A few of our favorite things...
We have just had our best Thanksgiving season yet. I'm thankful for that :) I know we parents sometimes can make it seem like things get harder with kids, but let me let you in on a secret - harder often has great pay offs and holidays get more and more fun. So if you don't have kids, get you some ;)
So now we are moving on to Christmas... Truly my favorite season ever. I just got done ordering some things for our Christmas season so I have to share our Christmas "book list".
2 of my favorite books for planning family Christmas fun:
Treasuring God in Our Traditions
The ADVENTure of Christmas
And I am SUPER stoked that Ann Voskamp decided to make a family devotional and Jesse Tree ornaments printable for FREE here. My Christmas planning just got oh so much easier. If I ever see Ann I will give her a huge squeeze.
My dear, wise, and beautiful friend also has some great ideas on her blog. She has kids a touch older than mine, and two boys and a girl :) Opposite mix.
And for my own soul I have loved reading this (most) every night: Come Thou Long Expected Jesus the past few Christmas seasons. I love that even the cover looks artsy and full of Christmas class. :) I know that covers don't matter much, but a pretty cover really does provide incentive in actually picking the book up for me. (Shallow)
That said, this year, John Piper put out an advent devo (basically short bits about Christmas for you to read daily up until Christmas) also FREE. Lot's of people in the Christmas spirit :) You can download Good News of Great Joy here. Who doesn't want some great joy?
In case you didn't know, we kinda love John Piper around here. I'm assuming that's fairly obvious considering my daughters assume that if we ever have another boy he will be named John Piper. In fairness, we had planned to name Aaron John up until his delivery and so I guess they just think Piper would be the natural addition. Sadly that's a little much for me.
I ordered The Wonder of Christmas for a general storytime book. I am hopeful it won't disappoint as I've loved a lot of her other children's books (especially her Easterville one). We haven't come across tons of good Christmas storybooks so if you have some ideas pass them along, please!
Lastly, we always get the kids one good book for Christmas and here are this years picks... EEEP, can't wait to open these babies up....
For those of you who may be thinking how cozy, let me tell you that we will sometimes miss our daily/nightly readings and that most readings or activities will involve teachable moments, corrections, encouragements, warnings, and even discipline, and sometimes for the kids :) It's true. We live in a house full of sinners so even our best moments need redeemed. Another reason we love that Jesus came and that we get to celebrate the God come man this season.
What about you all? What's Christmas like for you? Any good book or activity recommendations? We are always looking for a few good books and loads of fun around here.
Merry Christmasing!
***UPDATE: Our family will be doing the Truth in Tinsel Advent Ornaments (got from Lorrie's blog) this year and Ann Voskamp's as the kids get older.
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| For the record, only 3 of those are mine. The other two are some of our adorable nieces and nephews! |
So now we are moving on to Christmas... Truly my favorite season ever. I just got done ordering some things for our Christmas season so I have to share our Christmas "book list".
2 of my favorite books for planning family Christmas fun:
Treasuring God in Our Traditions
The ADVENTure of Christmas
And I am SUPER stoked that Ann Voskamp decided to make a family devotional and Jesse Tree ornaments printable for FREE here. My Christmas planning just got oh so much easier. If I ever see Ann I will give her a huge squeeze.
My dear, wise, and beautiful friend also has some great ideas on her blog. She has kids a touch older than mine, and two boys and a girl :) Opposite mix.
And for my own soul I have loved reading this (most) every night: Come Thou Long Expected Jesus the past few Christmas seasons. I love that even the cover looks artsy and full of Christmas class. :) I know that covers don't matter much, but a pretty cover really does provide incentive in actually picking the book up for me. (Shallow)That said, this year, John Piper put out an advent devo (basically short bits about Christmas for you to read daily up until Christmas) also FREE. Lot's of people in the Christmas spirit :) You can download Good News of Great Joy here. Who doesn't want some great joy?
In case you didn't know, we kinda love John Piper around here. I'm assuming that's fairly obvious considering my daughters assume that if we ever have another boy he will be named John Piper. In fairness, we had planned to name Aaron John up until his delivery and so I guess they just think Piper would be the natural addition. Sadly that's a little much for me.
I ordered The Wonder of Christmas for a general storytime book. I am hopeful it won't disappoint as I've loved a lot of her other children's books (especially her Easterville one). We haven't come across tons of good Christmas storybooks so if you have some ideas pass them along, please!
Lastly, we always get the kids one good book for Christmas and here are this years picks... EEEP, can't wait to open these babies up....
 |
| oops, busted. mighta ordered this one for me :) |
For those of you who may be thinking how cozy, let me tell you that we will sometimes miss our daily/nightly readings and that most readings or activities will involve teachable moments, corrections, encouragements, warnings, and even discipline, and sometimes for the kids :) It's true. We live in a house full of sinners so even our best moments need redeemed. Another reason we love that Jesus came and that we get to celebrate the God come man this season.
What about you all? What's Christmas like for you? Any good book or activity recommendations? We are always looking for a few good books and loads of fun around here.
Merry Christmasing!
***UPDATE: Our family will be doing the Truth in Tinsel Advent Ornaments (got from Lorrie's blog) this year and Ann Voskamp's as the kids get older.
Love the gospel primer, great stuff. And don't feel alone in that corrections and family devotions occur simultaneously. They do here too! In fact, I had thought that I wouldn't do the Jesse Tree this year as we are working our way through a Bible timeline anyway and thought it might be fun to do something else. After the first night (Sunday) we went back to the Jesse tree and the girls are very excited. They are at the age of remembering the traditions and apparently the Jesse tree is gonna be a tradition for a few (maybe many) more years. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteBlessings!
Megan