Staying Centered at Christmas

Okay, because Laura Troxel is waiting....and because last night I went to an event with some great women at Lakeside Christian Church who got me thinking about how to help our family stay centered this Christmas.

We have set 3 goals for our family this Christmas:

1. We want our family to be moved by a beautiful story.
2. We want to prioritize daily preparation for the celebration of the coming of the Messiah.
3. We want to spend quality time around a table with people we love.

Here are a few ways we've tried to do this in the past, or continue to build those things into our lives at Christmastime:

Jotham's Journey: A Storybook for Advent

An exciting adventure story of a 10 year old boy as he finds his way to the Savior born in Bethlehem. These daily readings kept our kids on the edge of their seat in anticipation....there are 3 books in this series, and through the years, we've read them several times! Probably best for ages 8-14, though has some scarier parts to be aware of if you have kids who don't handle that well.

Kindness Advent

In 2013 we did a Kindness Advent. Every day included a word to meditate on, and an act of kindness to do - sometimes in our home, and often for others. Some of our favorites were hiding $1 bills at the Dollar Store with an encouraging note, leaving treats for the mailman or garbage man, putting encouraging notes on car windshields at the grocery store, and inviting people to dinner. This was super fun and interactive - - but did require some advanced-planning and work from mom! For more ideas, check out http://pitterpatterart.com/kindness-advent/

Unwrapping the Greatest Gift

Last year we used Ann Voskamp's book to direct our daily advent preparations and made a Jesse Tree with ornaments that were a free download from her website. The Jesse tree is a smaller tree we put on our table and every day we added an ornament that told a different part of the Christmas story.

Handel's Messiah - I wrote about some of our family traditions here, and now that my girls are older and share my love of Handel's Messiah, finding a local "Sing-along Messiah" is an annual priority of mine.

Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb of God Album - When I think of being moved by a beautiful story, this album will do it. Our family will go see the tour at the Virginia Theater in Champaign on December 12th. Forget the Trans-Siberian Orchestra or the Nutcracker.....this is the stuff.

Other ideas....

Here are some other ideas I've heard, but haven't tried at our house....

• Reading the Christmas Story from Matthew or Luke....I heard this tradition from my friend, Faith Brooks, who said her family would read the story every day of advent. The same story. Every day. But the beautiful thing is that they can now recite the Christmas story for memory

• I know these Advent activities are supposed to keep me from spending and wanting and giving in to the consumeristic part of Christmas, but I WANT this Advent Wreath from Joy Wares:

(And, ahem, my birthday is coming.....)

So here's the point of it all. How do we focus on what's important this Christmas and not let the culture or expectations from others (or ourselves) hijack what it's really all about? I'd love to hear how you're entering this season with intentionality....

Remembering

Okay, I take some good-natured flack from some of my friends and family for things like practicing Lent even though we're not Catholic, and incorporating things like Passover into our Easter celebrations.

But here's what the Jews got that we often miss.....the importance of REMEMBERING what God has done for us. Every year, they set aside time to remember and celebrate how God delivered them out of slavery in Egypt....the calling of Moses, the plagues, and finally, the lamb's blood that caused death to Pass-Over their doors while the first-borns all around them were dying.

Maybe it's significant that the Passover meal is the context for Jesus preparing his disciples for what's going to happen next. Perhaps Jesus wanted them to have the image of a lamb sacrificed fresh in their minds as he told them about how the Son of Man would have to die.

The Passover story is our story....just as the Good Friday and Easter stories are ours. We have been delivered by the blood of the Lamb. We were captives to addictions, despair, hopelessness, brokenness.....and God has rescued us...over and over again. Maybe remembering where we've been and what He's done will make this Good Friday even more significant.

Once again, I pull out Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb of God"...

An advent challenge

The Lasleys challenged our campus ministry to prepare for Christmas by reading the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) between now and Christmas, and all it takes is 4 chapters a day!

So, this morning, our family started our Advent Gospel Challenge with Matthew. I'd encourage you to try something like this for your family, but one hint about Matthew 1: If you're reading aloud with your family, don't let one of your kids read through the geneology of Jesus unless you want to miss the school bus!!

