So True....

The new year is almost here!

What will 2012 look like for you?

Are you ready to shake up your life and live a life completely for God?

I am! He didn't call us to "settle in", He wants us to lite the way to His kingdom for those who are lost! Lite a fire for those who know the path but need a little boost. This quote from Francis Chan was created by "Sweet Blessings" and it is the perfect reminder as we get ready for 2012!

Let's get ready for the celebration of the birth of our King!

4 Days til Christmas, I had to post more!!!!!

The celebration of the birth of our King! Now take a deep breath...don't let the madness around you take away this special time. Take a minute and remind yourself the reason for the season. 

Plan out the next few days leading up to Christmas what you want to do to make this 

Christmas different!

1.) Bake some Christmas Goodies for the homeless! Or to make things easier here's what I did last year: I went to Vons in their bakery section you can pick up a box of really yummy cookies for less than $3.00. We bought a couple boxes. I went home and printed out some labels with the scripture:

Isaiah 41:10

Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

Then I added a little message saying:

Merry Christmas! I pray this food will bring you comfort to your soul so you know that you are not alone.

 Then my kids, Ryan and myself packed these cookies in ziplock baggies.

Then PRAY over these baggies and for the people who will receive them! Let God do the rest!

EMAIL me at: Bradshaw4@sbcglobal.net for more details about dropping off the cookies etc...

2.) Do you have oranges growing like crazy on your tree? Or know someone who does? Gather them up. These would be perfect to include for the homeless.3.) Friday or Saturday: Start gathering all your items to bake a cake for Jesus!  Or go purchase one at the store. It's about Celebrating the Reason for the Season. Get it all ready and Christmas morning before the presents are opened bring the cake out and celebrate the birth of our King! Sing Jesus "HAPPY BIRTHDAY"

This one below is really cute. Click HERE to see all of it. You can see in the next couple of pictures what the different layers represent. 

 

The chocolate layer reminds us that we are sinful.

The red layer reminds us that Jesus shed his blood for our sins.

The white frosting reminds us that Jesus has given us a clean heart.

The green layer reminds us to grow in Christ.

The yellow decorations remind us of heaven.

The candles remind us Jesus is the Light of the World.

4.) Set a place setting

 for Jesus at your Christmas dinner or at Christmas Breakfast.

5.) Decide now which Christmas Eve Service time you will be attending and INVITE your neighbors, etc...Don't assume they have a place to go Christmas Eve.

Our Olive Knolls Church 

aways puts on a very special kid friendly Christmas Eve Service:

Olive Knolls Church of the Nazarene
6201 Fruitvale Avenue
Bakersfield, CA 93308

Date: Saturday 24 December 2011

Time: 04:00pm or 6:00 pm

Place: Olive Knolls Church

Come back on Christmas morning at 10:00 am for our 

Family Christmas Service!

Take a minute to watch and listen to this beautiful video!

Christmas is right around the corner!

We are less than 5 days away let's not turn into the Grinch with trying to make everything "perfect". Let's also not turn our husbands into a Grinch. 

We love imom and the articles they put out. Here's a great one called 

"5 Steps to make your Husband your Elf"

Don't you envy Santa? Sure, he has a long to-do list in the weeks leading up to Christmas. But he also has an army of cheerful helpers in pointy shoes. Where can a busy mom find one of those?

The answer may be right under your nose! If given a little direction, good ol' Dad can pitch in to help you accomplish some major holiday tasks. For single moms, Grandpa or a favorite uncle can help in all the same ways. Here are 5 tips for enlisting and training the best elf you ever had.

1.    Ask nicely.
This may seem obvious, but if you wait until you're behind and completely stressed out, your plea for help may come out more like a bossy or hysterical demand, rather than a polite request for help. Talk strategy with Dad before crunch time while things are still slow, and plan for the days when you know you'll need back-up. (For instance: "I need to bake for our neighbors this Saturday morning, can you help with the kids then?")

