It's been several months since my last post and we've been busy with school, work and the holidays. I've been trying to minimize my computer time at home. Tonight, I'm camped out in a stale hotel room in New York City trying to take a few minutes before the holiday hits in full force later this week. My parents are coming to town and I'm thrilled to be hosting them! This is the 2nd or 3rd year that we've been in our own home and we're still working on building some of our own traditions. It's one of the perks of parenthood!
Throughout the holidays this year, our girls have challenged us to put more of Jesus back into Christmas. It's just a few days away and I'm still struggling for things we can do throughout Christmas day to re enforce the reason for the season.
We've filled shoe boxes and shipped them off, we've collected gloves, mittens, hats and coats and delivered them. We've instilled in the girls the importance of giving money to various charities and we have completed the top of a quilt to give to someone who is homeless. (Grace actually wants to give it to a man that she sees regularly on the corner after school.)
So, I've "borrowed" the idea of telling the Christmas story from a point of view of a specific character on Christmas morning. The assignments have been made ... Rose wants to tell the story as if she were a sheep, Grace choose baby Jesus and I'm torn between either an angel or Mary. Jeff hasn't decided and I've warned my parents that they'll need to participate! I hope one of them takes the vantage point of the wise men. The idea is that we'll each tell what we think the nativity might have been like from our point-of-view. I figure we'll also spend time reading Luke 2:1-20 to make sure we capture that first ... but I'm curious ... do you have ideas? Do you have family traditions that you can share?
As a kid, I grew up traveling a lot over the holidays and I don't think we have a lot of traditions ... other than AWESOME food that my mother makes. We also usually went to midnight mass which is still special to me, and to Jeff as well. I don't think we'll spend every family at home so I'm looking for traditions that we can "take on the road." So, I'm asking ... what is a tradition? And, how can we make sure that it has impact for the girls?
Growing up, my dad's side of the family would always sing Silent Night, the song still gives me goose bumps. Your post got me thinking about traditions so I posted the question on FB, check out some of the responses I got to see if you like any of them. We do the PJ thing too, but that isn't that unique.
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