by Donna | Nov 30, 2010
Continued from yesterday…
3. Think about Jesus’ entire life—his birth, life, death, and resurrection—not just his birth. Linking the Christmas story to the fact that without it we would have no hope of salvation is important, especially with younger children. Two ways that we do this include discussing, reading about, and singing about the names of Christ and what they mean throughout the month; and reading one of the Gospels—not just the Christmas story—during December. This helps us focus on our salvation even more. (Another thing we have done to focus on Jesus’ entire life is to listen to Focus on the Family’s radio theatre “The Luke Reports.” I will put links to some excellent resources throughout December, so check back frequently!)
4. Reach out to those less fortunate—and do so in a way that costs you and your children something. I know that doesn’t sound very “Christmasy”—good cheer and mistletoe and all (btw, I love mistletoe if the right “mistletoe-ee” is around!), but taking a can to a canned food drive or parents buying gifts for the children to leave at the angel tree are not sacrifices for our children—and do not do much to teach our children the true meaning of Christmas—and the true meaning of sacrificial giving.
When I speak of reaching out to those less fortunate, I am talking about giving up time (a few evenings or days?) and money (money with which a child could buy himself something). I’m talking about doing hard things. I’m talking about getting dirty, being inconvenienced, etc. I know that sounds strange, but honestly, what could we possibly do or give that would be too much for our Lord? Find true, meaningful service projects for your children—extensive time spent at a nursing home or group home caroling, making cookies with residents, reading to them, etc.; earning money to be used to give gifts to truly poor or forgotten people (like county home residents or the disabled); going out into the homes of people who never have a Christmas visitor; serving food at a soup kitchen; cleaning mattresses at a rescue mission. Focus on others more than ever before this Christmas—your children will thank you for it eventually. (For the new year, read the stories written by the author of Mandate for Mercy (also the founder of the Mercy Ship ministry) about how his mom made his family squeeze together in the car every week to pick up poor and desperate people to take them to church—and the impact this had on this man causing him to spend his life on the poor and desolate—this is the kind of reaching out we are purporting here.)
*Copyright TFT 2008
by Donna | Nov 30, 2010
Two years ago I wrote a “Holiday Musings” article for Training for Triumph’s newsletter. It has a lot of the same ideals that you will find in this blog—in season and out of season! However, I want to share it with you this Christmas. I pray that you will be moved and encouraged by it.
“Holiday Musings”
by Donna Reish
I love Christmas! I love giving gifts to my children; I love lights and beautiful decorations; I love doing family activities over and over again every year; I love baking goodies and giving them away. I even have a verse to substantiate my desire to give good gifts to my kids at Christmas time: “If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him?” (Matthew 7:11). I mean, God knows that even we mere mortals love to give good gifts to our kids!
Although all of the things in my “I love” list above are somewhat “unspiritual,” we have found through the years there are some common threads that we try to emphasize/do during the Christmas holiday—some to remember and ponder what Christ has done for us more fully; some to deepen our relationships with each other; some to show Christ’s love to the world. Allow me to give you a list of my holiday musings.
1. Think about, talk about, sing about, and remember the true reason for Christmas as a family throughout the month. We have found many things that help us focus on the birth of Christ more and more throughout December: singing carols together; reading Christmas picture books with the littles in the afternoons; collecting nativity scenes; reading from chapter books that emphasize the birth of Christ, such as Max Lucado’s Cosmic Christmas, Gene Edwards’ The Birth, and Marjorie Holmes’ Two From Galilee; going to community events that point us back to the reason for the season, such as Christmas plays, live nativities, walks through Bethlehem, Christmas
cantatas, movies, and plays that emphasize the coming of the Savior.
2. Create family traditions. We have too many holiday traditions to list in just one short article, but research has born out the importance of traditions in building a child’s outlook on many things—and it is so obvious when you hear children talk and repeat that mantra: “We always…” There is something about being able to say that we always, or our family likes to… Two of our favorite traditions are decorating the house together and reading inspirational Christmas stories throughout the month of December.
Our older kids laugh until they cry as they give play-by-plays of each ornament making ordeal we have gone through. (Our tree is decorated with only home made ornaments—another tradition we have is that of making ornaments together.) Anyway, they have a joke of holding up the sample ornament (one that I bought that we were modeling after) and holding up one of ours and chiming, “Sample ornament; Reish ornament” over and over. Then they tell about the time I threw the cinnamon sticks across the room in a fit of Christmas stress as we tried to make the “ornaments in a minute” out of cinnamon sticks. Then we all laugh some more—and I try my best to keep from crying as I think about Christmases gone by—and wonder where the years have gone and long for just a day from a Christmas ten or fifteen years ago.
