Sunday, December 30, 2012

New Year's Eve and Day ideas ...

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day marks an end and a beginning. These days offer some fun possibilities to celebrate that ending and beginning. Below are some ideas that might trigger a thought for you … blessings to you and yours in this new year … Karen


• write a note, individually or as a family, and tuck it away in the boxes as you pack away the Christmas decorations … speak of the events of the past year and your family prayers for the New Year … read your letter next year, together, when you re-open the Christmas decorations … reflect upon how God has answered your prayers during the past year … (it might be fun to keep these notes from year to year) …

• plan a family dinner to talk about the past year … what happened, what you wanted to accomplish and did, what you learned, happy and sad events, what you look forward to in the New Year …

• keep a family journal and list the events of the past year … add to the journal each New Year’s Eve …

• tell each other your dreams for the New Year … discuss how family members can help one another reach their goals for the upcoming year …

• share your favorite event from the past year …

• pick a family member’s name out of a party hat and tell your wishes for that person for the coming year …

• plan to eat black-eyed peas for “good luck” in the coming new year … a fun New Year’s legend …

• create a family time capsule (a five-gallon bucket with lid) … each family member adds a small memento in that bucket on New Year’s Eve telling why he/she put that item in the bucket … bucket is sealed and stored until the next New Year’s Eve when items are again added (no peeking into it each year) … open at a future reunion for a “bucket of memories” … perhaps when kids are grown …

• print your New Year’s party initiation and paste it to the inside of a paper party blower

• have a family New Year’s Eve party … celebrate with the same families every year … even when the young children become adults with their own children …

• think of ways your family or your neighborhood might serve in the new year … collect food for a local food drive, donate time to help clean up a playground …

           ... and my personal New Year’s prayer that I will share with you …

                             Dear Heavenly Father ...

          for this New Year I pray I might have more “more” …

                               and more “less” …

                        more peace … less friction …

                  more hope … less discouragement …

                         more love … less division …

                         more joy … less grumbling …

                        more faith … less disbelief …

                     more gratefulness … less whining …

                        more service … less selfishness …

              more moving forward … less standing still …

                         more awe … less ho-hum …

                       more giving … less spending …

                   more forgiveness … less grudges …

                     more inclusion … less exclusion …

                     more kindness … less apathy …

                     more commitment … less wavering …

                                  more worship …

                                    more praise …

                      just simply more of You, Lord …

                                   and less of me …

                                                                             ©karen anderson

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Christmas Ideas ... for creating memories, traditions and acts of caring

Christmas is a wonderful time to create memories, traditions and acts of caring. It is also a challenge, sometimes, to remain peaceful and calm during this busy season and to keep Jesus as the focus of Christmas. Following are some ideas for this season of Advent (as we wait for the birth of The Christ Child). It is my hope that one or two ideas may have meaning for you … as you seek to enjoy your family and friends while keeping CHRIST as the center of your Christmas. Amidst the lights, bells and bows, may we just strive to keep HIM the reason for this season. And, may we all remember that our attention, love and presence with our loved ones is always, very simply, the very best present we can give …

• have a family devotional with a candle lighting each week of Advent … take turns reading the devotional entries and lighting that week’s candle …

• make or purchase an Advent calendar … open a “door” each day before Christmas … each day could offer a Promise (a gift!) from our Lord …

• create a family “Advent-ure” game … children look for the small, decorated box each day of Advent … carefully hidden somewhere in the house … each day the box holds a fact or scripture about Jesus … as well as a few piece of candy or an IOU to see a movie, etc.

• bring out the family Nativity scene … have the stable visitors (the shepherd, the 3 wisemen) begin their journey in a distant location of your home … and have the children move the figures a bit closer to the Nativity each day … Jesus and the stable visitors and the angel arrive on Christmas morning …

• invite small children to draw their interpretation of the Nativity to illustrate your Christmas
card …

• turn your Christmas upside down and join the “Advent Conspiracy” by concentrating on compassion rather than consumption … http://www.adventconspiracy.org  (worship fully, spend less, give more, love  all) …

• buy gifts at a church Christmas Alternative Market focusing on gifts thatsupport meaningful projects and ministries …

• share a Christmas family devotional each night around the Christmas tree … soft Christmas music and candles … everyone in their pj’s …

• visit a local Christmas tree farm and cut down your own tree … take a picnic and enjoy the day … slice off a piece of the trunk for each family member as a Christmas keepsake … and date it …

• encourage family members to write a note of what they want to do for Jesus the following year as their gift to Jesus (be more kind to brother, etc.) … explain that the notes do not have to be shared …

• hide a large, spike-like nail  (together as a family) at the base of your Christmas tree as a reminder of the sacrifice Jesus made for us …

• pray for each person as you wrap their gift …

• have a family “caroling” night around the Christmas tree … serving popcorn, hot chocolate and
candy canes …

• have a family slumber party under the Christmas Tree … read family favorite Christmas books …

• consider giving an “experience” as your Christmas gift …a day playing board games with a elderly family member, a trip to a museum or to the zoo with a young child or neighbor friend …

• pray for families as you receive their Christmas greeting card …

• take Christmas crafts to a local apartment complex to share with the children there …