Or, you could just sing Andrew Peterson's version:



*from our good friends at West Side Christian Church

8 Things....

One of my adoption-blogging friends, Misty, tagged me to write about 8 things.....I don't know how interesting it will be, but here goes....

8 Things I'm Passionate about
my husband, Todd
Being a mom
Living in Community
Becoming more like Jesus
Loving Jesus with college students
Learning to live simply
Africa
God's heart for the fatherless

8 Things I Want to do Before I Die
Give away more than I keep
Visit my brother and his family in Indonesia
Sing back-up for Caedmon's Call...or Waterdeep...or some other cool folk-rock band (a girl can dream, can't she?!)
Learn how to make/like/order coffee
Live in a maintenance-free house
Memorize the New Testament
Get up-to-date on my scrapbooks
Live in another country

8 Things I Often Say
MAX!!!
DROP IT!! (again, directed towards Max)
Sit. Staaayyyyyyy. Good boy.
We're finishing our homestudy; then we can apply for grants
Oh, Crack!!
How often are you nursing your baby?
Do you wanna write this down?
Sit on your bottom, please (teaching table manners)

8 TV Shows I Recently Watched
American Idol
Biggest Loser
Suite Life of Zack and Cody
Today Show
Trading Spaces (Paige Davis is back!!)
Jon and Kate plus 8
Take-Home Chef
Celebrity Apprentice (yes, I confess....but now that Gene Simmons is gone, there's no point)

8 Songs I Never Tire of Listening To
Rescue - Desperation Band
Monster Truck - This Train (this is the theme song to our marriage)
Hope to Carry On - Rich Mullins (or anything else by him)
Handel's Messiah
Sara Groves - - anything by her
Andrew Peterson - - the whole Behold the Lamb of God album
Wicked Soundtrack
Anything my husband is singing....Mmmm...I love that voice!!

8 Things that Attract me to my Friends
The fact that I am related to some of the best ones
Going through hard things together
Being able to "pop in", no warning required
The unimportance of "stuff"
The importance of Jesus
laughing
generosity - - with time, money, mercy...
the love of NPR

8 Things I Learned in 2007
Amharic is the official language in Ethiopia
How to increase a woman's milk supply
I can't jump rope without peeing my pants
What a Dossier is
My husband really DOES like dogs!
How to plant a vegetable garden
Sophia has a beautiful voice
Sarah Jane is a better piano player than I ever was

I'm tagging Amanda (she'll need a break from unpacking boxes), Christi, and Sunita, and Lindsey, who is new to the blogging world!! Have fun!

Behold the Lamb of God

I think it bears repeating that if you haven't gotten the best christmas album ever, Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb of God, you need to do it. I wrote about it last year, and it still has the same impact on our family.

We had 6 amazing hours in the car today as a family. Really. Amazing. We were on our way to Palestine (Illinois...a land flowing with Chicken and Noodles)to visit family, and the girls requested that we listen to the new Andrew Peterson CD (see the last post).

As we listened, we would stop the cd and explain the stories about the passover, about Moses and the exodus, about how the Isrealites wanted a King, about the genealogy and who those people were, about pregnancy outside of marriage...and as I sat there, I felt like a Hebrew parent....re-telling the stories, answering questions, explaining customs and history and context....

On the way back home, someone asked for the CD again and we did the whole thing over again...
"tell the story about Joseph and the coat again..."
"why aren't we Hebrews? or Jews?"
"Was the Joseph with the brothers the same as Mary and Joseph?"

To a parent (or a roommate, or a co-worker, or a friend), those moments are priceless...when we have a captive, curious audience and an open door to share the history and significance of God's Story. I'm so grateful for how God orchestrates those moments, and also very aware that things like music and movies (if you haven't seen The Nativity Story, you should!) can help open up those conversations.

Be purposeful this Christmas season....talk about the stories with your friends and family...talk about the sermon at church, disuss that Christmas movie, buy the Andrew Peterson CD....tonight I couldn't help dreaming about my girls passing the same stories on as they drive in the car with their families one day...