25 Days of Christmas...ideas to do with your family.

Christmas traditions are one of the little things that make Christmas so special. Having an activity or special trip to look forward to each year adds to the excitement of the Christmas season. 

One of my favorite Christmas traditions we have is to make homemade ornaments each year. We often  make enough to take around to our friends and neighbors as well. This tradition actually started when I was a young girl. Every year my parents would give each of us kids a new ornament. This way when we grew, up we all had a nice collection of ornaments to take to our new home and decorate our own Christmas tree.  It was nice that first Christmas away from home to decorate my tree with ornaments I had grown up with and that held special memories. 

This tradition of a new ornament continues on with my children. Each year we buy a new ornament for the kids. As the kids and I love crafts, we have made our own ornaments each year as well. The first time we decided to make our own ornaments was after a trip the mountains to see the fall colors. We collected a bag full of colorful leaves that had fallen. We then brought them home and placed them in a book to flatten and dry. Just before Christmas we took out the leaves and covered them with clear contact paper and added a ribbon to the top, our first homemade ornaments. We still have them and love putting them on the tree each year. We have continued making homemade ornaments each year since, and plan to do so each year. 

This year we want to add in, among our other little family traditions, a 25 Days of Christmas tradition. 

We made a list of ideas and have chosen what we plan to do, but instead of throwing the list away, I thought I'd share the list with you. 

25 Days of  Christmas ideas:

1) 25 Books of Christmas

Wrap up 25 different Christmas or winter books, unwrap and read one each night starting December 1st, ending with your favorite on Christmas morning. 

The kids decided to do this one this year. We don't have 25 Christmas books yet, but we have enough Christmas and winter books to use. I love the idea of having to go looking for Christmas books to add to our collection. 

2) 25 Bible verses and Christmas poems to read each night. 

3) 25 songs of Christmas

Listen to a new Christmas song each night, learn the lyrics, and sing together as a family. 

4) 25 Christmas prayers

Each night, as a family, say a little prayer for those in need. 

5) 25 Cards of  Christmas

Make 25 homemade cards (or buy nice cards) decorate and write a Christmas note of love, peace, and joy inside. Then hand out to people you meet, one each day until Christmas day. Give to people in the grocery store, walking down the street, or standing on the corner.

6) 25 Goodie Baskets of Christmas

On your own, with friends, or a social group, make 25 baskets of goodies. Place cookies, candy, hot chocolate, mints, little cards or handwritten notes, or whatever you like, into the basket. Decorate and hand deliver to family, friend, neighbors, co-workers, or nursing homes. You can deliver one each day, or make one each day and deliver them on Christmas Day. 

7) 25 Christmas Letters

Write 25 handwritten letters to 25 people. Either hand deliver or send in the mail, one each day until Christmas. 

8) 25 Days of Christmas Joy

 Each day take the time to sit down and write out a joyful Christmas memory or thought. Read the list on Christmas day. Keep the list and re-read each year. 

9) 25 Days of Christmas Crafts

Make a different Christmas craft each day. There are tons of ideas online. Many are simple and can be made with items you already have at home. If you choose, give the craft as a gift to neighbors, friends, or family. 

10) 25 Nights of Homemade Gifts

Spend each night working on homemade gifts for others. You can pick one gift to work on each night, or a different gift each night. 

11) 25 Days of Gifting to those in need

Find a way to donate time, supplies, or food each day, to those in need. This could be as simple as doing something kind each day for someone less fortunate. Visit an elderly person, take a meal to a family who is struggling, donate to your local homeless shelter, volunteer at the soup kitchen, help a neighbor with their housework or grocery shopping, or invite a lonely neighbor or friend over for coffee or lunch. There are so many ways one can help. 

12) 25 Days of Silent Gifts

Each day do something for someone, secretly. Leave a card with a little cash on the desk of a co-worker who you know is struggling, pay a bill or part of a bill for someone ( you can donate to the local utility company and can specify which address you wish to help), leave a bag of groceries and a card (no name) on the doorstep of a neighbor, mail gift cards to those you know could use a little extra help, or leave small gifts wrapped (with note but no name) on another's door step. I know that some of these take a little money, but of you are creative you can come up with plenty of ideas that cost very little or nothing.

13) 25 Days of Christmas Appreciation

Make or buy Christmas cards, write a note of appreciation and a wish for a Merry Christmas and give to local charities, adoption groups, homeless shelters, police stations, fire stations, doctor offices, mail carriers, trash companies, or health care workers. Give the cards to those who care for your community. 

14) 25 Goodies of Christmas

Each night make a Christmas treat. Try to find Christmas treats from all over the world. Enjoy the evening together making goodies and learning the history and origin of the treat each night. 

15) 25 Days to Fill a Stocking

This may be something you do a little each night or you could fill 25 stockings.

