Silly Elf

I don't know who is having more fun... the parents or the kids.

Greatest Gift

The past few years at our old church we were stretched and challenged to give our greatest gift to God for Christmas, it is his birthday after all that we are celebrating. It was pretty simple. Take a look at how much you spent on the biggest gift and challenge yourself to give that much and more back to God. It's not strictly related to money. It could be any number of things. This year I'm really putting some more thought into what I would give God besides our offering. As I said it's not just about money. I need to consider time, talent and treasure.
To make it a bit easier I had to go back and look at what it really means to tithe (I'm just using this as one example of giving). God obviously does not need our money, it's the simple act of reverence in giving back a portion of what he has given you. To acknowledge that none of it really belongs to you, it all belongs to him anyway, and he only asks for a small portion. Most of our married life Michael and I have given back to God what we barely had enough of for ourselves. It was a trust thing. We both steadfastly believed that God would take care of us no matter what and so we gave, believing His promises.

I suppose you could easily say that time was just as valuable as money, sometimes even more so.

And talent... How often do I use talents God has given to me to give back to Him?

And so this is where my challenge lies. How can I put these thoughts into action. I can think of a few things. I can also think of a few ways to involve the family with me. They are on my Christmas bucket list.  Just wanted to let you know where my heart was.

(Why does it seem like I can get all my thoughts out in a few sentences? Do you prefer reading drawn out blogs? I guess I don't and so I summarize everything. Oh well, makes for a good quick read.)

20 days til Christmas! What?!

I secretly love the fact that the kids get to open up a gift every, well, almost every day.

Even though I've wrapped their old Christmas toys, (which by the way Ayden is VERY aware of by now) they both still really enjoy it!

I did  discover that Logan doesn't care what time or day it is he will go open a present when the desire hits him. Good to know. Guess the real gifts won't make their way under the tree until Christmas Eve.

Yesterday we were able to celebrate our 2nd Thanksgiving day since my parents were out of town during the first one. We had a great time. We also did a little craft project as pictured above. I can't disclose on it just yet because I have much more in store for this project.

And of course our favorite elf made his appearance. Lucky for him the candle did not get lit that day.

Just a few things

The kids finally got to open another present. These were those books I was telling you about from last year. Logan was ecstatic. Ayden said "I think I already have this book" haha. It was a nice addition to our bedtime story routine.

Bumblebee finally made his appearance! It took all day for Ayden to find him. But when he did he was so overjoyed to see him. Bumblebee didn't bring any letters with him today. I think Santa must have been having problems with his letter head and he was too tired to fight it and decided that he need to go to sleep instead. Moving on...

And here is our tree. It's hard to get an up close picture and also include the star. I've had this crazy idea for years now to make a Dr Suess-like tree. I love it! It took a drawing to convince Michael and after he saw what I had in mind he liked it too. (it's also a way to add even more ornaments!)

Well, that's all for tonight. Tomorrow we get to have our 2nd, or is it 3rd Thanksgiving? I'm not sure, either way I'm excited about green bean casserole.

New tradtions, Tips, and Freebies

I promise I have not forgotten to blog. Trust me, it's been on my mind. We had a rough start to December but it's the weekend now and I know that things are looking up. I've made our Christmas bucket list and we are crossing things off.

Day 1 the kids got to each open a present. They got their first little snow globes! Ayden's only lasted about 10 minutes before he dropped it and broke the glass. It will be hard to find a replacement but I have an idea just in case I can't. This night they kids were supposed to decorate their bedroom trees. But due to bad behavior and a call from the principal, this activity was postponed and replaced with homework.

Day 2 was a bit better. We did put the final touches on the tree. The plan was a movie night with a favorite holiday movie. Said movie had to be replaced half way through because it was scratched so bad it kept skipping. Luckily, thankfully we found an equally good Christmas movie on Netflix. While we snuggled with our blankets watching the movie, daddy put the lights up on the house. I think we are 95% decorated.

Tonight's mommy work includes pulling Bumblebee out of hiding and writing letters to the kids from Santa with this awesome FREE Santa Claus letterhead Free letter from Santa paper.

Tomorrow I promise to take pictures when the kids get to open their 2nd presents of the countdown gifts and their reaction to Bumblebee with the letters from Santa.

*The idea about a gift a day came from the advent calendar. I'm too frugal to go buy 50 new things (25 days x 2 kids). While I was pulling out Christmas decorations I found our Christmas themed books and play toys. I immediately thought about wrapping these up. After all, it's been a year since the kids have seen them. I'm hoping this goes over well. I figure if I throw in a few new things like the snow globes listed above, and I thought the kids would love a box of candy canes,  I knew I was good to go! Wrapping paper makes everything more fun!