Traditions do not have to be elaborate or expensive. Some of ours (besides the decorating night and ornament making) are as simple as watching certain Christmas movies while we wrap gifts; eating shrimp alfredo while we watch White Christmas; reading about holiday traditions each morning; learning a new carol together each year (all the verses!); having the kids exchange their gifts with each other on Christmas Eve; reading inspirational stories each night before bed; reading one of the Gospels during the month of December; etc.
*Copyright TFT 2008
by Donna | Nov 28, 2010
I didn’t want to wait another day to post the free Jesse Tree Advent Devotional book from A Holy Experience blog. The link below will take you to samples (which will make you want to get the whole thing, trust me!). At the bottom of that page is a place to sign up to download it.
Make this the Christmas to start all of those traditions you have been meaning to start! Begin by reading aloud from a Christmas devotional (like the one offered at this link). You will be so glad you started building traditions with your family!
https://www.aholyexperience.com/2010/11/free-jesse-tree-advent-devotional-book/
by Donna | Nov 28, 2010
REISH FAMILY DECORATING NIGHT 2010
In the last post, I described our family’s Christmas decorating family night that we have each year. Today I would like to share our photos–the first time that we have documented most of the evening with pictures! Thanks for joining us!
We started this year’s family decorating night with a family photo shoot…yeah, the pics above show just how difficult it is to get eleven “adults” cooperating all at the same time! We have this tiny problem with all the married couples (Mom and Dad included!) kissing more than smiling for the camera! Added to this was the fact that it was supposed to be an outdoor photo shoot, but it was sleeting, so we had to move inside. Our downstairs areas (excluding two bedrooms upstairs) total around 900 square feet–not enough space to photograph eleven people….so just creating a blank wall was a challenge in itself.
And…we have a good one! Well, pretty good … everybody’s eyes are open and nobody is kissing…we can’t ask for much more than that!
Next came family story reading. Watch future posts for suggestions–but the one we started with this year is a family favorite–“If You’re Missing Baby Jesus.” (The girls had prepared the appetizers (store bought, mostly) and the guys carried in the boxes prior to this, so everyone was eating as I was reading.)
Next, we all chip in to clean, move the furniture around, find coins under the sofa, etc. etc. One year we found somebody’s missing i-pod. It’s sort of like a treasure hunt! LOL! Dad always leads the way in family work–we learned a long time ago that the best way to teach kids anything is by example.
Some of us set up the tree while others cleaned up the meal, baked cookies, carried out empty boxes, etc. “Many hands make light the work”!
The moment the kids all wait for–passing out of the ornaments. For nearly twenty years, we have only decorated our tree with ornaments made by the children through the years. Talk about memories: “Remember when Mom threw the cinnamon sticks across the room on this one?” “Remember this one–the box said ‘5 minutes an ornament’ Ha!” “Remember how many times Mom tried to starch those angels–but they never stood up like the ‘sample’ one did!” On and on and on…we laugh until we cry. We are not very artsy (except for our artist daughter-in-law), so the ornaments are not “Better Homes and Garden” style–but we love them anyway.
Our ornaments are not too fragile–thankfully, since they are in three boxes all mixed up. But that makes for some of the fun–when Dad and I pull an ornament out, nobody knows what it’s going to be! 🙂
These are a few of our favorite homemade ornaments–notice the “wilty angels” and “stressing cinnamon sticks” are not here! Some years we have used kits (like the first pic–a simple, place-the-pieces on a plastic, color-coded frame, then iron them to melt them together) and other years we have modeled after other home made ornaments we have seen (like this latter one).
We didn’t get a shot of the entire tree (or the dozen-plus nativities we collect) for some reason. Here’s a partial shot of the nearly-finished tree.
And ready for the star…one benefit of being the youngest–you get the put the star on practically forever! 🙂 Jacob is here asking everybody to lift him up to the top of the tree–notice the puppy dog eyes! Works for him though! 🙂
Then came the “sibling exchange drawing” time. I could write an entire blog on the fun of this–each person draws a name and gets that person gifts for Christmas (as opposed to buying for all, which we had to end a few years ago when the kids started in college and had too many expenses to buy for everybody). Everybody loves it–and the antics and extremes they go to try to trick each other concerning who has whose name adds to the fun!
