Operation Christmas Child 2011 edition

I realize this is super late. but I'm posting it anyway - it's my blog! :)

Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes are a tradition around our house.  The kids love it!  This year the boxes came blank to they could decorate them too.  Here they are working on their boxes.

They each made a card for the box recipient, and we included our family Christmas photo/card.

 Here's a sample of what we put in the girls boxes - school supplies such as pencil crayons, scissors, pencil sharpeners, and pens; hygiene supplies such as facecloth, toothbrush, soap; fun stuff like stuffed animal, bouncy balls, fancy hair ties.

 A good time was had by all!

Our Jesse Tree

So, true to my previous post just a couple of days ago, I have our Jesse Tree supplies set up and ready to go! I printed out Ann Voskamp's free devotional booklet (complete with ornament pictures!) at her blog, A Holy Experience. I printed the ornaments on white card stock, then I measured them all and created a Word document with backgrounds sized to match each ornament (I can email it to you if you like), printed that on green card stock and mounted the pictures onto the green backgrounds with double sided tape with red ribbon in between.

And I even let Sophia & Olivia help me! Anyone who knows me knows that I generally have little no patience for crafts as I feel the perfectionist need to fix everything they do and freak out a little lot when things don't go as planned. And let's be honest here, do they ever go as planned with kidlets? I think not. Despite a few moments with one certain daughter which shall remain nameless the younger one, I managed to stop myself from freaking out and we had a very enjoyable time completing the project to my perfectionist standards! ;) Sophia cut the ribbon to the right length and Olivia wrecked helped me with the tape. They turned out great!
Emma was not impressed when she got home from school and found out we had done it without her, so I let her put on extra ornaments. ;)

I'm finding the devotionals a little bit of a stretch for our kids, so I got out our Jesus Storybook Bible and The Big Picture Story Bible to supplement the material.

Side note: if you do not yet have the Jesus Storybook Bible, go get it right now.
I will wait for you.
Got it? OK, good.
But seriously, you really need to get it. It's the best children's Bible I've read, and we have more than several! You can read my review on it here. My only complaint is that I wish it had more stories. The girls are particularly disappointed that the Queen Esther story is not included.

Both the Jesus Storybook Bible and the Big Picture Storybook Bible (the former even more than the latter) excel at showing you how the OT events point to the coming of our Messiah. Which is exactly what the Jesse Tree is all about!

So, I went through both Bibles and wrote in the page #'s that coincided with the Jesse Tree devotionals. There were very few days that did not have at least one supplementary children's Bible passage to go with it. So, depending on how much time we have, we will read the same passage up to 3 times! Talk about getting it to sink in - repetition is key, right? ;)

Like I said in my previous post, we are starting late, so we will usually be doing two per day until we catch up. I'm so glad we started late. It's not too late for you to start too! In fact, if you start on the 12th, you could do 2 per day (one in the morning, one at night) and still get them all in for Christmas time!

This is definitely going to be a yearly tradition at our house from now on!

Jesse Tree

If you're looking for a unique and meaningful way to celebrate advent and the reason for the season, you should consider making a Jesse Tree.

What is a Jesse Tree?

The Jesse Tree represents the family tree of Jesus and tells the entire story of God's salvation plan, beginning with creation and making it's way through the OT, showing how it all points to the coming of the Messiah.

Each day of Advent focuses on one story in the OT and a homemade ornament is added to the Jesse Tree. A Jesse Tree can be a small Christmas tree, it could be any tree-type plant in your home, it could be branches sticking out of a pot, or it could even simply be a hand-drawn tree shape.

This year, I came across a beautiful Jesse Tree Advent Devotional Book that is being given away for free, by Ann Voskamp at her blog A Holy Experience.

According to her site, each day's journey includes...

