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A new year has all the promise of a fresh start, and there are quite a few areas I’m going to make a fresh start in:

De-cluttering my home: Of our family of six, we have five “collectors” — all of us but my five-year-old gather things faster than we get rid of them. So, our house is full of stuff we might use someday, and it’s time to pass it on to someone who actually needs it.

Managing money: I have a household budget I keep track of, and most months I end up with more month and less money. I enjoy listening to financial teachers, though, such as Dave Ramsey, and over the past year and a half I’ve learned a lot. This is the year to put it into practice.

Taking a Day Off: It’s easy to fill the weekend with all the things that didn’t get accomplished during the week, but everyone needs a day off to rest, regroup, and get ready for the week ahead. Sunday is a good day for our family to relax, and I want it to be a day we can enjoy together. So after church and a light lunch, we’re instituting a family game afternoon — and having fun.

Eating better: I’ve read many health/nutrition and diet books over the years — now it’s time to implement them! This is our year to eat right and get fit as a family; maybe even Luke will learn to love vegetables!

Keeping in Touch: While I can keep in touch with many friends and family members through the Internet, some friends don’t get online very often. This year, I’m going to set aside a certain time to write to them. This year, they’ll know they’ve been in my thoughts.

These are a lot of good changes — ones that are do-able and will bring good results if I stick with them. The best part is, my children can work on them right along with me, and we’ll all learn as we go. What are your goals for the new year?

This year, I was going to be ready for Christmas early. I had finished much of my shopping after Thanksgiving, and I was going to have all my Christmas cards addressed and ready to go by the first of December. And to add a special touch, I was going to make the cards or have the children help me make them. I planned on printing photos of the family to include in the cards as well.

But then, one day slipped by, then another, and another, until finally it was too late to send the cards — again. Too late for the cards to arrive in time for Christmas, too late to send a holiday greeting to friends and loved ones that we don’t see very often. Another year, and another missed opportunity.

But is it? I could set my cards aside, and plan on doing better next year. But then, would I let another year pass by before I sent them a note saying I’ve been thinking about them?

But Christmas isn’t a deadline — it’s a reminder. A reminder for people like me who, in the day-to-day busyness of life, too often forget what matters most. It’s a reminder to reach out those we care about and to care about those less fortunate than ourselves. It’s a reminder to do those things we should have been doing all year, but may have let slip by.

And most importantly, it’s a reminder of God’s most precious gift to us, His Son, Jesus. It’s a reminder that He sent Jesus to die and rise again so we might spend eternity with Him. It’s a reminder of His incredible love for mankind, a love He wants us to share with each other.

So the cards may not go out on time this year, but I’ll still send them out — and I’ll remember.

This past Sunday was the last Sunday before Christmas, and the pastor of our church wanted the children to do a special program. We attend a very small church, however, and some of the children don’t attend on a regular basis, so planning a Christmas program wasn’t easy. Add to that the fact that we had bad weather on Friday, and it became even harder to put together. Instead of a practicing a skit, then, I offered that my children prepare a few Christmas songs to sing or play on the piano.

We had the same sort of program planned for our nursing home visit this month, and it went well. I had the older children read parts of the Christmas story from Scripture in between the music selections. We didn’t have a lot of time to practice before the church service, but we had done it before, so all would be fine.

Or so I thought. During Sunday School, I was told that on the days the children have a presentation, the pastor doesn’t plan a message. We would have a lot more time, then, and nothing to do in it. I asked my husband, who is very good at public speaking, if he would read the scripture and fill in where necessary. He agreed, and I felt a little better…

…until the service began. My husband started reading the first few verses from the Bible, and I told my oldest son John to get his piano music ready to play. He opened his folder and searched through it, but his two pieces of music were missing!  He panicked and became upset; as I tried to calm him down, telling him not to worry about it, my husband finished the verses. I motioned to him to keep going, which he did, while John went to search in the car for his music. He never did find it, so after he returned we sang a Christmas carol and moved on with our presentation.

After more scripture, my daughter Lillie played her song on the piano, and we sang again. During the third carol, though, my youngest, Luke, decided he would sing directly into his microphone. This would have been all right if he had known the words. He didn’t know any of them, though, and instead made up his own as we tried to sing. My other children started giggling, and I couldn’t help laughing (quietly, of course), so much of that carol went unsung.

After church was over, the children all agreed it was not a good program. “Well,” I answered, “we learned some things. We learned that sometimes things don’t go just right, and you need to improvise. And even when that happens, Christ can still be honored by our efforts. And we learned that we need to be careful when we give Luke a microphone.”

