Holiday Fun

I love Christmas! I revel in the festivities and the lights and the anticipation as much as the kids do, and I delight in the simple and abundant joy that fills the season. We have had plenty of fun in the past couple of weeks.

First, Nana came to visit for a couple of days. "Nana Claus," as we began calling her, filled the tree with presents while Hannah was at school and Ben and Becca were napping. The kids loved having an early Christmas celebration and excitedly unwrapped the special gifts Nana brought for them. Additionally, Nana Claus filled the kids (and us!) with candy and other treats. But, most importantly, she filled our house with love and fun while she visited, and we felt sad to see her leave.

Then, on Monday, Ben had his preschool Christmas field trip to the carousel downtown. Siblings could attend, which greatly pleased Hannah, since her vacation began after school on Friday. We have not ridden the carousel since ballet ended last spring, and I have missed it! Becca's initial wariness of the ride this time surprised me and made me realize that I need to take them more often.

I love seeing their happy faces as they enjoy the ride.

Finally, tonight, we took our first drive of the season to see a lovely lights display at our county fairgrounds.

The display has thousands of lights, and for a few dollars, we drove through the fairgrounds to admire them.

Because we have watched A Charlie Brown Christmas so many times this year, the kids loved the Peanuts display.

But, their favorite part is always the light tunnel, which flashes and changes colors as the cars drive through.

I don't know which I enjoy more - seeing the lights or hearing my kids' excited squeals as we drive past. Fortunately, my parents love the display, too, which gives us a good excuse to go again in a few days when my parents come to visit.

And, really, I think that is why I love Christmas so much. It is a season filled with beauty and joy and abounding with good excuses for merriment and celebration and generosity and fun. In what better way could we celebrate the birthday of the Giver of "every good and perfect gift" than to allow our hearts and our lives to overflow with thankfulness and uncontainable joy? Merry Christmas! It truly is "the most wonderful time of the year."

O Christmas Tree

On Saturday, we made our annual trek to a local Christmas tree farm to cut our Christmas tree. Josh and I have done this together since we were engaged, and our children make this tradition even more fun! A few years ago, we found a new farm after the old nursery stopped allowing people to cut their own trees, and although this farm is a bit farther away from our house, the trees have remained fresh and beautiful much longer. My family always had an artificial tree, so I take extra delight in the festive fragrance of fresh evergreen that fills my home each Christmas season.

After arriving at the farm (which we located much more easily this year with the help of our GPS), we parked near the Douglas firs and began searching for the perfect tree to bring home with us.

Some years, we struggle to find a tree we all love, but this year, we ended up choosing the first tree we saw. We dutifully looked around at other trees, but ultimately, we returned to the first tree that caught our eye.

Of course, we had to have a family photo in front of the tree! First, facing the sun (oops):

And then, with the sun behind the tree - much better!

After all of the required pictures, Josh began cutting down the tree.

This year, he did not even need my help. The tree had some bare space near the trunk at the bottom, which helped, as did the lack of snow on the ground this time. In past years, we have unwittingly timed our tree-cutting with the biggest early snowfall of the season, which makes for lovely pictures, but less than ideal cutting and driving conditions!

Hannah and Ben "helped" Josh drag the tree back to the car, and then I assisted in squeezing the 8-foot Douglas fir into our minivan.

We tied down the back door of the van, paid for our tree, loaded the kids into two separate cars, and began our journey home. We had to stop once on the way home to retie the back so the tree would not fall out while we were driving, but we made good time and got the tree set up before dinner.

We had a wonderful day together as a family, and we hope to decorate the tree soon as well. Finding four working strands of lights has proved to be a more daunting and time-consuming task than getting our tree! But, with Josh on the job, we should have a lovely, decorated tree by this weekend. Only 16 more days until Christmas!

Expectantly Waiting

Wikipedia defines Advent as "a season observed in many Western Christian churches, a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas." Although we kicked off our Christmas season with a train ride on the Polar Express, we desire our kids to focus mostly on the real reason for our celebration - Jesus' birth. So, as I pondered getting an Advent calendar to help us count down the days until Christmas, I wanted to make sure that they would be expectantly waiting for Jesus, and not presents or Santa. Unfortunately, nearly everything I found was either extremely expensive or poorly made.

Then, yesterday, a friend of mine posted a link to the Advent calendar she created for her family. I instantly loved the idea and decided to make a version of my own for our family this Christmas. Fortunately, I already had a lot of coordinating paper, so I did it almost completely with supplies I had on hand. I only had to purchase double-sided tape and some clothespins.

