Join in, Enter the Story

I saw this video when getting my morning laughs from April Showers. This video isn't about laughs, but rather a challenge to join into a different way of thinking about This Season. We celebrate Christmas, however, thanks to commercialism and bad choices of Christians across this country (including myself over the years) -- even people from other faiths have jumped into the buying frenzy. Several Blogs I read have commented on the importance of recreating our Holiday Season experience. What if we were to focus on spending time with friends and family, creating memories together --- whatever happened to Christmas Caroling? Hand making small thoughtful gifts together, giving them to friends and family as a token of our love for one another rather than a replacement of it. What would happen?

Here is a Thanksgiving Memory we made that you can stow-away for next year or create a different version for Christmas. (I think I may have gotten this idea from Martha Stewart.) Two years ago we made an updated version of the traditional Thanksgiving craft where children trace their hand and make a turkey out of it. Except with our new version we used real feathers, a red pipe cleaner for wattle (I had to look that up), a construction paper beak (ours admittedly look more like a chicken's), then make a Sculpy stand for each one and PRESTO -- you have your own personalized place cards. Here is my beautiful niece Rosalie modeling them. Surrounded by brothers and boy cousins, she is truly the princess of our family. Isn't she lovely?