“Yes,” my daughter Cassie answered, “it wasn’t the best program, but it sure was the most fun!”

When my oldest son was about five years old, we went to a “Happy Birthday, Jesus!” party at the church we were attending. The pastor’s wife read the book My Birthday, Jesus’ Birthday by Holly Davis. It was the first time I had heard the story, but I really liked it at the time.

A couple of years later, we were traveling to visit family when we stopped for a break at a shopping center with outlet stores. In one of those stores, I found that same book on sale and purchased it for our family. And it’s been one of my favorite Christmas books ever since.

The story is actually a comparison between “my” birthday and Jesus’ birthday, or Christmas. On the left side of each spread, the narrator tells about the time she was born; for example, on one page she talks about how her parents carefully thought about and chose her name. The right side of the spread, then, compares it with the time when Jesus was born, as God told Mary and Joseph what the baby’s name would be. The narrator was born in a hospital; Jesus was born in a stable. The narrator’s grandparents came to visit when she was born; the shepherds came to visit the new baby Jesus.

The book continues in this way to the last page, which features a big birthday cake with the words “Happy Birthday, Jesus!” on it. The text, the layout, and the illustrations all make this an ideal book for teaching little ones about Christmas. We’ve used ours so much over the years that some of the pages are coming out.

So today I searched the Internet for another copy, and sadly realized…My Birthday, Jesus’ Birthday is out of print! The only ones I found for sale were way over-priced. I did find it at a few libraries, however; even if your library doesn’t carry it, you could probably get a copy from an inter-library loan service. Perhaps Zondervan  (the original publisher) will print it again, but until they do, I’ll be keeping an eye out for a used copy. This book really is a great find!

…Or perhaps this should be entitled, “Lessons from the Parade?”

This past weekend, we followed a family tradition we began five years ago: we entered the Christmas parade of a neighboring small town. For a small fee, we enter the “Non-Commercial Vehicle” category, decorate our old pick-up truck according the theme of the parade, and dress up appropriately. The children and I ride in the back and toss candy while my husband drives. At the end of the parade, plaques are awarded for first, second, and third place in each category. All in all, it’s a really fun time.

This year, though, the theme was a little harder to develop, so I waited… and waited…and waited for inspiration to hit, which it never really did. We worked hard on the decorations, though, and we thought we had a chance of placing. But the weather was damp, and the duck tape we were using to hold our decorations to the truck wasn’t sticking. We were still rushing around as the parade was about to begin, fixing this, taping that. During the parade, I even had to hop out of the truck and walk along beside it so I could pick up anything that fell off!

We made it past the judges in one piece, though, and they gave us a good score. We took first place in our category (yay!), and we were all surprised. But there were some good lessons learned:

1. Cuteness counts!  My youngest, Luke, was dressed as a chick in an egg, and Lillie, my nine-year old, dressed as a farm cat. I think that helped a lot!

2. Prepare ahead of time! I waited too long to get started on this project. While we finished our design in time, it was stressful trying to get it all done.

3. Enjoy the process!  While the kids enjoyed the parade, they also enjoyed working on it. They painted almost all the props, and Luke especially was proud of his work. To me, this was the best part of the parade this year.

So, are we going to be ready next year? I’ll answer with a “Yes!” — that is, if we’ve learned our lessons!

When my oldest child was little, I found an advent calendar in a catalog that I really liked. It had 25 pockets with a number on each one; inside the pockets were hidden characters to include in a nativity scene: shepherds, wise men, sheep, camels, Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. Every day in December, the child pulls out one of the characters from the corresponding pocket and sticks it onto a background. Of course, baby Jesus would be in Pocket 25.

At the time, we didn’t have much extra money to spend, so I made my own calendar using felt for the background, pockets, and characters; fabric paint for the numbers; and Velcro pieces to make the characters adhere to the stable scene. And we’ve been using that calendar ever since. Though I’ve had to replace a few pieces along the way, it’s been one of our favorite traditions for counting down to Christmas.

A friend of mine recently told me of one of their traditions: they make paper chains from construction paper with the days numbered on them, then tape one on each child’s door where they can reach them. Every day, then, the children get to remove one link of the chain. A variation of this would be to put a verse from the Christmas story in the Bible on each link; then, when the children remove the link, they can work on memorizing the verse.

One family we know counted down the days by setting up a nativity scene with all of the pieces except the wise men and their camels. They would set them far away from the display, perhaps on a windowsill or bookshelf. Then, every morning, they would move them a little closer to the scene, until finally, on Christmas Eve, the wise men would arrive at the manger.

