photo courtesy of artur84@@freedigitalphotos.net

With the Christmas season fast approaching and lots added to our “to do” lists, I wanted to take a moment and help you reflect upon this season.  We as women can get so wrapped up in the “doing” that we forget the “being” part of Christmas time.  I wanted to write this devotional to help us identify with each of the nativity people.  This will be presented in a 10 part series–each day signifying a different person.  You can download it here for the complete devotional to use in your ladies group–includes all scripture NKJV.  Or you can enjoy a new person each day through my blog.  Be blessed as we go about remembering the reason for this season.

Day 4:  The innkeeper

The bible does not say much about the innkeeper so I am going to put my own spin on how he may have reacted to this situation.
After reaching Bethlehem after a long exhausting trip, his wife ready to give birth, Joseph asks for a room. Possibly after hearing that there were no rooms available he might of explained that this child, which would be born, would be great! But instead of having sympathy or even considering giving up his own room, he told him there were no rooms available.

Can you imagine sending a pregnant woman on her way when she was ready to give birth? Heartless or too busy! Instead he sends them to the stable.

What a huge opportunity missed by being too busy with the temporary cares of the day!

Are you like the innkeeper, keeping your schedule so full of activities this holiday season that you forget what is the most important gift of all? There are so many activities, cookies to bake, cards to write, crafts to make, presents to shop for and wrap, and parties to attend that the “real” reason for the season can become overlooked. Take the time to say “no” to a few extra things that are crowding up your schedule. Simplify some of the ways that you do things. Don’t worry about having everything “so perfect.” Relax a bit, take time for the Savior, and the rest will all fall into place.

day 5

This weekend was a busy weekend for our family.  After getting over 3 weeks worth of sickness—we had lot of time to prepare for the start of the Christmas season.

We had an enjoyable time on Saturday at the local town Hendersonville parade.  We went to this last year when we first moved here and it was sprinkling rain, so it wasn’t as great because you had no music and its wet and rainy.  But this year, it started out with frost on the ground when we left, but by the time the sun started shining, we were taking off coats and enjoying ourselves.  The parade was one of the greatest I have ever seen.  Lots of community floats represented and lots of fun things to see.  We enjoyed ourselves very much.

We then came home and did some holiday baking. We dipped our peanut butter balls that we make every year. 

This year we took a spin on the old school one and added chopped M&M candies to the peanut butter mixture—it is very yummy.

Here was Brooklyn flattening peanut butter cookies.  This only has 3 ingredients—so easy and so good!  The recipe is 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup sugar, and 1 egg.  Roll into balls and flatten with a fork.  Bake 350 for 10 minutes.

With our leftover chocolate, we made some chocolate popcorn to give away as treats.

Then I let the children do some dipping of their own.  By the way sugar and young children, do not mix well:)  My children were running wild this day.  After all the candy from the parade and then home to more sugar, it was quite busy:)We also made some ornaments for our ladies group at church.  Real simple from a wood log.

I had my husband cut them into log rounds and then we put clear coat on the back.  I had my girls paint the other side white.We then painted faces on them.  So cute.

I added some hemp rope, a sprig of some kind of bush, and a card with the bible verse that we will be using as part of our message for ladies group, it goes with the devotional series—The nativity, thinking outside the box.

 

It was a busy day we also found time to make some cinnamon ornaments.  These make your home smell so yummy.  You can find the recipe here.

Lauren made these cute Christmas tree ornaments out of sticks and material scraps.  Here she was cutting the branches, earlier in the day.

They look so cute, we took them down to our community Christmas tree that night to decorate it.We went down to share a dinner with our community.  It was a nice time of fellowship together.  Then we walked over, sang some Christmas carols, and Santa lit the tree.

Here Jentzen was standing by his luminary that he put out.  It got much cooler at night time here in the mountains.  The children were wearing mittens and winter coats!!

We also had our church Christmas drama.  All my girls were in it this year.  Here Autumn and Madelyn were waiting patiently for it to start.

Here on the left are Autumn and Madelyn singing, they did such a great job.  You can watch the video clip and see their performance.

We also had Brooklyns 9th birthday!!!  We celebrated by taking her out to Chinese dinner and we went shopping to pick out some things that she wanted.   We then took cupcakes and shared with our friends at church.  She also wanted her hair cut, this is her debut with short hair.We then came home, exhausted and tired.  But it was such a great together weekend.  Enjoy the video clip of parts of the parade and the drama.

Be blessed.