• The full Bible text of the day’s reading in either NCV or NIV (of course, feel free to read from your own Bible, if you’d prefer another translation.) Readings are selected to begin in Genesis and cover significant events throughout the Old Testament — each story pointing to the coming Messiah. It’s like an overview of the whole span of His Story — leading right up to the climax of the coming Christ!
• A devotional that (humbly attempts!) to be a read-aloud for the whole family – engaging enough for young children and yet meaty enough for teens and adults. (Thank you for grace!) Each reflection endeavors to not only highlight an important scene from God’s epic in time, but to always unwrap more of Jesus, the gift hidden in every story.
• a short, simple action point for the day — “Unwrapping more of His love in the World” — a way to do something together as a family that not only invites the coming Kingdom of God and Jesus’ love into your home and community, but is an opportunity to apply and live out the day’s devotional. It’s like an Advent Calendar that gives back – becoming more like the gift Himself!
• a full color ornament, illustrated by Nancy Rodden and used with permission, to hang on your own Jesse Tree. The very last pages of the book include all of the ornaments in over several pages so you can easily cut each ornament out and creatively mount to your own preferences

You might be thinking that it's too late, because we're already part-way into advent. That would normally be my perfectionist excuse. But, apparently you can teach an old dog new tricks! I don't care that we're starting late, we're still doing it! I'm going to try to do 2 each day until we're caught up. If I find that too much, we'll just skip to the present and go from there. And, instead of trying to make the ornaments all fancy, as per my perfectionist tendencies, I'm printing them on cardstock, mounting them on red cardstock paper, punching holes in them and hanging them like that. Maybe next year I'll get more creative, but the kids won't care!

I think I'd like to do something like this - not much more complicated really, but I don't have any ribbon on hand!

I highly encourage you to take a look at Ann's book at this link. She includes sample pages so you can see what it's like - you won't be disappointed!

You can also buy ornaments to match the advent topics - check out this blog for some great inspiration.

And, of course, there are Jesse Tree books you can purchase such as Advent Jesse Tree Devotions which has separate devotions for children and adults so both parents and children can benefit from readings at their level, and The Jesse Tree which is in more of a storybook format. I'm tempted to get these both ;)

I think we've just found a new tradition!

Operation Christmas Child - pack it!

Operation Christmas Child - one of my favourite Christmas traditions to get us started in the true spirit of Christmas: celebrating the greatest gift of all, Baby Jesus born as God's gift of love to us. Operation Christmas Child gives us a chance to spread His love to those who may never have heard of God, and who may never have a received a gift of any kind.

The girls absolutely love packing the shoeboxes. We picked up the school supplies when they were on sale during a trip to the States in summer, and then Olivia and Jacob went with me to shop for the toiletries and fun stuff just the other day. One slight problem with that plan - when we bought school supplies in summer, I bought enough for all 4 kids. When I bought the stuff now, I thought we had only bought for 3 kids. So, we had enough for 3 1/2 boxes - I just brought the 1/2 box to church and let them finish it off during their packing project. (The Gr 5/6 girls and the Gr 5/6 boys packed well over 100 boxes!!).

This is the list of what we packed in our boxes....
box of pencil crayons with sharpener
pencils
two pens
box of crayons
notepad
two animal shaped erasers
first aid kit
bar of soap
washcloth
toothbrush
headband
two hair ties
stuffed animal
bouncy ball
mini tamborine

We also got the girls to make a card for the girl who would receive the gift box.

It's not too late to pack your own shoebox!! Collection week is Nov 15 - 20th.

If you prefer the virtual world - you can pack your shoebox online too! Just click on this link and you will be taken to Samaritan's Purse's secure website where you can order a shoebox custom built as per your specifications all from the comfort of your own home! You can select the age and gender of the recipient of your box and it will let you know what's all automatically included for $37 (which includes the $7 shipping fee). Here is what's included in the Girls box for Age 5-9....
1 Notebook
5 Pencils
1 Pencil sharpener
1 Eraser
2 Pens
1 Pack of pencil crayons
1 Toothbrush
1 Pair of Socks
1 Activity Book
1 Comb
1 Bar of soap
1 Wash cloth
1 Cup
1 Painting kit
1 Pack of Stickers
1 Ball
Assorted hair accessories
Assorted hard candy

You will then have the option to pick two more items for an extra cost - you can pick between shirts ($5), sunglasses for $4 (great idea - have to remember that one for next year!), hairbrush ($2), calculator ($2) or stuffed animal ($3).