[5 Ways Not to Communicate With Your Husband]

2.    Be specific.
He's a great elf, but he's not a mind-reader. Tell him what would be helpful in the most detailed terms possible. If you're asking him to take the kids out while you tackle some decorating or wrapping, give him a couple of suggestions for how to entertain them. If you need him to make a grocery run for you, make the list more detailed (include brand names and product sizes) than you do for yourself.

3.    Understand that his way may be different than yours.
And that's OK! This is not the time to indulge your Type-A tendencies. Even if Dad makes a mess of something, acknowledge and appreciate that he was trying to help. Elves tend to lose motivation when they can't seem to do anything right.

[His Brain, Her Brain]

4.    Divide and conquer.
Divide the to-do list according to your strengths. Dad may not be comfortable making a casserole, and you probably don't want to put a bicycle together. We're all more efficient and confident when working within our comfort zones, so work smarter, not harder.

 5.    Don't forget to say thank you.
You might even plan a special treat for the world's best elf to show him how much you appreciate his help. Cook his favorite dinner, or carve out some time to let him go pursue his favorite holiday activity (which probably requires golf clubs or hunting gear). This can up the chances that he'll re-apply for the position next year!

[4 Ways to Compliment Your Husband]

Ideas for making use of Dad's help:

• Let him take the kids out while you tackle tasks at home
• Let him put together all those "assembly-required" toys—before Christmas Eve
• You make the treats for friends and neighbors, let Dad and the kids deliver
• Let Dad remove and replace all the containers of decorations from the attic
• Trade off a couple of your usual errands that he can handle on the way home from work (i.e. dry cleaning, post office, etc.)
• While you have family or friends as holiday houseguests, coordinate times for Dad to take everyone for an outing while you tidy up and cover meal preparations
• You address the Christmas cards, let Dad and the kids stuff, seal and stamp

 You can check out the entire article with links by clicking HERE. 

The Reason for the Season

Take a minute out of your busy day to watch and listen to this video. It's the perfect reminder of why we have a reason to celebrate the season and to remind us about the many gifts our Savior gives us!

"Now the God of hope fills you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope" Romans 15:13

Countdown to Christmas with Books!

Anything I can do to get my kids even more excited about books and reading has my vote! So the last post, I talked about how I found on another blog this great idea of wrapping Christmas books and having the kids take turns opening each night to read. So I went through my kiddos books while they were sleeping and took out all of the Christmas ones. We actually had quite a few! The next day I went to the Goodwill on Rosedale that just sells the books. For $10 and some change I found ALL these great Christmas books! Don't worry there are still plenty if you need some.


So I wrapped them all up and as I was wrapping them I thought I would share with you some of the Christmas stories (new and old) we cherish. You can start this ANY time. Do a countdown to Christmas with however many books you have and then add to your collection. 12 Days of Christmas or 15 I guarantee whatever you choose will be special

If you know anything about me I just love "old" stuff, especially books! I like to refer to as vintage. I have them all in my house as decoration etc...There's just something so special about vintage items, so many stories, such a simplier time. So a special couple I know that recently were going through old boxes and new of my love for old books let me choose as many as I wanted! I picked out quite a few but somehow I was drawn to the Christmas ones. Now I know why, they would go perfectly with my countdown to Christmas books!

1943!!!!! 

We read this one the other night and got some great ideas and my kids loved it!

I Love when they are written in too. This one is from 1953.

 So here's a beautiful book I picked up from the Goodwill... .95 cents!

 

I just LOVE the graphics!

This is one from my kids' collection which is so sweet 

This is another Beautiful book!!

This is a book my mom (Mema) bought Hunter when he was born. It's not necessarily a "Christmas Book" but it talks about the gifts God gives us so I think it fits perfectly considering we celebrate the birth of Jesus!

 This is the beautiful book that our own Leta Rhodes wrote! It's a favorite!

 Goodwill book

  Goodwill book

  Goodwill book

  Goodwill book

  Goodwill book

This is another great one! Filled with scripture.

