Christmas JOY, pt 5

We step into a new year leaving

the footprints of 2009 behind us.

May we not forget the JOY from

a week ago at Christmas and may

we strive to share it with many in 2010.

It is my hope to focus on my shared 

JOYS of Christmas each and every day

of 2010, with the Lord's help.

May the Lord bless you in 2010!

Christmas JOY, pt 4

Sharing the JOY of Christmas by visiting and opening up our home.

One of the joys of Christmas was visiting with friends and family I don't see as often as I'd like.  And yesterday was no exception.

We had a long overdue visit with GrandSharon! 

And on Tuesday morning, I received an email from Lynn letting me know they were in town.  I had told her that we'd love to have them over sometime they are up visiting her parents.  We had their family for dinner last night.  T and I both know Lynn from high school and I got to meet Camille at the beach, but I had never met her oldest daugther or her husband.  What a wonderful family! 

I feel it necessary to note, Lynn had heels on!  LOL!!!!!

To be honest, having made last minute dinner plans, at my house, had me feeling a little stretched.  We decided to go ahead because we didn't know when this opportunity would come up again and we are so glad we did it! 

This was a good push for me and has motivated us to do this more often!

Christmas JOY, pt 3

The kids take turns saying a memorized prayer before each meal.  What started out as an attempt to let our kids say their own thoughts for prayers, turned into a memorized prayer they each say.  Every now and then someone will change the prayer a little, like adding in "Help Colin not to be grumpy," and so on.  I'm setting a goal for the new year to learn a new prayer as a family to say at our evening meal, together.  And that it will grow in our hearts and become something we live out.

Here's the prayer from the back of Quintin's first Bible; a Precious Moments Bible given to him by my paternal grandmother, who passed away when I was pregnant with Elle.

Dear God, thank You for loving me.

Thank You for this day

and the beautiful world I live in.

Thank You for family and friends

to play and share with.

Thank You for my home -

for clothes, food and a safe

place to be.

Thank You for my church

and for those who are teaching me.

Dear God, help me to do what You

want me to do.

Forgive me when I do wrong things -

when I hurt myself and those around me.

Forgive me when I hurt You.

Make me want to be the very best that I can be.

In Jesus' name, I pray.  Amen.

Christmas JOY, pt 2

Need I say more?

Christmas JOY

Inspired by Just Mom's "12 Days of Christmas" posts, I decided to put my own spin on it and do the "5 Days of JOY."  You've never heard of that song?  Well, yeah, that's 'cause I just made it up! 

A few days ago, Ginger shared something she learned as a little girl J.O.Y. "Jesus - Others - Yourself."  I've been thinking about this acronym a lot since she posted it and have been mentioning it to the kids, too.  This week, we are going to focus on how to continue to spread Christmas JOY by putting 'Jesus' first, 'others' second and 'yourself' (ourselves) last.

After having our JOY letters fall a few times from the top of our mirror, we grabbed the hot glue gun and rigged up something better.  We were able to place them in a more prominent position - another thing to help us remember!

So today, day 1, we will share the JOY of Jesus by being thankful for the many presents we received.  We are going to take some time out of our day to write thank you cards to our friends and families.
I hope you will look for ways to continue sharing the JOY and LOVE Jesus brings at Christmas, into the New Year!