You can then write a note to the child and even upload a photo to include as well!

This is a bit more expensive then doing it yourself but it's a very cool option for those who prefer to shop online, or who are simply to busy to go out and buy the supplies. Simply put - you have no excuse not to do it! ;)

If you're looking for a new tradition to start with your kids this Christmas - this is it!

Giveaway Winner and Blog Hop Recap

Thank you to all who participated in my Christmas Traditions blog hop. There were so many good ideas, I can't wait till next Christmas! :)

Here's a little recap...

Jessica had several ideas on her blog including planning what your goals are for Christmas and what are the most important items you really want to get done (Christmas is a busy time and if you don't have a plan, it probably won't get done), her post here has the ideas they planned to use this year, a recipe for snowman floats is available here, a foil "stained-glass" ornament craft is here, and a neat idea for a gingerbread cookie advent countdown is here.

My cousin Tammi posted a new tradition they started this year, inspired by her giving-minded daughters! They sold some of their old toys and used the money to buy animals for poor people - such a fun/sweet adventure it was, check out the post for details. It helps that it gets rid of some clutter too :)

My sister Andrea posted about Operation Christmas Child - I love that organization!

Cherry Blossom posted about purchasing ornaments for their kids every year and making it applicable to the year just past.

Maggie posted about doing thing with her kids - making ornaments and baking (recipes included!).

And Pam posted about their Christmas Eve tradition of everyone in the family making their own pizzas - yummy, having a "stay in your pyjamas" day, playing a family game, and a fun stocking tradition.

On another blog I found a neat tradition - AnnMarie makes a new ornament for their tree out of the previous year's Christmas picture card - what a great idea!

I found numerous ideas for Advent countdowns - Cherry Blossom had a neat mitten garland countdown, I found a magnetic advent calendar using a mini muffin tin, and an advent calendar where each day has a gift for Jesus, something you can do for Jesus (also info on creating a Jesse tree on that link).

Chelsea posted about the Jesse Tree she made this year, she has several samples of the daily symbols they used.

I also found a neat idea for your own little family Christmas candlelight drama on the Focus on the Family site - it's got detailed instructions if you're interested in doing this yourself.

I think that's about it!

Oh - except for the winner of course :)

There were 6 commenters on my giveaway post, and the winner was .....
entry number 6! Pam!! Good thing you made that last minute entry Pam - woohoo! Email me and let me know which of the 3 cd's you would like to have. Seeds of Praise, Seeds of Purpose or The Power of Encouragement).




Congratulations Pam!

And a big thank you to everyone who participated in the Christmas Traditions Blog Hop - so many great ideas!!

Last chance for the giveaway

Don't forget to enter your favourite Christmas tradition (or idea for a new tradition you want to start) and comment on my giveaway post for your chance to win a Seeds Family Worship cd.

The deadline is noon tomorrow (New Year's Day)!

Happy New Year everyone!

Also - check out my new blog for this coming year's Bible Reading plan.

Giveaway with a Christmas Twist

Tis the Season and I'm in the mood for some gift givin'!

The prize - a Seeds Family Worship CD! I've mentioned them a few times before, and recently ordered 2 more (now we have the whole set!) using a discount code from Jessica's blog (I'm not sure how long it was valid for, but you could try using it and see what happens - enter code PJMORRIS09 to get 20% off your order). And since they come in packages of 2 cd's each, I happen to have some extras to giveaway!

The winner will have their choice of 3 CD's - Seeds of Praise, Seeds of Purpose and The Power of Encouragement).










