I absolutely LOVE Christmas!! Other than Easter it's pro bally my most favorite time of year! Jayson also! I love everyone that reminds me of Christmas, cold weather, hymns, lights, church everything! We have been talking alot about what Traditions we want to have with our own (meaning the 4 of us) Christmas this year!! We both grew up in Christan homes and we both having come from large families have alot i mean ALOT of traditions, for example, for those of you who don't know I grew up in a really small town in Central New Jersey called Ocean Grove only 1 square mile! A truly amazing experience! IT's most commonly referred to as God's square Mile, It's by orgin is a Methodist Camp Meeting Association and has been for the last Over 100 years!! Well every Christmas eve for as long as I can remember and pro bally before that we have in our family always had the same traditions, we spend most of the day at church, and after the family service we go home get all bundled up and go to "Fireman's Park" Which is basically in the center of town right on main street, and we all wait for Santa to come in on the fire trucks! Now growing up as a Volunteer Fire Fighters daughter we used to after we were too old to wait for Santa We would ride in with our dad on the trucks and help give out the little gift which is always the same every year an apple, orange, hard candy, and luden's cookies!! they always have hot apple cider there also and we sing hyms and pray and then santa comes in! What a fun time!! Now probably 7 years now my dad is the big guy LOL Santa! It was first really weird for my sister and I but now that I have my own kids I LOVE IT!! After all that excitement, my Parents have a HUGE open house and have tons and tons of friends, family over for a huge buffet dinner of Delicious Italian treats (being that my dad is 100 % Italian) WE can't have anything else but! But it just sooooooo fun!!! Santa always makes an appearance at the house afterward on his way to shut ins and the local nursing homes (there is 2 in OG) anyways its just a ton of fun and a ton of tradition!!
Now with all that Jayson and I have been talking with his sisters and his Parents trying to decided what to do on Christmas day with all of them! WE used to go to their house for breakfast, my mother in law makes homemade sticky buns that they let rise on the wood stove and some amazing casseroles and what not! Just soooooo fun!! But with all 4 kids and all us in laws plus 7 grand kids it gets crazy! Jayson's Aunt and Uncle just moved to North Jersey the last year or so and run a Christan camp up there, so they come down and have 4 kids of their own, and usually his other aunt and uncle come in too!! SO Last year it was insane and we had 2 less grand kids! So the girls and Jayce asked their mom and dad if they would in the morning come by to all of our houses and do a little thing with all of us!! So that lead us to thinking about our own Special activities!!!
We have always felt that Christmas has gotten out of hand as far as the society goes and how others view Christmas but for us it's all about Christ and really we want to give the day to him as always anyways! but I was thinking We still would Love to do Santa, so here's what we came up with!
As far as Christmas morn is concerned Jayson wants me to start doing a big breakfast with our family which truthfully I'm super excited about!! Now for the gifts for our Children, I heard a few years ago at our MOPS group right after I first joined, that the speaker gave each of her children only 3 gifts, because at the manager Jesus received 3 girts, Frankincense, Mehr and Gold! I thought what an awesome Idea, so we decided to do their big gift from Santa so only 1 from Santa and thier stocking and the 3 gifts would be from us! I think its awesome!! I hope that this truly teaches our children that Christmas of course isn't just about gifts!!! It's about our Lord and on this day he was born and becuase of his birth and death we can live forever with him!!
Truthfully also this makes Christmas a whole lot less stressed also, because your not worried about getting a million things and running around! I don't have the time or money!! SO please let me know your thoughts and your own tradtions!!
Blessings to your and your family this Christmas season!!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Christmas!!
Posted by The Striving Homeschool Mom at Wednesday, November 19, 2008
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4 comments:
Our kids get one big gift from us and a stocking from Santa. Our big gifts are not all that big. Alex is getting a imaginex set and some accessories to go with it. Lizzie is getting a child size chair for her reading corner in her room.
They do each get a movie from Santa in their stocking, but other than that the stocking is small dollar store type stuff.
One big tradition we do every year is a living nativity at a church in Mount Laurel, it is great.
Heather
Hey Stacey...I had a friend in NH with 5 kids and one neice who lived with them and she told me what she does for them for gifts. They don't do Santa, which is kinda sad, but anyway...each child gets something to wear, something to read, something to eat (some treat they really like), and something they want.
I'm thinking about doing this for the boys and then maybe Santa will do one big present for the three of them to share and their stockings. Money's just tight this year for us like everyone else!
That is so funny! This will be our second year of doing the same thing. I'm not sure if it was you who told us that last year, but Ariana understood completely. Anyways, Jesus is what it is all about, and they get so many gifts from other people! It is a great tradition that we will continue!!!
Hey Stac!!! I LOVE your idea for the 3 presents! That's great. Ofcourse, I don't have kids of my own yet, but my Aunt and Uncle, who have a first grader and a pre-schooler, have a birthday party for Jesus as soon as they wake up, before they open presents. It's complete with a cake and everything! So the kids wake up, come down stairs, and sing happy birthday to Jesus, and have cake for breakfast! It's so cute! Just another idea to celebrate Jesus for you :)
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