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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

This is a puzzle that Brendan cut and I painted. All the pieces fit into the stable. I worked on the intricate little pieces on and off for 10 years! Last year we finished them, and hopefully this will become Lilly Pie's special Christmas decoration for her to pass on!
Christmas is coming so fast that I can't believe it....this is the week to pull out all our traditional Christmas decorations, since we have a short season this year, and we won't be having company at Thanksgiving. One of the things I'll be busy with this week is wrapping all the children's Christmas books. We have collected many over the years, and each child has a basket of wrapped age appropriate Christmas books. They pick one each night to read. When we first started, we only had a few books, and would open them on Sunday nights. Now we can almost start at Thanksgiving and read one every night! It is one of their favorite traditions. The Nativity Story is always wrapped in gold paper, and we save that one for Christmas Eve. A good source to collect Christmas books is Christian Book Distributors . They often have big packages of Christmas books for deep discounts.

This year, however, I have a bittersweet deliema. My oldest is growing up into a beautiful young lady, yet getting a little old for the tradition she has always loved so much. I remember the sad feeling when you grow up just enough that Christmas ceases to be so magical, but not quite enough to understand on a heart level the real spiritual significance of the holiday, so I'd still like to do something fun for her to replace the fun of getting to open a book every night. She has a few books she still loves, but they are not books that she can read in one evening. She loves Charles Dickens Christmas Carol, and her American Girl Treasury, and could probably fill the season with reading those. I was thinking of making a felt advent calender like this on at www.purlbee.com/felt-advent-calend/ for her door. I was thinking that Brendan and I and the boys could write her encouraging notes to put in the pockets, and that I could sprinkle some little trinkets here and there, like a nail polish or a barrette, maybe an ice cream certificate to go out with her dad, etc. But I need some more ideas. Can anyone think of any good ideas of free/inexpensive things to put in the advent calender, or another idea to replace the book tradition for my oldest dear daughter? I'd love to hear your comments and ideas. Maybe some of you family and friends would even be willing to write an encouraging note for her to add to the stash. Hint. Hint.

3 comments:

Rachelp said...

You did an amazing job on this project! Way to go! Doesn't it feel good to have it complete...and completed well.
Much love,
Rachel

mareseatoats said...

Absolutely love the nativity!!!! Can I put in an order? 10 years. Let's see, I could put it away for my grandchildren. Hmmm....

As for ideas for your young lady. Here are some off the top of my head.
1- i love your idea of a date with dad. a girls' night out is good to even if it is just to do some shopping or get a cheap dinner.
2- makeup samples from your local Mary Kay buddy. i wonder if you could buy them inexpensively.
3- $1 to buy a song off of itunes
4- i love the idea of little notes. did you mention getting some from her friends to put in there?
5- a pair of earrings

It is early. Maybe more will come to me as the day and my brain warm up.
:-) MJ

Barbara Dirrim said...

We are enjoying the nativity. It still amazes me and "puzzles" me (ha, ha). Thanks again.