And what do you have to do to win? Why, you have to enter my Christmas Traditions Blog hop, that's what! Blog about one or more of your favourite family traditions, or about one you've heard of and would like to start, add yourself to the MckLinky - and voila! You are entered.

Oh, and maybe comment on this post that you've done so, as it'll be easier to me to random.org the comments.

Since the Christmas Traditions Blog Hop is open until Dec 31st, so is this contest.

Christmas Traditions Blog Hop

As a follow up to my previous post, I'd love to hear about your favourite Advent/Christmas traditions, especially those that encourage you to focus on celebrating the birth of Jesus.

So, I created my own blog hop for the first time! How it works is, you publish a post about this topic on your blog and enter the link to that particular post in the MckLinky section below. Then you can add the code so that the blog hop also shows up on your blog. This lets readers hop from blog to blog - thus the title blog hop. There are instructions below on exactly what to do - it's not hard, I promise! If you do have any questions, feel free to ask me.

Feel free to link up more than one post if you do a few relating to this topic. Thank you for participating and I look forward to hearing some new ideas!

I've set the blog hop to stay open until New Year's, just in case you come up with new ideas throughout the season.

Advent/Christmas traditions

What are your favourite Christmas traditions? Either ones that your family did when you were little, or ones you have started (or continued!) doing with your own children.

As I previously posted, one of my favourites is participating in Operation Christmas Child. Unfortunately it's seems so far away from Christmas so it hardly feels like a Christmas tradition.

We always attend our church's Christmas Eve service done by our choir. Often the children sing in it as well. We also normally go out for supper afterwards, and it often takes a few phone calls to find a restaurant open Christmas Eve!

We try to drive around one evening in December just to go look at Christmas lights.

But, I'd like some more ideas.

My friend Chelsea is going to be posting her ideas of celebrating Advent with littles - you can check that out Part 1 here. I'm definitely going to be rounding up all our Christmas books!

I also found a blog dedicated to Christmas Traditions so I'm going to have to review that a bit.

One thing I'd like us to try doing this year - there is a church that sets up a live nativity "play" that you walk through. I've heard really good things about it, so maybe we'll try that this year.

If you have any ideas to share, please let me know! I'm especially looking for new ways to focus the kids towards the real meaning of Christmas (celebrating the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ), and away from the secular meaning of Christmas (presents, presents, and more presents).

Operation Christmas Child!

I love the ministry of Operation Christmas Child.

Filling shoeboxes with gifts for children living in desparate situations - what a great way to get into the Christmas spirit!

Though it still feels like Christmas is a long way off, this is definitely one of my favourite family traditions.

Our church generally donates the Sunday School offering from Sept - Nov to Operation Christmas Child as well, so our kids are well familiar with this project!

Each year we pack one shoebox per child (Jacob isn't quite old enough to understand this, we'll do one for him starting next year).

I already purchased a bunch of school supplies to put in the boxes when we shopped for school in the States - such good deals!

Today I took all 4 kids (yes, another day off school - craziness!) to Dollarama to pick up the last of the items. It definitely would've been easier for me to pick them up when I was at Dollarama on Tuesday with just 2 kids, but I wanted the girls to be able to pick out the stuff themselves - they're much more invested in it that way, and they love doing it!

We pack for kids the "same" as our kids - so we have boxes for 3 girls ages 4, 6, 8. They all got virtually the same items. After I assembled the boxes (which I picked up from our church - very handy that they're doing the same project), each girl got to pack their own box. I had to help rearrange them so everything would fit - those stuffed animals can create some problems! LOL

Here's what we packed in each box....

markers
crayons
pencil crayons
paint set
pencils
pencil sharpener
erasers
writing booklet with cute butterflies on the cover
bag of marbles
small bouncy ball
stuffed animal or animal puppet (depending on what our girls picked)
hair ties
toothbrush
a homemade Christmas card from the girls

I think that's it - a lot of practical stuff, and a few fun things thrown in too. Hopefully they'll enjoy them! I know we had a blast putting it together.

