The Secret to a Wonderful Christmas

Every Christmas I say to myself, "This year I'm not going to get stressed out. This year I'm going to remember the True Meaning of Christmas..."

But as the season gets closer, my mind and heart get clouded by the "have-tos" and I find myself bogged down by guilt and panic.

As a child growing up, my parents made Christmas pretty magical. And I have always had a high standard for making the season magical for my children too.

But as an adult, what I have had to discover on my own is that I cannot make Christmas perfect.

 And there is no need for it to be!

There is a line in a Christmas song by one of my favorite musicians, Linford Detweiler, that says, "Am I ready to receive the Gift the Christ Child has for me?"

 

And that line hits me every year. I try to keep it in my mind, actually. 

 

Because the true meaning of Christmas is not all the stuff, and we know that! So why is it so hard to put it into practice?

I want to give my family a beautiful Christmas. I want to celebrate in the most magical way possible. 

I want to give my loved ones gifts that bring them joy, that make them feel loved.

I want to get the most out of every day this season.

We have an idea, don't we? That we must give our loved ones The Perfect Gift in order to show them how much we love them- that somehow, if we don't do that, it's a sign that we don't love them enough.

This is a lie! Of course, we want to give our loved ones things they enjoy, things that show how we love them and know about them.  We want to express our love through the perfect gift. But life isn't perfect- love isn't perfect. We make a mess of things and we forgive each other and we love each other anyway.

And sometimes, things work out pretty good!

What I'm saying is, CHRISTMAS DOESN'T HAVE TO BE PERFECT! It just has to be full of love.

You know how in the movies, there's always a moment where either the tree falls over, or a special ornament shatters and it is supposed to be a bad omen? That's not real!

I used to always laugh at those parts in the movies because when our kids were younger, we pretty much had the tree fall over at least once a year. We came to think of it as our tradition. It was no bad omen! It meant life is life and here we are, and this is what happens.

So celebrate the season by bringing hope to the hopeless. Burn the cookies, sing the carols off key, and give gifts to your loved ones. Oops, I forgot to fill the advent calendar- let the kids be part of the magic!!

When we let go of trying to make things perfect, we are able to receive the Christ Child's gift for us:

HIS PEACE. Which is the whole point of Christmas!

 Christmas doesn't have to be perfect...

It just has to be...

FULL OF LOVE!

Happy learning!

~Beth

Springtime Rainbows!

 With the coming of spring we have turned our attention to the science and beauty of... rainbows!

    Our first rainbow craft was a watercolor wind catcher. I prepared rainbow outlines for Rosie and me to fill in with watercolors, then cut out and attach raindrops with strings.

    Only instead of regular watercolors we made our own by adding a few drops of food coloring to little dishes of water! That made creating AND cleanup super easy!

    (Besides, Rosie is pretty much the food coloring Queen!)

Of course, craft time is not quite complete without tea and a snack, so while our tea was brewing (compliments of Rosie) we made an edible rainbow snack!

To make this fun rainbow-y treat, mix a couple drops food coloring in separate dishes of milk. Stir in a pinch of sugar, and paint onto a piece of bread! (We used clean Q-tips instead of paintbrushes)

Once your edible painting is finished, you can toast it lightly or enjoy as is!

Here is Rosie's beautiful Flower Garden with a Blue Sky!

And my Rainbow...

See how toasting brings out the colors?

Now... back to tea & craft time! After our paintings dry we can cut them out and assemble them.

    And here they are! The food-coloring watercolors have a really beautiful effect. I especially love water-based art for things like rainbows because they are made from water in real life.

Next, we tried another project Rosie had had her eye on... 

Edible finger paints!

These are literally just cool whip with food coloring added.

As you can see, we used a muffin tin for a pallet. 

What a fun, sunny day to make crafts outside!

    Painting our fingernails makes it "edible fingernail polish"!

Happy Learning!

<3 ~ Mama & Rosie