CHRISTmas Day 1 0f 12

As I began to prepare for Christmas, in my thoughts a few months ago, I began to hear little pieces of what God wanted me to do. Here and there you hear of parents getting their child 3 gifts to symbolize the 3 gifts brought to baby Jesus. I always thought it was a cool idea, so we will be implementing this tradition (it is really hard though, so we will get them each 3 gifts and the stocking stuffers don't count!) Then after reading a few different blogs, the phrase "Keeping Christ in Christmas" kept repeating itself in my head.

For the past few years we have made a paper chain so Merci could count the days until Christmas. Last year each link had a little something written on it that we could do. (make cookies, make a Christmas card for grandma, etc.) This year we will be doing the same but each day we will implement something to remind us to "Keep Christ in Christmas!" Merci is not allowed to tell us what she wants for Christmas, and is not allowed to say I want, we are trying to get her focus off the presents...We all know how hard that is for kids and adults=) I did some looking on the internet and found lots of great stuff, crafts, coloring pages, poems, stories, etc. On About.Com, they even have daily devotionals. Which I am not sure will be age appropriate for Merci but I love hearing new scriptures, I may have missed or never thought about before, so I will be posting, them for me and hopefully you can get something out of them also!


"This is Christmas: not the tinsel, not the giving and receiving, not even the carols, but the humble heart that receives anew the wondrous gift, the Christ." - Frank McKibben

"And what a difference between our sin and God's generous gift of forgiveness. For this one man, Adam, brought death to many through his sin. But this other man, Jesus Christ, brought forgiveness to many through God's bountiful gift. And the result of God's gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man's sin. For Adam's sin led to condemnation, but we have the free gift of being accepted by God, even though we are guilty of many sins. The sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over us, but all who receive God's wonderful, gracious gift of righteousness will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ." Romans 5:15-17 (NLT)

The Greatest Christmas Gift

Each year we are reminded that Christmas should not be just about giving and receiving

But if we really think about Christmas, it truly is all about gift giving! At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the greatest gift ever given, by the greatest gift-giver of all, our wonderful God and Father!

Taken from About.Com!