Christmas Traditions

I'd like to start more traditions in our family - especially Christmas traditions. We already have a few - we always attend the Christmas Eve choir service at our church, for ex, but I'd like to have more. I recently found this blog that has 100 Christmas Tradition ideas! The trick will be finding ones I like that my other half doesn't find too dorky. I'm much more apt to be dorky than he is :) I also find the trouble with 100 ideas is that it's so many I don't even know where to start!

At our COFFEE Connections (morning out for ladies at our church) this morning one of the women talked about a tradition they did - each child got to pick a character (shepherd, wise man, etc) and they would start from varying places in the room, depending on how far they had to travel to see Baby Jesus. As their particular part of the story was read they would move towards the Christmas tree. When the time came for Baby Jesus to be born, they would take a special gift ornament off the tree. It was a small box wrapped in gold wrapping paper, signifying Heaven and tied with a blue ribbon to signify royalty. Inside the box Baby Jesus was also wrapped in red and white tissue paper. White signified Jesus' absolutely purity and sinlessness and the red stood for the blood He shed to pay for our sins. I thought this was a fun tradition!

What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions?

A real post - the meaning of Christmas

OK, even though today is a total record breaking posting day for me, I haven't really posted anything other than pictures. So, here's a real post.

How do we teach our children the true meaning of Christmas? Truly teach it to them. I think we thoroughly confuse them.

We teach them that the meaning of Christmas is a celebration of Jesus' birth - our Lord and Saviour.

We teach them that He left heaven and exchanged the glories there for a human body here on earth - born in a stable, born to die for the sins of the world, for my sins, for their sins.

We teach them that Santa is not real, he's just pretend - like Cinderella.

We teach them that gifts are not the meaning of Christmas. That gifts are just a fun part of the celebration. That they need to appreciate the gift and the meaning behind it, even if it's not exactly what they wanted to get. That they shouldn't ask for "more". That they shouldn't just tear through the presents and lay them aside after a hurried "thank you" looking for the next one.

And then after we've talked the talk we completely fail to walk it - and they end up opening 100 presents each from us, their aunts & uncles, grandparents and great-grandparents.

What exactly are they supposed to think?

Every year I look at all the "stuff" our kids have gotten and wonder where on earth to put it all.

What is this "stuff" really teaching our kids? How are we supposed to teach them not to be materialistic in the midst of it all?

And yet, it's so fun watching them open their gifts! I love to buy them things and watch them open it. But at what expense? Will the price be higher than we should be willing to pay?

Or is it no big deal? Maybe I'm overreacting/overthinking/overanalizing, I don't know.

We definitely do things to combat the materialism. We always do the Samaritan's purse Christmas shoe boxes, and they each help pack a box for a girl their age. We sponsor a child, provide an extra Christmas gift, as well as an extra Family gift once/year. They love to write Jonathan letters and draw pictures for him. We talk about how little he has and how he can't afford to do the same things we do - like go to restaurants or hotel trips, and that he doesn't even always have enough to eat. We sponsor missionaries in India and pray for them and Jonathan every day.

Is the Christmas gift overload cancelling out all of that? Or is it not really that bad?

I'd like to come up with more traditions that focus on the true meaning of Christmas.

I have heard of a great idea recently - to buy 3 (or 4) gifts per child and that's it. One thing they need (like clothes), one thing they want (toy) and a book and/or a game.

I think that's a great idea - until I see x in the store and know how much the girls would like it and cave and buy yet another present. Maybe next year.

I'm not meaning for this to sound so depressing. I LOVE Christmas. I love decorating (our tree went up November 25 already), I love listening to Christmas music, I love the lights, I love the Christmas programs and I love watching our kids open their gifts. Everything (especially when it comes to gifts) in moderation is the key I think.