Fill one or a few stockings with 25 little items. Depending on who you plan to give it to, fill it accordingly. For a child, fill it with small toys, crayons, candy, gloves, warm hat, and whatever else you can think of. For the homeless, fill with hygiene items, snacks, warm gloves, socks, gift certificates, and a card. For an elderly person, fill with snacks, cards from friends, lotion, little Christmas decorations, and gift certificates.

There is so much one can do to bring a little joy to others for the holidays. All it takes is for one to care for others and give their time to those in need. 

We have chosen a few of these to try, and will hopefully find a couple that can be our 25 Days of Christmas, each year. 

I would love to add to this list and share with others so if you have any ideas please leave a comment with your ideas. 

**Next post: Christmas party ideas for the kiddos. 

30 Days of Being Thankful...days 25-30

Day 25)  Warm clothes and shoes. With the cold temps we've had, I'm very thankful for warm sweaters, fuzzy pants, and slippers. Knowing so many go without these simple things, reminds me to be very grateful for what I have.

Day 26)  I'm thankful for my daughter. From the first time I held her in my arms until now, I have learned so much and never imagined I could love someone so much. Lady Bug is a wonderful young lady and I am proud to call her my daughter.

Day 27) I'm thankful for my middle son, my Wild Thing! He is a ball of energy with the sweetest heart. He makes me stop and look at my children and life in a whole new way. Without him, I would still have a very limited and boring view of life and children in general. I love him very much and am happy to be his mama.

Day 28) I am thankful for my youngest son. He is a perfect mix of his brother and sister with a streak of his own silliness. I love that he is also a very loving and cuddly little boy. He is my baby, and always will be. I am blessed to be his mama.

Day 29) I'm thankful for the family and friends I have been blessed with.

Day 30) And I'm thankful for you all. I have enjoyed sharing our lives, the good and the bad, with you all. Many of you have been faithful readers for a long time, and I have come to feel as though I know you as well through your own blogs. Blog friends from all over the world, for this I am thankful.

30 Days of Being Thankful...

Day 23) I'm thankful for Internet connection and my computer...when it decides to work. I never thought I'd say that but it's true. For a long time, I was so against video games, still am for the most part, and anything techy (is that even a word). I had no interest in the computer or any of the fancy new tech toys. Sadly, I now enjoy the Internet a bit too much. I try to keep a good balance of time on the computer and time off. Now it has become a way to keep in contact with people I would not be able to otherwise, and a way to share with family and friends pictures and stories of our family. It is also now a way for me to once again, begin preparing and putting together a portfolio of photographs for my photography business.

Day 24) I'm thankful for good friends. I am blessed to have a few truly great friends, who have been there for me time and time again over the years. They are there without judgement, without question, and without hesitation. These great friends, know me well and have blessed my life with their friendship.

To have many friends is wonderful, but to have that one or two special friends who are as family, is priceless.

30 Days of Being Thankful...

I'm obviously not very good at keeping up with these posts. In fact I believe I started the 30 day of being thankful last year and didn't do so well then either. So tonight, I'm going to okay catch-up, but I'm not promising that I will do any better in the week to come.

30 Days of Being Thankful...

Day 12) With this very cold weather today (10*) I am thankful for a home, and heat within my home!

Day 13) I'm thankful, even though times are tough for many, us included, we never go without.

Day 14) I complain about having go to work, even though it's not very often (it's more of a dislike of getting dressed up) yet, I'm very thankful to have a job, and to have a job that works with me and basically allows me to come and go as I am able.

Day 15) I am thankful for my safety.
A co-worker of mine, is from the Philipines, and talking with her I have learned that her village, where she grew up and where all of her family is, was wiped out in the typhoon. And since it is a very small village, they have yet to receive any help from the outside. Along with the obvious struggles of living though a typhoon, after a prison was destroyed, now they are not safe as many convicted murders, rapists, and others are now loose and roaming the area.

Day 16) I am thankful that I get to have my children home with me each day. I can't imagine how much I would miss, if they were gone all day.

Day 17) I'm thankful that my youngest still comes and climbs in bed with me. He is very cuddly and as he is my last, I love that he still wants to snuggle with mama!

Day 18) A working wash and dryer. I'm thankful that, at the moment, my washer and dryer are still pluggin along. Each time I put a load of laundry in either one, I wonder if it will be the last. They both have their issues and only work if you bang on the left side twice, lean to the right, and balance
on one foot, just before you turn them on. :-)

Day 19) I'm thankful I have a great man as my husband. He treats me well, and loves all me even with all my craziness.

Day 20) I'm very thankful that my children have a wonderful father! I couldn't have asked for a better man to be their father. He loves them deeply, spends times with them, and is a very involved daddy! Oh, and he spoils them rotten, which they could do without. (smile) Yet, I would rather he spoil the kids then to not be involved or distant.

