If you don't feel like being disturbed in the midst of your quiet Christmas vacation, you might skip over this post
I didn't want to spoil your Christmas, so I waited until afterwards to post this.
As most of you know, I'm what you could call a "political junkie." However, since there are a lot bigger issues in the world than who you are voting for, I try not to delve into politics much around here. But every once in a blue moon, I just can't hold back. And this video did it for me:From Hot Air:
My jaw dropped when I watched this one the first time. Hillary's Christmas ad says nothing at all about Christmas. The gifts make the connection, of course, but check out what the gifts are: universal health care, bring the troops home, etc. All of the gifts are funded in one way or another with your money. And she's portraying herself as a thoughtful gift-giver by taking your money and giving it back to you in the form of expensive government programs, some or all of which you might not actually want or need. If that doesn't typify liberal thinking, I don't know what does.
This whole ad was just over the top, but the clincher for me was the Universal Pre-K. At the rate we're going, it seems the government is soon going to be dictating the parenting of newborns or just trying to completely take over parenting altogether from birth onwards.
Sorry, Hillary, but I don't want anymore government programs. I'd rather keep my hard-earned money and take personal responsibility for my actions, including the parenting of my own children. Thankyouverymuch.
Merry Christmas and some other random notes (because brevity is not my forte!)
I'll be taking a blog hiatus until at least the end of next week.
We're looking forward to taking a short break from normal life and will be traveling and spending time with family and friends. I'm especially excited this year as my whole family is planning to be together for Christmas. It's been three years since that's been the case (my sister and her husband were living in Taiwan the last two years). We're all staying at my parent's house so it should be loads of fun as we're quite the lively bunch when we all get together!
Before I completely go on vacation mode, just a few notes:
A Huge Thank You! Thank you to the many, many people who have kindly donated to Lizzie and her family. She thanks you from the bottom of her heart. If you've not had a chance to buy her ebook or give a love gift, you can do so here. God bless you all for your generosity. A Few Notes of Business We are in the process of making some fairly major changes to our business for 2008. Don't worry, we're not going anywhere, we're just changing our business model and website around a bit. We are hopeful that these will be good changes which will allow us to serve you better and, more importantly, will allow me to have more time to focus on our home and family. We also have some exciting new developments for both of my blogs. Stay tuned!
Winners of the Elsie CDs One more thing, the winners of the Elsie CDs generated by Random.org were:
I look around and see homeless people and sick children and crooked politicians and hungry nations and angry young people and bitter old people...and I wonder why on earth Someone would leave Perfection for such a dirty old planet as this?
I know we needed a Savior, and desperately, but to choose to come? To enter humanity at its dirtiest--poor parents in a barn, of all places--to endure the hardest parts of being human with only the promise of the pain of ultimate sacrifice?
Maybe Christmas isn't easy after all. Maybe it's as gritty and earthy as the darkest moment on the cross.
But OH, is it ever beautiful. It's as beautiful as any Easter sunrise, as victorious as a heavy stone pushed away from a tomb.
In one glorious, cosmic, explosive moment, the God of our Universe leapt into our messed-up world. Victory wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Christmas music is playing on our stereo, my gifts are all wrapped, cookie, muffin, and bread mixes are all made, and I've almost found the bottom of the laundry pile. Hurrah!
The best part of all is that I really and truly enjoyed every moment of my short stint of Christmas preparations this morning. And I'm looking forward even more to this weekend when I can give the gifts to their recipients, spend special time with family, and reflect on the greatest gift ever given to man - Christ Jesus Himself. Though He wasn't born on December 25th or even close thereto (despite what some of the Christmas songs say!), I love this season of the year when we take extra time to reflect on the wonder of His birth.
I mentioned earlier that Jesse and I try to keep Christmas really simple around here. We don't want to buy into all the commercialized hype which has, sadly, become known as "Christmas" to most of the world. We've wrestled over celebrating Christmas at all, but have come to the conclusion that at this point in our lives, we want to redeem Christmas in our home for God's glory.
For this reason, we've chosen to focus extra time and energy during the month of December on giving to others. We've found such joy in coming up with creative, meaningful gifts for friends and family members, all the while sticking with the cash budgeted in our envelope designated for "gifts."
Most of all, we've enjoyed looking for opportunities to reach out to those in special need. We found a family who was very physically needy and were able to give them some boxes of food, essential household items, gift cards, and cash. We found out about another woman who was spiritually needy and were able to reach out and give her some things to, Lord-willing, help fill this void in her life.
