Category Archives: Christmas

Our Favorite Things {giveaway!}

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Christmas is just a few short weeks away. For reals.

To celebrate, I have joined with some dear friends {affectionately called the Ladder Bloggers},  and put together a giveaway blog- hop for you to enjoy!

When I began thinking about a contribution to this giveaway, I immediately thought of my friend Brandi who creates amazing handbags. A few emails and whalla! I have a  Maris Rae tote to give to one of my readers. Glorious.

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You will love it. I know.

Her bags are handmade, with beautiful color combinations and will make a perfect gift for a friend or just something special for you to enjoy.

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The giveaway is for this medium size Maris Rae that retails at $58.00.

This Giveaway is Closed.

A winner will be chosen on Monday, December 3rd and will be notified by email. (The winner will have 48 hours to respond. If I don’t hear back from them, a new winner will be chosen.)

Now. On to the rest of the goodies! See all these beautiful things? They’re all being given away by my friends. Help yourself to these wonderful links and enjoy the beginnings of the Christmas season!

There is so much goodness {and so many chances to win!} if you’ll just follow me as we visit…

Visit each of my fellow bloggers to enter for their individual giveaways!

Giveaways will be open until midnight, Monday, December 3, EST. Winners will be announced on each individual blog.

This giveaway is hosted by a group of friends who call themselves the Ladder Bloggers. We are a mastermind group, seeking to go deeper with our readers even as we ‘climb higher’ with our writing and blogging skills. We believe no blogger should blog alone! For more info about how our group works, tips for starting your own, and to meet the rest of our group, please visit this page.

Love Came Down (and we pass it on…)

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It started the moment we awoke. Mama would have Christmas music playing as we began rolling out of bed, our bellies still full of turkey and stuffing. She talked quickly and brightly and we soon absorbed her excitement.  As Jingle Bells filled the house, the fall decorations would be carefully picked up and put away while twinkle lights and tinsel arrived.

The tinsel was the important part. Carefully, one piece at a time, she would tape it to the ceiling until the living room sparkled and shimmered and screamed, “Christmas!” If I was lucky, Papa would pick me up and twirl me around so my face swirled into the gleaming silver. It tickled.

It happened the day after Thanksgiving and not a moment before. No Christmas music. No decorations. It was fall leaves and turkeys and talk of giving thanks… until Friday morning. Then it was Christmas.

And the story. Over and over we heard the story. He came. For real. For us. For me.

I would sit and stare at the Christmas tree, the way the lights twinkled and moved, and think about how it happened. God, born man. The lessons on giving thanks for all things morphed into giving thanks for the greatest thing. 

Love come down.

Now I have my own home and my own traditions. I have a string of red mittens, ornaments that carry stories from Christmas’ past, a tree topper that once sat on a Case tractor, and the advent story written in a composition notebook. Pages colored with crayons and words written in quiet moments of reflection.

And it’s the story passed on.

Love came down. 

I have no little ones to wake up early with whispers of Christmas come. But I do have children who come and dance in delight at my tinsel and lights. Children that never leave without hearing the story. The real one. Where Jesus came for me and for you.

And my prayer is that the story will pass on.


I was sent the soup tureen and bowls to review from DaySpring. They are beautiful, tasteful Christmas dishes that tell the greatest story of all: how love came down. They also graciously sent me an Advent tabletop calendar, which I simply adore. (Just 5.99) 

The greatest part is that there is a sale! If you use the coupon code MERRY20 by December 15th, you will receive 20% off your purchase.

And this week only,  you can receive an additional 10% off! that’s a 30% off savings. Just click through this link and use the coupon code 30SUPER

While I did receive these items for review purposes,
all the opinions expressed (and the stories!) are my own.

[tinsel] of Christmas present and Christmas past

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Two tiny girls are standing on the bench, fingers touching ornaments.

“This one, Auntie Tashe,” the oldest holds up an embroidered square, “what’s this one?”

“That one is from Alaska,” I explain, tracing the bright pink fireweed.

“You were in Alaska?” Her voice is incredulous. She spent almost a third of her life in the 49th state but I wasn’t there at the time.

“Yes, ma’am,” I tweak her nose, “I was in Alaska way before you were born.”

Her mouth shapes an “O”.

The littlest one latches onto the ornament of a tractor. “Ice Cream!” she says.

Tractors equal Uncle Ice Cream in her mind. (The uncle who earned his name fair and square with bowls of ice cream.)

The Christmas tree arrives and we’re smelling pine and stringing lights and the house feels warm and full.

the littlest niece holding the Christmas lights

Then the little ones get picked up at they blow kisses from the door.

After chores we sit around the wood stove. A friend stops by for dinner and we joke about bookshelves (should have put “I will build her as many bookshelves as she wants” in our wedding vows) while we play games and laugh around the tree.

It doesn’t have any deep meaning, a Christmas tree—but there is still something lovely about it. The way it sparkles. The memories that are hung on it. The way little ones look at it with wide eyes.

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Later, when I finally have time to drop pieces of tinsel on the tree, I laugh at a memory.

It was the year mom had cancer. That year the house stood starkly empty at Christmas time. She had surgery, was doing well, but no energy or ability to decorate. One evening I was gone with my parents and the three boys stayed home alone.

We got back and they had decorated the house for mom.

A tree stood in front of the picture windows, lights twinkled from around the bookshelf. The ornaments were nestled amid the needles. And the tinsel. We laughed for years about the tinsel.

They were boys. The tinsel went on in great wads. All over the tree.

Mama, who always decorated with one strand of tinsel at a time-  thought that tree was the prettiest tree she had ever seen.

