My little ones are all learning to read with the same books that my mom used to teach me. The books are old, falling apart, and have some vocabulary words in them that even I have to look up because we just don't use them anymore. They also have some amazing vintage drawings in them that I want to copy and put up on the wall!
At our house, every year culminates in a New Year's Eve dance party with the kids. This may sound crazy, but I think we have more fun that night than we do any other night of the year! We eat snacks, and wear party hats and glow bracelets; there is a lot of giggling while we dance to the awesome playlist Daddy puts together (lots of Muppets tunes this year); then we all settle in to watch a movie. One slight change this year was that we decided to make our own party hats instead of buying the cheap paper ones that only last for one day.
To make the party hats, I purchased sheets of foam from our local craft store, and downloaded a party hat template from Oh Happy Day. (For reference, you should be able to get 3 party hats out of a 12 inch x 18 inch sheet of foam.) I riffled through my stash of craft supplies for trims, sequins, buttons, and anything else that seemed like it would bring some happy to a party hat. It's just possible though that my husband may have succeeded in bringing a little less happy and a little more weird to his party hat. I guess you could say that he's the life of the party?
We don't have many Christmas traditions, but this year we began a new one. We were very aware that the reason we celebrate Christmas has been getting lost in buying presents and the focus on my business. Sure it's fun to buy gifts for our children, and the boost my handmade business gets from holiday shoppers is critical, but it is really important to us that we don't forget the Christ child and his birth.
My husband suggested that we put an empty manger under the tree, so that we could wait for baby Jesus to arrive on Christmas morning. It would be a visible reminder, and would add an element of anticipation for both us and the kids. Sean spent some time in the basement with his stash of scrap wood, cutting and hammering, and emerged with a rustic manger.
Up until Christmas Eve the manger remained empty under the tree. On that night, after the kids went to bed, we put a small baby doll in the manger. Having a visible reminder and reading a chapter of Luke every morning really helped us to redirect our focus during the holiday season this year. But best of all, we know that after that first Christmas all those years ago Jesus is with us always if we'll just ask him to live in our hearts. We don't have to wait for Christmas anymore.
