http://www.adventdevotions.net/
and here's the daily devotionals:
http://www.adventdevotions.net/dailydevotions.asp
Seems like a good site. Let me know if you all have any good sites I can go to.
I am also trying to think of more Christmas traditions we could do as a family. Because we will always be at different locations each year on Christmas day, it has to be something we could do anywhere.
We had SOO many awesome and fun traditions growing up - I will probably try to incorporate some of those.... but since my love language is words and I'm so sentimental, I'd like something to do with writing notes to each other or to God but I can't quite figure out exactly what I want to do.
My traditions growing up, many of which I have incorporated into our own little family now are:
- decorating the weekend after Thanksgiving
- lots of baking & special meals throughout the month
- playing & singing hymns together (I play piano - we sing)
- sending Christmas cards
- "counting Christmas lights" ---- growing up - we did this on Christmas Eve. We drove around our little community and counted how many houses had lights. Whoever got closeset to mom won. We drive around down here too and do the same.
- Christmas eve punch - not sure what the secret recipe is for that - have to ask Mom!
- present exchange on Christmas morning
- lots of Christmas music
- lots of Christmas movies - we always watch.... Rudolph, Emmit Otter's Jugband Christmas, Frosty, Muppet Christmas Carol (which we always watch on Christmas Eve), Christmas Vacation, a Christmas Story, It's A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, Charlie Brown's Christmas
- have some sort of dispute/heated discussion while trying to put together a toy with a billion pieces & batteries :) hehehehe or install some sort of machine one of us received :)
- reading a Christmas book at night with Raymond each night in December
- Reading the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve
- reading the Christmas story from the book of Luke on Christmas day
- family photo in front of the tree every year
- when we are in New Jersey we have Christmas "boots" that are ceramic which I love. We open those first on Christmas morning. My mom has continued to make ones for all of us - when we go up there in a few weeks I will take pictures of them!! Otherwise when we're in N.C. we do the traditional Christmas stockings.
when we are home in NC.... our traditions are:
- downtown Christmas parade
- town of Leland Christmas parade
- Enchanted Airlie (which is now a tradition for us - we did this for the first time Friday night)
- Christmas Eve service at church
Would love to hear about how you all celebrate this most incredible, beautiful awesome season!!! :)
I did have an idea for a tradition that will work when the kids are older. It's setting verses on the place setting of each person on Christmas day dinner --- having a number on each and then reading the Christmas story in order - whoever is #1 reads first, etc.... and go through the whole story of Christ's birth in Luke.....
or maybe picking scripture from the Old Testament that prophesied about Our Savior & then others at the table would get New Testament verses showing how Jesus fulfilled it. Anyway - just rambling out some ideas.
Merry Christmas early! :)
One December I wrapped an empty shoe box in Christmas paper, put a slit in the top and a stack of quarter page size colered paper next to the box with a jar of pens and pencils next to that. At dinner on the first I told everyone their assignment was to take a moment each day and write one thing they were thankful for then stick the page in the box. Christmas morning we opened the box and my husband and I took turns reading the things that were on each slip of paper. It was wonderful to discover all the gifts we had already been given even before opening the "presents". As a kid my sister and I always wrote letters to Santa and put them on the piano with a plate of cookies. Since we didn't do the "Santa is real" thing with our children we never did that but I often missed that tradition and wished I had done something similar with my children--maybe we could have written a "Christmas prayer" together as a family on Christmas Eve and kept them from year to year. Lots of possibilities for this time of year.
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