That was the year we each got one gift. There wouldn’t have been any except someone I didn’t know from New York had sent a box way up to Alaska.

I got hair ties. I remember that.

And I remember Papa gathering us around and saying, “This year, your Mama is your present.”

She was alive. Well. The surgery worked.

And I got to grow up with a Mama.

None of us minded not getting gifts.

And we always said that was our favorite Christmas ever.

My mother was the leading influence in my life to cause me to turn to Jesus. To surrender my life to him. And I thank my King and Redeemer, again, that he healed her– and in the process, drew me to himself.

And my prayer, again this Christmas, as it is on every Christmas-

is that God will use me in other children’s lives,

to draw them to himself.

For as Simon Peter said centuries ago–

[God] alone has the words of life.

John 6:68

And my prayer for you- my readers?

May you find a new glimpse of Jesus this Christmas.

And may you be instrumental in leading your families, your neighbors, your friends-

to the knowledge of the fullness of Christ.

 

[dancing.cards]

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I hung them today. They were piling up on the corner cupboard and I finally had a minute to put them in their rightful place. Dancing around my mirror.

Christmas cards are one of my favorite holiday traditions. I’m horrible at sending them (who wants to see a picture of my husband and I anyway? We look the same as we did five years ago. Almost. Just older.) but I am delighted to receive them.

I smile at babies all grown up and parents holding new ones and pregnant Mamas and weddings.

Life goes by so quickly. I want to whisper to them. Send a message through the photos. Rejoice in each day. Be thankful for every moment. Worship God with your whole life. Next year the babies will be toddlers. The toddlers kids. The kids teens. The teens adults. Life keeps moving, no matter what.

But I love the frozen moments. Every Christmas I get a few. Frozen moments to rejoice and remember and dance.

And my promise goes out…

God, whom I serve with my whole heart—

Is my witness how constantly

I remember you in my prayers…

(Romans 1:9)

Prayers whispered over frozen moments on my mirror to a God who was, who is, and who will be. The one who came and who will come again. 

[the.story]

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I’ve been scratching out the story again. The most important story of all.

Writing to tell a little boy the true tale of Christmas. Learning, again, the beauty of it as I write.

A picture of Jesus. From the beginning. It makes me want to somehow pull my Bible into myself. Write these words, God, on my heart. Please. Please.

The Jesus that I love so desperately- is splashed through the pages. And I’m falling in love again. 

After day two, when the story slips in the open secret (someday a man will come who will fight the snake- and win) my little boy has been waiting in anticipation. When the book cracks open each afternoon, he says, “is today the day?!”

How beautiful that the day already came. Jesus bled. Poured his body and blood out to pay the atonement. He already fought the snake and won. And I can be free.

Me! I am free!

What a Christmas present.

It was for freedom that Christ has set us free

No longer to be subject to the yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1

[advent] two.three

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Day Number Two

[Fallen]

The man God created, Adam, named all the animals and birds and fish.

But he was lonely. 

Nothing in all creation seemed to be good for him.

So God made one more thing. 

Her name was Eve.

Adam and Eve lived in the garden of Eden, a beautiful home that God gave them.

There was only one rule. One single rule.  He pointed out a tree and said, “Do not eat from that tree or you will surely die.”

But they did.

They disobeyed.

They weren’t content.

They were greedy.

First Eve, then Adam, ate from the tree that God said, “No” about. Just because a snake said it was okay. And this was a very, very bad thing. 

God was so sad. Do you know why?

Because something awful and nasty had come into his world. Something called sin.

There is a thing you should know about God. He is perfect.

That means he can’t have or be in the presence of sin.

And now both Adam and Eve, who were created to be God’s friends, had sin in their lives. And God couldn’t be with them anymore. 

But God still loved them. Oh! did he still love them! So he made a plan.

And he whispered the plan into the pages of the Bible.

He told Adam and Eve that someday one of their children would fight the same snake that tricked them- but when this person does, he will win!

Adam and Eve had to leave the garden of Eden but there was hope. 

Someday, somehow, God was going to fix the mess. 

Someday they would be free from sin. 

And then, once again, they would be friends of God. 

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Advent activity:

Paper Chain Verse: write out the words to Romans 3:23 on separate strips of paper. Decorate! Link strips together in circles, fastening with tape or staples. 

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Day Number Three

[Saved]

Adam and Eve had many children. Their children had children and their children’s children had children. Soon there were lots of people in the world.

But remember how Adam and Eve chose to sin instead of obeying?

Their children did too.

In fact, everyone was selfish and greedy and full of nasty- so much that they didn’t care about God at all. Even though God loved. They made it clear that it didn’t matter to them that God was making a way for them to be friends.

And God was sad.

Even if he could be friends with the people.               They didn’t want Him. 

Except one man.

His name was Noah.

In all the world- he was the only man that wanted to be friends with God.

So God said, “There is going to be a great flood.” He told Noah to build a big boat. Then he explained that every single person or animal in the boat would be saved.

So Noah built.

And when the flood came- Noah and his family were the only people who went into the boat.

And they were the only ones saved.

After the flood God made a promise. A very special promise.

Never again would there be a great flood to cover the earth.

Noah and his family were saved by a boat. But the next time God saved all the people- it would be different.

The next time- they wouldn’t be saved from a flood.

They would be saved from their sins.

And then, then, they would, once again,                                    be friends of God.

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Advent Activity:

make paper links in the colors of the rainbow to add to your verse chain.

Put the paper chain on your Christmas tree or use as decoration around the house.