Encouraging Deep Roots

This year the holidays are different and it's a bit of an adjustment time for me. We spent Thanksgiving over the course of two days - the day before with just the boys and Dan's parents and then traveled on Thanksgiving Day to spend it with Emily, her boyfriend and his parents.  Today my daughter let me know that she wouldn't be coming here for Christmas Day. I honestly knew it was coming and handled it well. But this afternoon I have felt a bit out of sorts and I'm thankful that I'm in tune with my emotions enough to know why. It's inevitable. Children grow up, get jobs, develop their own traditions and as they move into relationships have to make room for another family. But there is part of me that wants everything to stay the same.  But I've learned some things through the years and that is mostly because of mistakes. 1. Don't make them feel guilty. Growing up and moving on is natural. If you use guilt to try and manipulate them all that's going...

It's November 11th and Christmas is just a few weeks away. These upcoming holidays and events are my favorite! Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, New Year's Eve and Day. It's time to get busy.....er, I mean, busier! 😁 'Tis the season for food! Looking forward to Thanksgiving with Dan's family at a local fire hall this year. No one has a big enough house to host 15 for dinner, so we opted for this. I'm bringing the turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and 2 pies. Everyone else is filling in with other dishes.  'Tis the season to fill orders. This week I've been busy making placemats, napkins, KitchenAid mixer covers, and toaster covers for a few different custom orders.  'Tis the season for Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. We had 5 children at 3D Kids last night and they enthusiastically packed 14 boxes.  'Tis the season for practicing Christmas songs. That was on last night's agenda at 3D Kids as well. Now if I could just get them ...

It's seven days until Christmas and yikes! Not a gift has been purchased nor even thought about. We have been so busy with different activities that we just haven't found the time to go. Dan and I are planning on heading out on Friday since that's the one day this week he is not tutoring. I don't generally like facing the crowds a few days before Christmas but that's the way it goes this year. My plan to stretch things over the twelve days of Christmas was shot down by my daughter who loves our traditions.  In fact, the conversation went like this when I told her about it. Emily:  "Mom, why would you do that?" "We aren't Jewish!" Me: "Ummmmmm…..I said, let's celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas, not Hanukkah!" 🤣🤣 Emily: "It doesn't matter; why would you mess with Christmas?!!!" So, per her request, I'm not messing with Christmas. It'll be our traditions though they have evolved and change...

I love every single thing about this time of the year. The sights, the smells, the sounds are meaningful to me. To be honest, Dan is not big into traditions and most of our family traditions have been implemented by me. That's okay though because I just view it as part of my role as a wife and mother. Here are ten traditions we have established in our home.... 1. Ornaments. Every year we purchase an ornament for each child with their name and date on it. We will keep them until they set up homes of their own and then they will receive all their ornaments from the time they were born until the present. 2. Jesse Tree. We started this about 6 years ago and do it every year. We do a daily devotional and then hang an ornament on our Jesse Tree. It's a wonderful way to trace the genealogy of Jesus and celebrate advent. 3. Tree trimming day. The day after Thanksgiving we pull out all the Christmas decorations and decorate the tree together as a family. I make Christmas co...

While growing up, our family did not have many traditions when it came to holidays. Dan didn't come have many either so we were able to start some of our own without a lot of the conflict that many couples have. One of the traditions that we started was decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. Because we have an artificial tree, this became something that we look forward to each year. Now that the children are older, it's even more enjoyable because they love to do the bulk of the decorating. One of the jobs I've always detested is putting together the tree. That's not an issue any more because the three of them work together to put it up. I put on the lights and then they hang the ornaments. One of the reasons they love doing this is because each year I purchase an ornament for them with their name and date on it. When they leave home, they will get to take their ornaments with them. They love looking at each trinket and talking about when they rece...