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!!

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.

3 Things Every Parent Should Teach Their Kids - Blog Hop

The theme for this week's blog hop is "Three Things Every Parent Should Teach Their Kids".

Here are the "rules"...

You don't have to be a parent to participate. Everyone was a kid at some point, so you know important things they should be taught.

To keep from getting alot of the same obvious answers, try to be specific and let's bypass some of the obvious: be honest, love your parents, love God, be kind to others, accept Jesus as your Savior.

This is not a list of the MOST IMPORTANT, so do not feel like you must list the highest priority or the obvious, which will end up having the same thing repeated by everyone over and over. Try to be specific and creative. This your three items with a sentence or two explanation.

1 - Manners. Our society has completely embraced the idea of personal entitlement and totally validates self-absorption. Perhaps because of this - using good manners can make a big impact on how others view and treat you. Showing respect for others is a good way to gain their respect in return.

2 - Personal responsibility. Accepting personal responsibility for their actions is a huge lesson for kids to learn. Nobody can make you do anything. You are responsible for your choices. You are not responsible for other people's choices - but you are responsible for your reaction to them. I believe children that have a solid sense of personal responsibility will also have much higher self-esteem.

3 - Girls dressing modestly, boys treating girls respectfully. This is so totally a two-way street. Girls have the responsibility to dress modestly, recognizing how visual guys are. The guys have the responsibility to exercise self-control and to behave like gentlemen.



Special thanks to Purell Hand Sanitizer for sponsoring this blog hop.

Blog Hop - Encouragement

Scripture
Romans 8:38 & 39 - For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I find this verse so encouraging - it shows us that there is literally nothing bad enough that we could do/say/think to make Jesus love us less, and there's nothing we can do/say/think to make Him love us more. We are made in His image and He loves us - more than we can imagine. We don't need to work for His love. It is ours, it is free, it is a gift - we just need to receive it, and nothing will ever separate us from that love.

Quote
I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do. Helen Keller

It sometimes seems like there is so much evil in the world, so much sadness, so much pain that we wonder - how could the little I do make a difference? This quote reminds us that every little bit helps. No matter the type of contribution you can make, no matter your talents, no matter your abilities - everyone can do something and it makes a difference. You can make a difference - so go out and do it!

Blog Hop - Favourite Recipe

I have lots of favourite recipes, but here's a really simple and delicious brownie recipe....

Decadent Brownies
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup cocoa
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/8 tsp salt

Melt butter in the microwave and stir in cocoa. In a medium bowl, beat eggs, then add sugar, flour, salt and cocoa mixture - stir all together. Scrape batter into greased 8x8 pan and bake at 350 for 25 - 30 minutes.

Icing
1 1/3 cup icing sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
3 tbsp softened butter or margarine
1 1/2 tbsp hot prepared coffee or water

Beat all ingredients together, adding more water if mixture is too firm to spread easily or more icing sugar if too soft. Spread over warm brownies. Allow to set before cutting.


Friday I will be hosting a Mom to Mom post where we share ideas on how to encourage our children's relationship with Jesus. All participants will be eligible for a giveaway. Please join me Friday!

Blog Hop - 3 Things You Didn't Know About Me

Wow - it feels pretty neat to have my idea used on one of the first blog hops!

These will likely only be new to you if you're new to my blog, but here goes....

1) I went on a Teen Missions trip when I was 17, for 2 months. It was one of the hardest and best summers of my life!
2) I am very thankful that so far we've been an accident-and-sick-free family! None of us have allergies, none of us have ever broken a bone, I have been stung by a bee only once. In the past 8 years I have had to buy antibiotics for our 4 kids only 6 times in total! (1 for some kind of cold infection, 2 for thrush, 2 for one bad case of UTI, and only 1 for ear infection)
3) Nathan and I LOVE cruising. We've been to Mexico twice and we've been on two cruises - and though we thoroughly enjoyed all our trips, we prefer cruising hands down and can't wait to go again!!

Click on the links above for the full stories.

Check out some new blogs below!

Mom to Mom - postponed

I'm still planning to do a Mom to Mom post on what we can do to encourage our children's relationship with God. I have postponed it to next week - partially because I've been too busy to get my post written up. Also - Pam (the lone responder to my initial post) is starting a screen free week this week, so she won't be able to participate till next week. AND, I'm hoping MckLinky creator Brent will have come up with a way to do my own blog hop by then. MckLinky is a new Mr.Linky type widget (only totally free and way better). Each week Brent hosts a Blog Hop where everyone who wishes to participate puts up a post on the same topic on the same day and everyone will have the MckLinky list show up on their blog, making it easy to hop from one blog to another. I emailed him asking if he could make a way for anybody to host their own blog hop, and he said he'd work on it. Hopefully it'll be done by then, but if not, we'll still do it.

Of course, feel free to type up your post already, and just save it as a draft till then.

Also - he had asked for ideas for future blog hops and I sent one in and it will be featured this Tuesday and my post will be close to the top of the list - cool eh?