I began by cutting out 25 four-inch squares of solid colors and 25 three-inch squares of decorative paper. I happened to have paper with leaves on it, but anything festive will do. After laying out the solid-colored papers in the order I desired, I arranged the smaller papers on top of the larger ones. Then, I cut out 25 one-inch squares of various colors, wrote the numbers 1-25 on them, and added one to each set of squares. Using double-sided tape, I put each design together to create a pretty, numbered square - one for each day of Advent.

Then, I typed out 25 different verses, and centered them on 3.5-inch squares in Photoshop. I used Photoshop because I have many decorative fonts available in it, but any word processing program will work as long as the verses fit on the back of the fancy squares already designed. 3.5 inches worked well for me. Then, I printed the verses out on nice cardstock and affixed them, in order, to the back of each numbered square.

I used most of the same verses as my friend, but I did change a couple of them. These are the verses I used for each day:

1. In the sixth month, God sent an angel to Nazareth . . .The angel went to Mary and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:26,28)
2. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus . . .” (Luke 1:30,31)
3. “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord will give him the throne of his Father David, and he will reign forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:32,33)
4. The angel said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35)
5. “For nothing is impossible with God,” said the angel. “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered.”May it be as you have said.” (Luke 1:37.38)
6. An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife . . .She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20,21)
7. All of this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Mary will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” which means, ”God with us.” (Matthew 1:22,23)
8. When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. (Matthew 1:24)
9. In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken . . . So Joseph also went up from Nazareth to Bethlehem the town of David. (Luke 2:4)
10. Joseph went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. (Luke 2:5)
11. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no room in the inn. (Luke 2:6,7)
12. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. (Luke 2:8,9)
13. But the angel said to them, ”Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.” (Luke 2:10)
14. “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. . . You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger,” said the angel. (Luke 2:11,12)
15. Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:13,14)
16. When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” (Luke 2:15)
17. So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. (Luke 2:17)
18. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. (Luke 2:17,18)
19. Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God . . . (Luke 2:19,20)
20. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:1,2)
21. They went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. (Matthew 2:9)
22. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. . .and presented him with gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2:10,11)
23. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
24. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. (1 Timothy 1:15)
25. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

Finally, I hung string from my curtains in my dining room, and clipped the squares to it with clothespins.

Each day during Advent, we will turn over a square and read the verse.

The kids love it and began begging to do it as soon as they came downstairs this morning. And I am thrilled that they are expectantly waiting for Christ this season... even as they wait for presents as well!

A Christmas Surprise

Last year, we surprised the kids with a trip on the Polar Express. We paid a little extra to become members of the railroad in order to avoid the lottery and buy tickets in advance. This year we decided just to take our chances with the lottery. Then, in early November, we realized that we had forgotten all about the lottery and had missed our chance to purchase tickets. However, out of curiosity, Josh went online to read about it and discovered that we could still get seats on weeknights in early December. We excitedly bought the tickets for December first and began planning for the kids' surprise.

On Tuesday, I let Becca and Ben stay in their pajamas all day and then convinced them that they needed to change into clean pajamas to pick Hannah up at school. We drove through the pick-up line, and I told Hannah that today was "Jammie Day," and she could change into her pajamas as soon as she got home from school. Josh was supposed to come home at 4:00, but he got tied up on a phone call. "Uh, oh," I told the kids, "I was going to go get dinner after Daddy came home, but he's going to be late, so I'm going to have to bring you all in your jammies." I took them all through the drive-thru at McDonald's just as Josh came home from work. When we got back to the house, I called Josh on the cell phone to "convince" him to come drive around with us to look at Christmas lights. He finally agreed, and we began our drive to Cleveland for the train ride, pointing out lights along the highway as we drove. The kids began whining to use the bathroom about 10 minutes from the station, so we told them we were driving to a place where we knew there would be restrooms. As we pulled into the station, Hannah noticed the sign and started screaming in excitement, "It's the Polar Express! We're going on the Polar Express!"

We really enjoyed the train ride, just like last year. We got seats in the dome car this time, so we were a bit more comfortable, and the windows extended across the ceiling as well as the sides, which gave us a lovely view of the full moon as we rode. The kids snuggled up in their blankets in the beginning, while an elf read The Polar Express over the loudspeaker and we followed along in our copy of the book.

Once the train picked up a little speed, the elves brought around hot chocolate (at a much more drinkable temperature than last year) and delicious chocolate chip cookies.

Finally, we reached the "North Pole." The elves handed out paper towels for the kids to wipe the condensation off of the windows as the train slowly moved into the station, full of lights and actors dressed as elves and Christmas characters.

After about fifteen minutes, the train began moving back along the tracks towards the first station.

