The one holiday that we really decorate for in our home is the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus. What a joyful time preparing for the little Baby! Having the house adorned with lights and sparkle warms my heart to know that our family can honor Him in such a special way. Of course our little ones are excited to St. Nicholas, but they also see the true reason for our important preparations (in our homeschool we will really focus on Advent, preparing our hearts for the coming of our Lord)
It is a new beginning, being the start of our Holy Liturgical calendar.
We were all just laughing watching Savannah schlep all of these bells down from the attic. We kept joking with her to be quiet as she walked
We had Christmas music playing while we decorated! I just cannot describe how much fun we were having together. It is still early in the season, so there was no haste or anxiousness to get the decor up so we were able to just enjoy each other (our tree is 15ft tall and a true BEAST, so there would have been a lot of opportunity for frustration...there just wasn't any) WHAT A BLESSING!
The one gift that we can and are expected to give our children is their faith in our Lord. We have a great opportunity to do this during Advent...they love arranging the Nativity...and playing with the pieces and resetting it up
" Hanging the stockings on the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there"
Acting like he was wearing his stocking on his foot
Being funny pulling out the Easter bunny ears to wear during our Christmas decorating!!
Here is a pic of the tree right after we decorated it! It fills that room with warmth and wonder!
We have a 15 inch statue of Baby Jesus that we put out for Christmas time and Nick decided to cover Him up with his favorite blanket (his guggle) and put a toy into the crib as well. Of course our children know that this statue is not really (physically) Jesus, but it is a tangible representation of our Lord Jesus that they can see and express their love with. We teach the kids that it is like having a picture or special item that reminds you of your best friend. You would put it in a special place of honor in your room to show the importance of that person and to remind you of them whenever you look at it.
We love to surround ourselves with pictures of our loved ones or important happenings in our life. We have a lot of holy pictures of Jesus and the saints all through our home so that we along with our children and anyone who enters our home will be reminded of Christ and how He is at the center of our lives and of our home! I feel a closeness when seeing these holy and beautiful images of our Lord. I just thought "how beautiful Nick's faith is" when I saw the way he is trying to show his love for Jesus. How pleased our Lord is with him and how we ALL need to approach Christ as little children with such great fervor and innocence
My little Nick is so please with himself (his daddy and I are too)....Dear Lord, please keep him and all of our family close to You
My kids LOVE the Christmas village. They all want to move there.....me too
Here is our fireplace with the stockings and small trees on either side....garland to come later
Our Christmas tree all lit up. How grand of a welcoming for Baby Jesus
St. Nicholas on the table....more pics to come as we add more decore
