As much as I love this season and its True meaning, it surely has changed in the past few years for me. The activities and decorations leading up to Christmas day are a bit different, but enjoyable in their own, new joy-filled childish ways.
Here are some of the things we did both inside and outside our home this year to prepare for and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas - the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
First are the Christmas outfits and perfectly lit tree and happy, smiling (& adorable!) children. This is most important, right? We got tons of pictures like this. Ok, I'm lying. This was the only good one. And it was pretty much a miracle. Hence why it's first ;)
Next comes our Fisher Price nativity set. Notice that one of the three wisemen is missing. No idea where he is. He must have gotten lost somewhere on the journey to Bethlehem. I'm taking it as a sign of a well-played-with set. I'll just tell myself that. He was here at the start of the Christmas season! But we do love this and play with it often.
Our advent calendars and kindness elf. Every morning (ok, almost every morning - I slacked a few times) our kindness elf, Pepper, has a note under her arm telling us what we're going to do that day. Some things we did included making different crafts and ornaments, going on a shopping trip to buy our Giving Tree gifts, picking out some old toys we no longer use to donate, baking cookies, mailing & delivering Christmas cards, playing/visiting with family or friends, seeing Christmas lights or watching a Christmas movie. Then there's the advent calendars. The one on the wall has different Bible verses to read each day, as well as two M&Ms in each pocket. We figured out pretty quickly that the M&Ms had to be the reward for sitting still and listening to the reading of the Bible verses :) There's also the family advent calendar that we weren't as good at using. The kids are still a bit young for a lot of it. We'll save that for the future.
Window decorations. The nativity gets rearranged daily in various formations. We did make the "stained glass" nativity though and that has remained in place. I've learned to just let things go and let them be involved rather than have perfect looking decorations. I just end up driving myself crazy trying to fight that fight!
Christmas sticker countdown. This has been wonderful. Peel off a sticker and stick it on the tree each day and also know how many days until Christmas remain. Will definitely have to do this again next year as it easily avoided the "how many days until Christmas?" question.
Visiting Fatima Shrine to look at the lights. We did this at least three times. This visit pictured was with some of our friends was especially fun! The best things about this place are that its free, the lights are great and my energizer bunny of a daughter expends some energy before bed.
And of course making sure we focus on the true meaning of Christmas while there.
We also did some activities that were fun, but also caused a bit more stress and anxiety than I had anticipated. Two kitchen helpers is just twice the fun! We made memories though and I know it will get easier in years to come. Here we are making cinnamon applesauce ornaments and cookies.
One day I surprised the kids with a long-overdue visit to see some of our most beloved friends who moved over an hour away. The girls had a great time decorating Christmas cookies, playing dress up and doing crafts while the littles played together and biggest brother was at school. And even more important was that the moms got some time to reconnect and catch up.
Touching and rearranging the ornaments on the tree. Multiple times a day. This wasn't exactly a planned or organized activity, but it happened. We didn't have a perfectly pretty Christmas tree this year, it just wasn't going to happen. I let that go and just let their little hands and hearts have fun. And also let pine needles find their way around the entire house. That is not so fun.
Meeting the Grinch. This was HUGE. He came to our local library one morning and did a meet and greet. For those that don't know, Curly Girl has quite the obsession with the Grinch, along with other green guys like Gumby and Yoda. She was pretty much in heaven. And Ginger boy surprised us all by getting right up on his lap. (But if we are anywhere even near a Santa, he insists on me holding him while he nervously quivers). Glad we got to do this!
This may become our new Christmas Eve tradition - watching Rudolph together in the morning before heading out for the day's activities.
And last, but not least, my favorite thing leading up to Christmas is the Christmas Eve service at my hometown church that I grew up in and we got married in. (First Congregational Church of North Brookfield, MA) They do a children's Christmas pageant and then we sing songs by candlelight. And if I'm being perfectly honest, this year brought a little more anxiety than years past because we sat in the balcony with our little busy bodies (and my 3 year old nephew) and they aren't ever really still and have to work pretty hard at staying quiet. So there's the height thing, and then the fire thing with the candles. Just a little anxious. But we made it through the service and all enjoyed it. And I think everyone in the church knew we were there... And best of all, the true meaning of Christmas rang throughout the service.
From the Red 3 + Me we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May you feel and experience His love in this coming year.
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