Day 21) I'm thankful for the freedom to choose my religion and worship as I want. And I'm thankful
that I have the freedom and am able to teach my children about our Chirstian beliefs in our  homeschool.

Day 22) I'm thankful for sweatpants! Yep, sweatpants! I'm one that likes to be comfortable!

These were in no particular order.

Back to normal? And 30 days of being thankful!

One of these days I'm going to stop saying, "When things calm down we are going to (fill in the blank)" because things never seem to calm down. I am beginning to think, I would not be able to function if life was calm and easy. But, on the bright side, I am fully capable of functioning, although not happily, when life is throwing us all kinds of drama. 

With that said, I'm not sure I should put into writing that, I think, maybe, possibly, hopefully, life may be somewhat slowing down for us. That doesn't mean that everything is super peachy and life is perfect. It does mean that, for the moment, we are slowly moving back into a more, dare I say, "normal" lifestyle. 

It seems as though some of the serious medical issues we have been struggling with for nearly two years are subsiding.  My daughter's health issues are finally improving greatly, and I am praying daily, that they continue to improve and not resurface. We are still working to improve these issues, but we are far from the incredibly scary place we were this time last year, or even 4 months ago. I'm not quite ready to share the details of our struggle just yet, but in time, I will be. At that time, I hope to be able to reach out to families dealing with similar issues and be a support for them, as we found it very difficult to locate others going through the same thing.  Talking about our family struggles with our daughter's health to others was helpful, yet, as they had not dealt with the same or even similar issue, it was very difficult for them to understand what we were going through and they just could not relate. Everyone was very unsure of what to do, and many we looked to for help and guidance were just as unsure as we were about what to do and how to help. Including the medical team we worked with. 

Yet, with the Lord's help and guidance, we have made it through this far and continue to move forward each day. 

Along with the improvement of our daughter's  health issues, we are equally as thankful that our 9 year old son is no longer dealing with the health issues he had to deal with last winter. He was found to have what can be a rare and very serious skin condition, that at times is known to affect the internal organs and other things. As it goes, our family never does anything "normal" so our son showing up with a very rare condition, sadly, was not too surprising. We weren't even too concerned until we talked to the doctor, and he mentioned he hadn't seen it (the skin condition) in 15 years, and that the other doctors in his office had never seen it. Then, we worried, and made the terrible mistake of researching it online. I will tell you, please don't research a medical condition online, without choosing your reference sites very carefully. 

After days of research, I was a complete wreck! Not only were we smack in the middle of dealing with my daughter's serious and incredibly stressful health issues, I was now convinced that my son's health problems were going to be life altering. Even though it really was a possibility that he could have some very serious problems, the doctor wasn't ready to be too worried, yet. Luckily, we had a great doctor who took this on and hit it as hard as he could with the meds he felt would make a difference. Thank goodness they did. After only 6 months, Wild Thing (9 year old son) was much better and now has no trouble at all, and will hopefully never deal with it again.  Though it can return, we are not looking too far ahead. Day by day is our plan! 

Which means, that other than Wild Thing having asthma, my kids are...healthy! 

Yay! It's such a blessing to be able to say that I have pretty healthy kids once again. 

I know many families, and read many blogs where so many parents are not able to say their children are healthy. So many of these families worry each day if there will be a tomorrow for their children, and so many have to sit by and do the little they can as they watch their child suffer through medical issues and pain. For these families, I pray for peace and healing. 

After the last year and a half, I no longer take for granted the health of my children. I am very thankful for the three little blessings I have, and for their health and happiness

I am counting this all as day 6,7,8,9,10 and 11, of my 30 days of being thankful! 

 

30 Days of Being Thankful...

Day 5) I am thankful for my health and for the health of my husband and children.

At the moment I have both family and friends with some serious health concerns. It's scary to stop and realize, again, that as amazing as the human body is, it's also very fragile. As I spend time praying for loved ones health to improve, I am reminded that I am blessed to be as healthy as I am.

30 days of being Thankful...

I did this last year, or most of it anyway, and wanted to do it again. I'm a little late getting started but it's better late than never. 

I don't get a chance to post each day, but I will post when I can. 

Since toady is the 4th  I'm going to play catch up. 

30 Day of Being Thankful...

Day 1) 

I'm thankful for the Lord and thankful He loves me, even with all my faults! 

Day 2) 

I'm thankful that I have an amazing husband whom works so hard to care for his family and so that I my stay home and care for and raise our children

Day 3)  

I'm thankful for my three amazing children. I am so blessed to have been given such great and wild kiddos. 

Day 4) 

I am thankful for my wonderful family and friends. I have so many great people in my life that I don't deserve.