Does your family have a favorite way of counting down to Christmas?

A while ago, I wrote about the “I Love You Bigger” game. My youngest child Luke (age 5) and I play the game every now and then. I begin by saying, “I love you bigger than a tree,” and he would replies with something like, “I love you bigger than a house.” Throughout the game I try to choose larger and larger objects, although he often just chooses whatever comes to mind first.

The other night, while we were snuggling on the couch watching television, Luke started our game again. I was surprised, because we hadn’t played it for a while.

“Mom, I love you more than….” He paused. “….more than …vegetables!”

Now, I know Luke does not like vegetables, and I wondered just where this was going. So I said, “I love you more than…kitty litter.”

Luke smiled and thought for a moment. “I love you more than garbage.”

“Ooooo,” I said. “That’s a tough one to beat. I love you more than a squished bug.”

“Oooo,” he repeated. “Well, I love you more than… blood on a dead bird.” Okay, now I’m beginning to wonder what he and his sisters have been looking at outside.

“That’s gross!” I exclaimed. “I love you more than… a dried up worm.”

Luke was quiet for just a minute. “Well, I love you more than a dead fox.”  I wasn’t sure why we were focusing on road kill, but he soon came back with another one. “And I love you more than a giant beetle.”

I took that one. “I’m so glad!” I said as we laughed, and we went back to watching the show.

Then he laughed again. “Now you can put that on Facebook!” he said.

“You’re right!” I answered. Ah well — my little boy is growing up!

This fall has flown by. Thanksgiving was here before I knew it, and now Christmas is on its way. Many people we know already have their trees up and decorations out, but we haven’t even brought out the boxes from the attic. Once we do, it usually takes us a couple of days to get everything set up — a couple of days of chaos, that is.

And then there are the gifts. I have much of my holiday shopping already completed (whew!), but we plan to take treats to our neighbors this year. And what about Christmas cards? It’s been nice keeping up with friends on Facebook, but there are others who haven’t joined that I need to get in contact with.

How to do it all, and without much stress? I’m finding help at OrganizedChristmas.com. If I had started back in August, I could have worked the Holiday Grand Plan — an 18-week schedule for organizing and cleaning your home in time for the holidays. There’s also a 6-week Christmas Countdown beginning the first of October so your holiday preparations are done by December 1. Though I missed those dates, it’s okay — there are still a lot of resources on the site for a late-comer like me.

Under the section entitled “Simplify Holidays”, you’ll find links to articles and free printables for just about any aspect of the season that’s overwhelming you. You’ll find tips and resources for creating a holiday budget, setting up a Christmas calendar, writing Christmas letters, and cutting down on clutter. These pages also include ideas for frugal gift giving, holiday cooking, decorating, and simplifying traditions. There’s even a section about teaching children how to give.

So if you (like me) are feeling a bit behind these days, don’t. Visit Organized Christmas, find some good ideas, and enjoy the season!

In my art classes the past couple of weeks and for one of our recent co-op classes, I’ve had the students work with sculpey. Sculpey is a brand of colored polymer clay that becomes hard when baked in the oven — and the kids have been so creative with it.

I purchased a variety of colors for both classes. The clay comes in 2 oz. blocks, and you can sometimes find it on sale at your local hobby or arts and crafts store. You could also purchase the plain white sculpey, which comes in a larger size; after you mold and bake it, you can paint the sculpture with acrylic craft paints.

Before class began, I did an Internet search for “polymer clay” images and printed off a few to give the students some ideas. You can also find ideas in polymer clay craft books at your library.

Then they let their creativity go, and I helped them along if they needed it. They made small sculptures of everything from horses to roses to beetles to fruit and candy. Even my five-year-old was able to make a strawberry without assistance using a picture as a guide.

You can also vary this project to suit your lesson. Because our co-op class was reading stories about snow, winter, and Christmas, we used the sculpey to make simple Christmas ornaments. The children formed simple shapes, such as triangles for Christmas trees, circles for snowmen, hearts, etc. We then cut a small piece of floral wire, bent it into a “U” shape, and pushed both ends into the scupley, making a “hook” for the ornament. Because the wire was metal, it could be baked along with the clay.

After the sculptures were complete, we followed the directions on the package for baking them, and they turned out great! If you decide to try working with polymer clay with your children, though, be very careful not to over-bake it, as it does give off fumes. A well-ventilated area is best for baking.

Now get started molding that clay — and have fun!