Family Night: Homespun Christmas

Tonight we made popcorn garlands, sang Christmas carols, and had homemade hot cocoa.


Teddy and Calvin's contribution to the garland project? Eating popcorn and making a royal mess.


Teddy also put popcorn in his cocoa and told Ken it was marshmallows. Smart kid; he fooled his dad. Ken spooned it out and was about to eat it. "Hey!" Ken said, "That's not a marshmallow!" Teddy just giggled. How can a not-quite-two-year-old be such a trickster? Answer: He's Ken Schmidt's son.


The garlands are now adorned with Wraffia bows and hanging over the back doorway. They're pretty, in a Cabin Christmas sort of way. (Though I'm wondering how long I'll be able to stand the stale popcorn smell coming from that doorway. I have an overly sensitive sniffer.)


After advent readings tonight, we knelt together to pray. The boys have prayed for a teenage boy named Ben ever since they met him two months ago. Calvin prayed, "Dear God, thank you for Ben. Please anoint him." Okay. Prayer time then dissolved into giggles. Anoint him?? Hmmm....maybe that came from memorizing Psalm 23 as a family. I'm positive, though, that Calvin has no idea what "anoint" means!


The Christmas song that went along with tonight's reading was "We Three Kings." No sooner had Ken and I started singing, "We three kings of Orient are bearing gifts we traverse afar..." than the kids started galloping around the living room, down the hall, through the kitchen and back again.


Our family advent times this year lack a certain...shall we say...reverence. But we'll choose to savor these antic-filled Christmas moments while we still can.

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Christmas Craft

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I said last year that I was going to use last year's Christmas cards to make crafts this season. I'm not much for crafts. But if they aren't too messy, don't take long, and involve little more than a scissors and a glue stick, I can do it!

So here are last year's cards, re-created:

This may not even qualify as a craft in your mind. It did, regardless, bring some Christmas cheer to our kitchen!

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Deck The Halls

Christmas should not eclipse Thanksgiving.

You know, "Jingle Bells" playing in the supermarket when you're shopping for your turkey dinner?

Thanksgiving is worth celebrating, a time to pause and give thanks to the Lord. And in our household, we enjoy Thanksgiving Day tremendously.

But once the last Thanksgiving dish is washed, I don't waste any time heralding the Christmas season!

Today was Deck The Halls day at our home. The Christmas bins came out of storage. Garlands and lights went up everywhere. The boys got out all their holiday books and toys.

Traditionally, we have Christmas music playing all day, but I can't find any of our holiday CD's. One of the hazards of moving twice in 18 months, I think....

Ken and I snuggled on the couch this evening and looked through all of the Christmas cards and family photos we received last year.

We are looking forward to a meaningful advent season. I'd like to fill it up with old traditions, but also add a few new ones.

So, tell me, friends, what are your families' best Christmas traditions? And, especially, traditions that center your hearts and minds on Jesus Christ?

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A Chill In The Air

Over the past few weeks, we've awoken to a crispness in the air. That chilly air is like a message each year: "It's time for all things Autumn."

Two weeks ago, we raked leaves as a family. Or, more accurately, as I'm sure you can imagine, Ken and I raked leaves, and the boys played in the piles. And what fun is raking, really, without watching a child dive in and disappear beneath the heap?

The boys' closets are reorganized now with all their warm sweaters handy. And little boys in sweaters are irresistibly cute!

And there's been plenty of fall baking already...

In the past few weeks, we've had a family over for pumpkin pie, other friends over for apple crisp, I've made whole wheat pumpkin bread and sent pumpkin pie squares to work with Ken. I look for lots of ways to share these goods, by the way, because I always have more I want to bake than my family should really eat!

Next on the list is apple dumplings, and still to come will be cranberry cake and sweet potato casserole (Ken will be less than thrilled about that last one, but the kids and I will relish it!).

And, just as of yesterday, a nice big, round pumpkin sits on our lawn chair, waiting to be carved. Ken is hoping it has lots of seeds for roasting. We'll see.

We're already anticipating Thanksgiving. Harvest and thanksgiving hymns have been added to our family worship times, and, each week, the boys and I are checking out more Thanksgiving books from the library, building the excitement towards that special holiday.

A beautiful season ~ Thanks be to God.

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Christmas Cards

We have enjoyed receiving Christmas cards and photos this year from family and friends new and old. A couple years ago, my cousins Jeff and Nancy had all their cards on one wall in their home. It looked fun and festive and really put the cards on display. So I stole their idea and created our own Christmas card wall.

As is our tradition, when I take down all our Christmas decorations (mid-January for me!), I will tuck all the Christmas cards from 2007 in one of the decoration boxes. Next year, when I decorate once again for Christmas, I'll take out the stack of 2007 cards and Ken and I will sit together and look through them once more. I plan to use the cards after that to make Christmas crafts with Calvin and Teddy.

Thank you, friends and family, for all the cards and photos! Can you spot yours in the photo?