To help pass the time, the elves led Christmas carols, which Hannah enjoyed very much.

Santa also came around and gave each kid a souvenir sleigh bell to bring home, pausing to autograph our The Polar Express book as well.

Ben mostly just stared out the window, and Becca alternated between snuggling on my lap and bouncing off the walls!

We arrived at the station a little after 9:00pm, and began the long journey home. Becca slept, but Hannah and Ben somehow stayed awake for the whole car ride. Sleepily, the kids trudged up the steps into the house, where they saw our Polar Express train set, which Josh had put together in the living room while the kids and I were out getting dinner. After a few minutes of playing with the train, the kids finally crashed in their beds around midnight! Needless to say, Hannah slept in instead of going to school on Wednesday, but we all enjoyed having a wonderful surprise family outing to kick off our Christmas celebration this year.

That's the Way it Happens...

... on the Polar Express!!

We were able to successfully pull off one of the best Christmas surprises ever! Since June, we have been planning to take the kids on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad's version of the Polar Express. All three kids are obsessed with the movie, and watching it together is the first sign that the Christmas season has arrived. We have to force them to wait until after Thanksgiving to watch it the first time. This year, they learned to sing the song, "When Christmas Comes to Town." Even Becca knows all of the words!

The day of our train ride, we dressed them in their pajamas around 4:00 in the afternoon and began the long drive to Cleveland, stopping only to get dinner and take a quick bathroom break. The kids eyes lit up when we got there and they saw the sign for the train. The weather was frigid, and they had a hard time waiting to board the train, but once they were on board, they loved it!

The ride started with an elf welcoming everyone and reading aloud the book by Chris Van Allsburg. After that, they served everyone hot chocolate and cookies made by "Mrs. Claus," and the conductor came around and punched each child's ticket with the first letter of his or her name. After about 45 minutes, we reached the North Pole, which was a makeshift village covered with Christmas lights and staffed by a handfull of volunteer elves and other Christmas characters. All of the kids were glued to the windows while we were there. Hannah announced that Rudolph was not a real reindeer - he was merely an elf dressed up as a reindeer!

As a family, we have struggled with the idea of Santa at Christmastime. We have not encouraged the kids to believe in Santa, but we have not banned him from our house either. We have talked about him mainly as a story, a fantasy like Charlie Brown or any other book or movie - something that is fun to think about but that is not real. Now, however, both Hannah and Ben are convinced that Santa is real. Even Hannah, who is a bit more skeptical, thinks we really were at the North Pole and wonders why they had no snow when we went. She also expressed to me that she thinks that millions of Santas exist all over the world - after all, she told me, she has met at least three of them just in our town! So, we are entertaining their belief, but not really encouraging it. If they want to believe he is real, they can, as long as they still understand that the real meaning of Christmas is celebrating Jesus' birthday.

Once we left the North Pole on the train, we sang Christmas carols together for the rest of the ride. Santa himself even visited our car and gave each kid a sleigh bell to take home as a souveneir.

Overall, the kids had a wonderful trip. Ben still shakes his bell next to his ear, listening and saying, "I believe... I believe..."

I appreciated that they had a chance to see the book and movie that they love come to life. It was a magical experience for children who already adore all things train related, and though the focus was definitely on Santa, the kids can still tell me why we really give gifts on Christmas, and that is what matters most.

Christmas Ornament Craft

I was responsible for planning the kids Christmas party at preschool last week. I wanted to express to the children that the best gift they could give Jesus for his birthday is their hearts. I came up with a wonderful Christmas craft idea!

First, cut a strip of card stock - about 1/4 the width of a sheet of paper, lengthwise. Fold it four times to get the sides of a box, plus a tab for gluing. You can allow the child to color the paper if you wish.


Then, fold the strip into a box and glue the tab to the opposite side. A glue stick works fine for this.

Using another piece of card stock, cut a small heart, poke a hole in it, and thread a 20 inch piece of yarn through it. Put the heart in the middle of the yarn, and tie a small knot in the yarn about a centimeter above the heart. You can write the child's name on the heart if you wish.

Poke a hole in the top of the box, and pull both ends of the yarn through, allowing the knot to remain inside the box.

Tape a strip of Christmas-colored ribbon around the box to look like a Christmas present. Then, tie the yarn loosely over the top of the ribbon and make a nice bow. Tie another knot just above the bow to keep it from coming untied when the ends are pulled.

Tie the remaining ends together to form the loop to hang the ornament on the tree.

This is Hannah's ornament hanging on our Christmas tree.

This craft turned out very nicely and got lots of compliments from the parents, and it is so simple!