There are 18 sleeps until Christmas Day and like so many, my children are super excited that they will be receiving lots of presents. It's easy to see why we have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas, we spend hours shopping for gifts, preparing for celebrations leading up to the B I G day, planning the meal and ripping into the presents under the tree at lightning speed.
This year I want my children to see Christmas as a time of sharing and traditions - sharing gifts of course, but also sharing stories, laughter, good times as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus and with Quinlan been older I want a tradition that will be special to us. The simple things like decorating the tree and helping prepare for visiting family and friends are wonderful opportunities to remind ourselves and our children how important it is to bond with others. But Christmas shouldn't be the only time when we pause to celebrate Jesus and everything that he's done for us. I want the children to see past the presents, food and Christmas lights, I want them to understand the meaning behind the story, to realise the importance of the occasion while also taking the time to think about other people who are less fortunate than us.
So during the next 12 day's I'm going to create a few activities that help me and the kids share time together. We will make a few decorations together, create some Christmas inspired food and look at a few kid friendly religious activities. This year I'm going to have the children help me with my annual charitable event and maybe as the kids get older they will want to make this their 'family tradition'.
This year I want my children to see Christmas as a time of sharing and traditions - sharing gifts of course, but also sharing stories, laughter, good times as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus and with Quinlan been older I want a tradition that will be special to us. The simple things like decorating the tree and helping prepare for visiting family and friends are wonderful opportunities to remind ourselves and our children how important it is to bond with others. But Christmas shouldn't be the only time when we pause to celebrate Jesus and everything that he's done for us. I want the children to see past the presents, food and Christmas lights, I want them to understand the meaning behind the story, to realise the importance of the occasion while also taking the time to think about other people who are less fortunate than us.
So during the next 12 day's I'm going to create a few activities that help me and the kids share time together. We will make a few decorations together, create some Christmas inspired food and look at a few kid friendly religious activities. This year I'm going to have the children help me with my annual charitable event and maybe as the kids get older they will want to make this their 'family tradition'.
Caelan and Mackenna have noticed in the last few weeks that many of the Christmas pictures, cards and movies always have snow and Christmas trees that are covered in white stuff. Living in sunny Queensland there is no hope of experiencing a white Christmas so I set about trying to explain to them why some people have snow while other people have a hot Christmas.
I took Caelan out to Lincraft and we purchased a few items so that we could create a snow covered tree. Caelan lost interest in this little project really quickly so I ended up making most of the tree myself BUT I did get to explain the difference between our Christmas and a white Christmas. This project was easy and quick to complete. While in Lincraft, I found some decorative elastic ribbon which I thought would be perfect for my little tree.
Because I used a polystyrene cone I wasn't able to use my hot glue gun so I just cut lengths of the elastic and I went about pinning it to the cone. I placed a purple glass bead on a sewing pin and then I inserted it through the elastic and into the cone, I placed a glass pin at the front and one at the back. As I worked my way around the cone I'd add a sewing pin in places that I thought needed it.
The elastic did slip but it's easily fixed so I just left it as it was. I folded some purple ribbon so that it looked like a star and I pinned it in place on top of the tree. I was really happy with the way it turned out and at night with the lights on it gives off a pearl shimmer effect.
The kids may have lost the message of what I was trying to create with them but there was a lesson behind our tree. My mother loved my tree so much that I gave it to her to use on her Christmas shelf and I then had the opportunity to talk to the children about how we shared the tree with Oomie (my mum's name for herself instead of Grandma). See you on Monday when I'll be trying out a kid's activity, fingers crossed that I can hold their interest. Enjoy your weekend.
I took Caelan out to Lincraft and we purchased a few items so that we could create a snow covered tree. Caelan lost interest in this little project really quickly so I ended up making most of the tree myself BUT I did get to explain the difference between our Christmas and a white Christmas. This project was easy and quick to complete. While in Lincraft, I found some decorative elastic ribbon which I thought would be perfect for my little tree.
Because I used a polystyrene cone I wasn't able to use my hot glue gun so I just cut lengths of the elastic and I went about pinning it to the cone. I placed a purple glass bead on a sewing pin and then I inserted it through the elastic and into the cone, I placed a glass pin at the front and one at the back. As I worked my way around the cone I'd add a sewing pin in places that I thought needed it.
The elastic did slip but it's easily fixed so I just left it as it was. I folded some purple ribbon so that it looked like a star and I pinned it in place on top of the tree. I was really happy with the way it turned out and at night with the lights on it gives off a pearl shimmer effect.
The kids may have lost the message of what I was trying to create with them but there was a lesson behind our tree. My mother loved my tree so much that I gave it to her to use on her Christmas shelf and I then had the opportunity to talk to the children about how we shared the tree with Oomie (my mum's name for herself instead of Grandma). See you on Monday when I'll be trying out a kid's activity, fingers crossed that I can hold their interest. Enjoy your weekend.
Megan
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