Holidays in Hand

Holidays in Hand

I signed up for the free class, Holidays in Hand, with Jessica Sprague. It started on Monday and already I'm behind! Hahaha. The class is supposed to help us focus on the important things for the holidays which can really get lost amidst all the busyness of the season. That is what really drew me in. So far, we've gotten prompts and idea lists of things to do or make for the month of December. I've printed out up to day 20 before I ran out of cardstock to print on. I will need to buy some paper and black ink as I see that the printer is running low already.

Anyway, she encouraged us to write down our values/goals for the season. Maybe you'll find me posting here some of my thoughts in here. For now, here are my values/goals.

• family
• togetherness
• God-centered
  
• love
• warmth
• celebrating Jesus' birth
• Catholic traditions

For this Christmas season, I'd really like to do more meaningful Catholic activities with the kids. Instead of an Advent calendar, I am planning on doing a Jesse tree and in fact, incorporating this into our homeschool day. I'd really like for the children to understand the reason for the celebrations and why this day is different from all other days. ;)

That is my main focus. All the other craftiness and goodies will be done if I have time. Keeping my eyes on preparing for the coming of the child Jesus will help me weed out the important from the trivial, the essential from the non-essentials. In the end, I want our family to be ready to welcome the baby Jesus in our hearts. I desire that our family will shine like the stars that twinkled brightly on the night of our Saviour's birth.