Christmas thoughts in review:
(please forgive all the typos and run on sentences, I'm a wee bit medicated on sudafed. I gave in and took it b/c I am SO congested with a nasty cold i suddenly developed late last evening!)
Christmas thoughts in review:
we had a few goals this year. We decided to focus on a much more religious and tradition based Christmas, having decided that traditions (if used properly) are an invaluable way of teaching and giving stability to a family. are goal was to add a few things for the next few Christmases, eventually settling down into a nice tradition. it takes a while to figure out what works and what doesn't. here is our list with some of my thoughts on it:30 day of advent activies:
in review it was just too much. even the kids (who LOVE this sort of thing) we clearly getting too much and their attention was drying up. little kids have little attention so I need to keep that in mind. I think we will do perhaps 2 things per week next time. I want them to be able to focus and enjoy learning and crafting etc... not thinking "not again!".
Chrismon Tree:
total hit! However the kids got a little bored with coloring them everyday. well actually Eli loved it, but Eva got kinda off... she would forget what she was doing and start drawing instead ect. maybe next time we will do one per kid every other day. so it's like 20 ornaments total and not like 40. again, I think it was in danger of losing it's special meaning by becoming monotonous. It was easy to start topics about God/Jesus/Holy Spirit and the nativity etc when each symbols means something. Most of t was over Eva's head but that is fine. she will get the hang of it.
Daily Bible readings in relationship to/gearing up for the Nativity:
I never got to do it like I wanted b/c our family went through that bought of sickness and someone was always sick. Sean was quite sick. this one I want to plan ahead better on next year so it's not so last minute. We talked a lot, and read a little. but not in a scheduled way like I was hoping.
Christmas singing:
we do sing a lot in this family. it's important to me. I can't sing worth beans, but Sean is a musical talent so he makes up for it. what I lack in talent I try to make up for in joy heh. But we was super sick with that cold, and usually we sing at night before bed. it was hard b/c by then we were so tired and his voice so sore. it's not the same when daddy doesn't sing too. BUT, we really like this and it will always be one of our traditions.
Christmas Tree decoration:
love it. I know some of different feelings about it... but we REALLY enjoyed the family event of getting it and putting it up together.
Christmas eve/day Nativity reading:
never happened. we found it immensely difficult to start this tradition with others in the house. since they had other plans it just kept going that way. hmm... next time we will plan better on how to make this happen for sure. even though we talked about and learned about the Nativity all through the season, it almost seemed lost on Christmas day. Plus there were no church services on either Christmas even or day, which we had planned on. It was hard for me to even remember the right spirit of it. Not that I had a bad spirit.... I mean it was all about family togetherness and everything lol. but I still wanted a slightly higher priority, if you know what I mean.
That was the new things we tried to incorporate. I'm happy with our progress thus far. I hope next year will give a sense of new traditions and firm it up a bit.
Pictures to come soon =)