Then comes our singing time. I love it more than ever now because I get to hear Kara or Cami on piano–something I don’t get to do that often anymore! This year we used our “Sing Through the Christmas Story” songsheet that Cami made for our family a few years ago. (I will post it in its entirety in another blog.)
Several years ago when the three “little boys” were truly “little boys,” Kayla made them all wise men costumes, and they each learned a different verse from “We Three Kings” and sang it (dressed in their costumes) whenever we could talk them into it. Anyway, Kara (our drama queen) decided to help the boys resurrect their verses–complete with her own dramatic interpretation. She keeps us all laughing, that’s for sure!
Next came cookies and conversations. Kayla made her infamous homemade chocolate chip cookie dough earlier in the week, so we baked a bunch up for our party night.
Finally, more snacks, games, talking, and fun to end the evening. Some of us stayed up late playing table games. The marrieds went home. And I praised God for the incredible, wonderful family he has given me and the grace and strength to raise them in His ways.
by Donna | Nov 28, 2010
“Traditions are the key to everything. These are the recurring activities that can be anticipated and enjoyed throughout the year. The great value of traditions comes as they give a family a sense of identity, a belongingness. All of us desperately need to feel that we’re not just a cluster of people living together in a house, but we’re a family that’s conscious of its uniqueness, its personality, character, and heritage, and that our special relationships of love and companionship make us a unity with identify and personality.”
James and Shirley Dobson
Two years ago our oldest daughter moved from Indiana to Texas to get her biblical studies degree (to complement the nursing degree she had already gotten while living at home and attending college locally). Our Christmas decorating family night came around, and Kayla was across the country going to school five days a week and working twelve hour shifts as a nurse at Baylor Hospital on the weekends. I planned the family night as usual—but struggled to get excited about it knowing that we would be one child short that year.
Everyone arrived and we all gathered in the living room when Cami and Joseph (newly married) said they had an early Christmas present for Mom and that I should close my eyes while they bring it in. I was sure they were bringing in a poinsettia plant—something to cheer me up with Kayla away. When they had me open my eyes, I screamed, cried, and laughed all at the same time as Kayla stood before me—home for the family decorating night. Kayla had spent an entire weekend of work’s income to give me one of the best Christmas presents I could ever ask for—a Christmas decorating family night with all of my children at home. She flew in for thirty-six hours, a frivolity, some might say. But it was no frivolity. It confirmed that we had placed within our kids a light of family unity—a warmth that says that the Reish family is a great family to be in—and if you can help it, you don’t want to miss any of the special times we share.
Of course, now with our five oldest kids ages 28, 24, 22, 20, and 18, our traditions are lessening—and we are holding onto the most important ones. (And encouraging our olders to develop their own traditions.) But the memories remain—nothing, not even time, can erase family memories.
We recently had another decorating family night—an evening filled with appetizers, homemade cookies, tree decorating, nativity set up, siblings name drawing, caroling, story read alouds, reminiscing, lively discussions, and games. Christmas decorating night is a special one for our entire family. It makes us, as the Dobsons share in the quote above, feel that we are not just a cluster of people living together in a house, but a family that’s conscious of our special relationships of love and companionship.
Start your Christmas traditions today. Make a list of three, five, or ten things that will be your family’s “things” during the holiday season. Traditions that make your family unique. And the Christmas holiday even more special.
Next blog post: A picture journal of our family decorating night! This year we got photographs!
by Donna | Nov 26, 2010
When I had a lot of “littles,” I loved to have coloring pages and activities for them around the holidays. We made Christmas ornaments, gingerbread houses, Christmas cards, turkey cards, and more. Such good times!
Now with the internet at our finger tips, there are thousands of places to find audio books, downloadable books, coloring and activity pages, craft ideas, recipes, and more. A person could literally spend hours just searching.
One site that I would have loved to have had when my kids were little is the one I am recommending today. It is chock full of holiday ideas—downloadable coloring pages, stories, crafts, recipes, and more. And not just holidays—but specific Thanksgiving sections!
Take a look at it and see if it will help your celebrations or down time this weekend. And then bookmark it for Christmas!
https://www.thanksgivingfun.net/