• invite friends for a cookie decorating party … take plates of cookies to elderly neighbors or church members who may not get out during the holidays …

• consider giving a gift to a charity or to an organization in honor of someone instead of giving a present … make it a tradition between adult sibling or between all adults … (donation could be symbolized by giving a small ornament such a bike ornament for a donation given to a bike project for children) … or give a “family gift” to other families … (donation towards an Africa water well; donation for chickens for a family in Haiti; socks, shoes or a sweater for someone at the shelter for the homeless) …

• send anonymous family “thank you notes” to other families for special gestures they have offered to others in serving the church or community … leave the note with a candy cane at their front door … ring the bell and run …

• take a plate of goodies to the church staff who will be serving at many services Christmas Eve …

• buy a small, tabletop, artificial tree … attach miniature trinkets or bows … take the tree to a nearby nursing home or family service center… invite other families to join you … or make placemats for those who are bedridden during the holidays …

• celebrate the “Twelve Days of Christmas” by sharing 12 random acts of kindness, anonymously, as a family …

• bring canned goods to the local food pantry during the holiday season … or find a family “service project of good will” to share during the holidays …

• locate a family whose children might have a very lean Christmas and take the money you would have spend on each other to purchase gifts for their children and family …

• make “heat and serve” dinners in microwave disposable containers for elderly neighbors … deliver with cooking instructions and sign the card from “Santa and his reindeers” …

• give something you love to someone who has admired that item in the past … or pass along a family heirloom to an adult child or grandchild …

• babysit for parents who seldom get a “couple night” … tell them it is your Christmas gift to
them … share a Christmas movie and popcorn with the children or decorate a gingerbread house or Christmas cookies … or create a “hot chocolate bar” (crushed peppermint, whip cream, and chocolate kisses for topping the hot chocolate) …

• pack a Christmas gift box, or goodies for the New Year, as a family … for someone serving in the   military … (toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, mouthwash, hand wipes, hand sanitizer, shampoo, deodorant, sun screen, medicated lip balm with SPF 15, comb, first aid kit, cotton swabs, shower soap, gum, foot powder, ponytail holders, hard candy, current movie or music CD, devotional, travel Bible, Kool Aid, coffee, tea bags, hot cider, movie popcorn, protein bars, foot warmers, sunflower seeds, etc.) … add a note from your family and perhaps, your photograph and prayer for them …

• prepare a small gift box for each family member … include a note that says, “what I love about              you …” (place the note that holds your special words inside the box as your gift to them …perhaps each family member could do this ... a family yearly Christmas tradition?)

• consider each family member receiving only three gifts … just as Jesus received …

• place sidewalk luminaries along your curb Christmas Eve (paper bags, sand, candles) … lighting the way to Bethlehem for the Holy Family … fill the bags Christmas Day while listening to (and singing!) Christmas music …

• give a surprise gift basket of wrapped treats to toll booth workers on Christmas Eve …

• go Christmas caroling as a family … in the neighborhood or in a nursing home …

• take Christmas treats to a business who must work on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day … the local gas service station, fire station, etc.

• enjoy the neighborhood Christmas lights in the car together with popcorn, hot chocolate and Christmas music … or bundle up and tour the neighborhood on a Christmas walk …

• create your own family Christmas pageant each Christmas Eve … children can dress as Mary, Joseph, a shepherd, an angel, the Three Wise Men … have a doll in a basket for Jesus with stuffed animals surrounding the manger … invite an adult or child to read the Christmas story from the Bible …

• leave a note for Santa … along with cookies and milk … and find Santa’s reply on Christmas
morning … fun to save these letters each year …

• complete your family Christmas Eve celebration with lighted candles while singing, “Silent Night”…

• buy matching socks to wear to bed Christmas Eve … (or matching pajamas!) …

• encourage all family members (except Mom and Dad who have the camera) to enter the “Christmas Tree room” with their eyes closed on Christmas morning … (have special Christmas music playing, candles lighted) … fun to compare the “entrance” pictures year after year (sometimes Santa leave a “sign” in front of each child’s gift so that everyone knows which gift is his/her “Santa” gift … or family members can leave the same name-labeled duffle bag each year for Santa’s special gift ) …

• share your favorite Christmas breakfast around the Christmas tree on Christmas morning (with Christmas music and candlelight)… perhaps a breakfast casserole, various fruits and yummy breads or rolls … wear jingle bell necklaces (from the Polar Express story!) …

• bake a birthday cake for Jesus … and sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus …

• share your memories of the previous year while enjoying Christmas dinner together …

• write a note, as a family, and tuck it away in the boxes when you pack the Christmas
decorations ... speak of the events of the past year and your family prayers for the New Year … read your letter next year, together, when you re-open the Christmas decorations … reflect upon how God has answered your prayers during the past year … give thanks for His faithfulness …

Please leave YOUR ideas for making Christmas memories and traditions … you can leave your thoughts below as a “comment” … what do YOU do before Christmas, on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? … what are your special activities, menus, games, outings? … what are YOUR favorite childhood memories? Please share with us!
                 
blessings as you and yours celebrate God’s Gift …
for life's moments, Karen