So each of the books are in order and wrapped up in a bucket under our tree. On Christmas Eve when we return from Nana & Papa's House we will all get in our pjs, get our hot cocoa and santa hats and sit on the couch together as a family as Daddy  reads The Night Before Chrsistmas.

We also read the Christmas Story. This year I think we are going to read it before we open presents!

So we don't forget what Christmas is about.

Wow! It's almost December!

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving with your family and loved ones!!!!
It's now that time to start planning (if you havent started already) of how you want to celebrate this special season! Don't get caught up in the hustle and bustle! 

So here's what I'm going to do to make this time memorable for my kids special! I hope this encourages you to sit down for a few minutes, yes that means getting off facebook or setting down your cell phone and not answering any phone calls or texts. Believe me I am right there with you but it's funny how we make time for all sorts of things and say we are too busy for others. So here we go!

1. Plan right now your Family's Christmas "Advent Calendar". Make a list and sit down with your husband this evening. No not right when he walks in the door from work. How about after you have gotten the kids in bed, turn the tv off, get out your calendars and talk with him and see which ideas he would like to do and what nights. 

Over at "The Duty Chronicles" she has a great list of ideas with links on projects, websites etc for creating your family's advent calendar. Below is her list but you will want to make sure you visit her sight because she has all the links!

1. A night of Tree Trimming, complete with egg nog and A Muppet Christmas Carol (or a traditional movie that you always watch with your family).

2. Write a family Advent prayer. (include hopes that you have for the next year together. Put it in a special place ~ we have an ornament that houses ours).

3. Make a Christmas banner (or some other decoration for the house that everyone can help with).

4. Do an Advent devotional with your family. Here is a simple one to get started. 

5. Make salt dough ornaments. Add beads on them to make them super cute!

6. Make string snowballs.

7. Bake egg nog pancakes together. 

8. Make cardboard carolers with you family's pictures.

9. Make gift coupon books for family members.

10. Nativity Lapbook and other tot printables.

11. Make gifts for the grandparents...photo block ornaments or a wooden photo block to display precious little pictures.

12. Participate in a canned food drive.

13. Host an ugly Christmas sweater party and give silly awards to the ugliest.

13. Make gingerbread houses, really graham cracker houses, which are perfect for little ones (or big ones!) to decorate and display. And homemade cinnamon hot chocolate to give you sustenance while you are working. PIC

14. Read Christmas storybooks aloud. Our favorites include:  Who is Coming to our House? By Joseph Slate and Ashley Wolff, One Wintry Night by Ruth Bell Graham, The Christmas Miracle of Jonathon Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski, The Legend of the Christmas Tree by Rick Osborne, The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg, Jacob’s Gift by Max Lucado, My Merry Christmas and the Real Reason for Christmas Joy by Sally Lloyd Jones and Annika's Secret Wish by Beverly Lewis.

15. Have a Christmas Cookie Exchange with some girlfriends.

16. Sing Christmas songs together around the fire. Pick a new song to sing each week.

17. Living Nativity (if you live in College Station). They take the kids back to the time that Jesus was born with animals in a petting zoo, camels, and a manger scene.


18. Go caroling at a local nursing home. This is such a delight to them!

19. Neighborhood party. We make sugar cookies to let the kids decorate at the party, have some sort of ornament craft and a kids' Christmas movie (our favorite is Boz Christmas) projected onto our garage door. We invite all the neighbors and are able to meet some new ones.

20. Make Cinnamon Cider to enjoy and fill your home with yumminess.


21. Wrap Christmas presents together. Messy or not, let the kids help out with this and as you wrap, pray that this will be a blessing to the recipient. The kids love to pick out paper, ribbons, and gift tags.

22. Make and decorate cookies together. Have prizes for most creative, most detailed, most unique, most festive.

23. Select gifts from Gospel For Asia together. We love this tradition and love that the kids are enjoying it too. We let the kids pick out one to two items and we also pick out several items from the catalog. After you select the items, they will send your children a card saying that they have given the "Gift of Love" and thanking them.

