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Gift giving has become a big part of Christmas tradition, so much so that we can sometimes forget the reason for the season.

While we are plotting and planning what gifts to give our family and friends we could also include some gifts for our Savior on the list.

About.com has a list of Top 10 Spiritual Gifts to Give the Savior.

These are gifts that are not only meaningful at this time of year, but the whole year through and an eternity to come.

More Christmas Stories

About.com: Latter-day Saints also has a long list of Christmas stories for all ages, many pulled from church magazines.

Bethlehem Dinner: Sfeeha (meat pies)

I was looking through old posts and realized I forgot to include the recipe for Sfeeha, which are middle eastern meat pies, for the Bethlehem Dinner Menu.

1 lb ground beef (or lamb)
1 onion, finely chopped
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup lemon juice
salt and pepper and allspice to taste

Bread dough

Brown the pine nuts in a skillet. Set aside.

Saute the onion in butter. Add the meat and spices. Saute until tender. Add browned pine nuts and lemon juice. Mix well.

Roll dough into small balls (raquet ball size), flatten into 3 inch circles on a greased cookie sheet. Spread meat stuffing evenly on top of circles to within 3/8" from the edge.

Bake at 400 until meat and dough are lightly brown (about 7-8 minutes)

Optional: Serve with Laban, a yogurt spread.

Laban:

Plain yogurt
Cheesecloth

Put your yogurt in the cheesecloth. The yogurt will start to drain off liquid. Allow it to drain over night in the refridgerator. (you will have to figure out a way to hang the cheesecloth over a bowl without touching the liquid) The result is a creamy spread that is yummy on meat pies and pita bread.