There are so many, many people who are hurting and needy. Sure, we're not floating in wealth, but compared to these people who can't even afford basic necessities, we are very rich. And as God has blessed us, we want to bless others. We also want to teach out children that, "It is more blessed to give, than to receive." For after all, isn't that the real meaning of Christmas?
"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9
We keep things very simple in regards to how we celebrate Christmas here. One thing we have done this year with our girls - thanks completely to my mom - is to have a Blessing Box. This is something my mom put together for us back when I was a little girl and I fondly remember it!
My mom came up with 25 gifts that relate to some blessing we have been given from the Lord (such as winter gloves to remind us that we can use our hands to serve the Lord) or correlate to one of the attributes of Christ (such as a a small flashlight reminding us that Jesus is the Light of the World, or a small pearl bracelet to remind us that He is the Pearl of Great Price). She then wrote a small little devotional of sorts which would be at a two-year-old's level with a few verses and an explanation of the significance of the gift.
She typed up these devotionals and put one per day in envelopes numbered from 1 to 25. Then she wrapped up all the gifts and put a number sticker on each of them that corresponded with the little devotional for the day.
Every morning, Kathrynne gets to open up one present and then we read the devotional and talk about its meaning. Kathrynne has absolutely loved this and it's been a simple way to incorporate more Scripture into our everyday lives. It's also been a great way to have our focus on the Lord and His blessings in our life this season.
I'm grateful to have a mom who is so creative and thoughtful and always looking for ways to point her grand-daughters to the Lord. It's been such a blessing and worked so well for us.
Edit: Since some of you were asking, my mom sent me the file with all of the devotionals and corresponding little gifts listed. If you would like a copy to get some ideas from to do something similar in your own home, just email me.
My husband doesn't have internet access today so he can't get on my blog. Because of this, I knew I had to quick get on here and ask for your input:
What should I buy my hubby for Christmas?
We have a budget of $50 for each other. He knows my usual aptitude for finding great deals and stretching $50 a long way so I'm sure he's counting on me to come up with something really great. But I am completely waffling on this one...
I could get him clothes. He needs dress shirts and ties and it's a very practical gift. But it's also boring and I really don't feel like doing something so bland and normal.
He likes books and I have his book wish list on my computer so I could just buy off of there. But that also seems very unoriginal. I mean, I seem to always get him books or ties or shirts.
He really wants a GPS system, but that's a wee bit over the $50 budget. I am seriously considering just using some extra money I have from some freelance projects I've done this year and surprising him with it. But I also don't have a clue about electronics like this so I might very well end up with the wrong kind or something like that. What would you do? Would you stick to the budget and get some old standby gifts, or would you forget about the budget and surprise him with the GPS?
By the way, what are you buying for your husband? Any other brilliant ideas for me? Any suggestions on what kind of GPS I should get if I were to go that route? And anyone know where I could get a good price on one?
For those of you who don't frequent Money Saving Mom, I thought you might enjoy the post below which I'm cross-posting from there. By the way, I don't link over there very often, but if you like to save money (who doesn't?) or enjoy getting free stuff, or like discussions related to frugality, be sure to check in there every once in a while.
I've seen a whole lot of gift-buying guides around the blogosphere, but this one was classic - in more ways than one.
We're not big into toys for our girls, especially since they are both under three. We love our daughters, we sacrifice for them everyday, and we spend lots of time with them. But we've decided early on not to lavish them with gadgets and gizmos and heaps upon heaps of stuff.
So far, Kathrynne (almost 3) seems happy as can be without a boatload of toys. She enjoys her Legos and dolls, but more often than not, you'll find her happily engaged in writing, drawing, coloring, cutting, or looking at picture books. Her most favorite thing of all is to spend time working alongside me or playing with her younger sister.
I guess you could call me old-fashioned but I believe your presence is much more important than your presents. Making memories and spending time together with your children is more valuable than all the stuff money can buy.
So, for those of you frantically trying to come up with something to give to that little child in your life, I'm not saying you shouldn't give them toys, but remember that they might just as well enjoy a toilet paper tube, or a paper grocery bag, or a simple cardboard box.
------------- On a related note, I've been asked repeatedly recently to share on meaningful gifts and books I would recommend for young children. I've not had a chance to put together that post yet (maybe I still will get it done before Christmas!) but I'd love to hear from you all on this subject.
What ideas do you have for meaningful gifts for children? I'd also love to hear what meaningful things you are doing to celebrate the season at your home and to make Christ the center and focus of this season.