24.  Make Christmas handprints. We love to do this each year and keep them so we can compare year to year.
25. Deliver gifts together. Great way to get kids involved in the process is to take them with you as you deliver and let them what great joy it brings to your heart to give!

26. Make Christmas placecards. Just have your kids write names in the blank spaces. If you have very little kids. Make dots and let them fill in the lines.

27. Make glitter glue stars and tell your children how the wise men followed the star.

28. Christmas Eve Pajamas and surprise jammy ride with hot chocolate to look at Christmas lights.

29. Act out the Christmas story. Improvise with fabric, rope, dish towels and headbands. It's more fun that way.

30. Celebrate Jesus' birth! Bake a cake, sing "Happy Birthday", blow out candles, and give Him gifts. Rejoice!

2. Gather up all your kids' Christmas Books that they have received over the years. Or run the the Goodwill on Rosedale Hwy. that just sells books (for about .95 cents) and see what you can find. You can also run to Berean and hit their "discount" aisle to pick up a couple of new Christmas books. Once you have gathered up your books, wrap them up in the same Christmas paper and put them all in a bucket or bin under the Christmas tree. Each night the kids can pick one book, unwrap and cuddle on the couch to read. If you have a certain order you want them you could always print out a page of numbers on your computer and tape them to the wrapped books. If you only have 5 then countdown the 5 days of Christmas. Use what you have and make it work for your family. It's just about making life special and taking the time to make these memories.

Over at "A Day in the Life of The Perkins Family" She shows you what she does. Here is a picture of her family's collection. Check out her blog to get her list of favorite Christmas books and other fun ideas.

3. Elf on the Shelf! You can purchase this at 

Over at "hub pages" One person gives a background explanation if you have no idea what good an Elf on a shelf would do:

I have been hearing parents talk about and seen on some family sires etc mention of the "Elf On The Shelf". After questioning many people all of whom thought it was a great idea but did not have one I found out its basically a behavior tool for children around the holidays.

The gist is Santa knows if your being good or not because he has secret elf spies that sneak around your house relaying real time updates to Santa (most likely they text). Now kids who know about the elves and look carefully might catch them around their houses. One day the elf may be sitting on a shelf watching but never moving while there's people around as part of his disguise is as a holiday doll. When kids wake up the next morning the elf may be gone and if searched for could be under the couch etc or you may see proof they move from some foot prints. Sometime the elf hides so well you may not see it for a day or so.

So basically you convenience your kids there's a elf sneaking around your house to report to Santa. This is to make them watch their behavior. I think if started at a young age and parents really work at it not just let it sit on the shelf all the time its got potential maybe even up to age ten or so depending on the kids.

 A few other bloggers have posted some creative ways they have placed their elf...

LOVE this!! She painted the kids' noses red while they were sleeping... and set up the elf like this. awesome!! Totally doing this one this year!!

Over at: BLossmbunkhouse, She has 101 ideas for where to put your elf! Here are just a couple. Check out her blog for the rest. 

• Marshmallow fight – marshmallows everywhere
• Lipstick on mirror message
• Hang child’s unmentionables on the Christmas tree
• Hang from chandelier or ceiling fan
•  Take a spin in toy car/remote control car
•  Play board game with stuffed animal friends or action figures
• Create a block tower
• Sit in shoe, holding shoe laces as if going on a sleigh ride
• Plant magic seeds with directions to water once a day. On 3rd day something will grow. Secretly plant lollipops on 3rd day.
• Make cookies – flour everywhere
• Turn toilet water blue
•  Hang out on child’s bedpost
• Type /write an amazing letter of all the wonderful qualities your Elf has witnessed of your child!!!!!!!!
• Fill room with lots of balloons or hang them from ceiling

Again, plan this out so you have supplies ready! Somedays it can be easier than others. Again get creative!=)

I think this should get you started! So have fun and make this special time exciting, fun and memorable for your kiddos (and family)! Love you girls!

Over at My Little Gems

She has this great idea for Thanksgiving Keepsakes! Which also double as Placemats!

Click HERE to find out how to create these fun placemats!