Monday, December 6, 2010

Thankfulness Challenge: Week 4

I am in the 4th part of the Thankfulness Challenge from Brittany @ The High-Heeled Housewife Blog. She challenged us to examine and work on our thankfulness in 6 areas for 6 six weeks (every Monday.) WEEK FOUR: BEING THANKFUL FOR/DURING THE HOLIDAYS!
My favorite part of the holiday season is finding ways to enjoy the "American" Christmas while teaching my children WHY Christmas is important, WHAT makes it special, and the IMPORTANT parts of it. Because really ~ I love all of it! I am over the top for Christmas. I love the songs, the bright colors, the tree, Children's Christmas books, nativities (from around the world and different types), sweaters and scarves, dreaming of snow, hot chocolate, shopping at 4:00 in the morning, picking out gifts, secrets, presents wrapped by the tree, decorating cookies, O HOLY NIGHT, The Grinch movie, extended family gatherings, getting Christmas cards, the food, and Christmas morning with my 4 wonderful men. I love the whole thing.
**What I am intentionally teaching my children:

~ What is the real reason for Christmas?
~ What was God's greatest gift? *I will try to record Gabe telling this, so sweet.*

~ Practicing narrating the Christmas story with our Little People Nativity (GREAT for little ones!)
~ Teaching my munchkins carols
~ Reading Christmas books like crazy

###Our fave holiday picks right now are (for a 2, 2, and 4 yr old boys): Santa's Toy Shop, The NutQUACKer, Clifford's First Christmas, Merry Christmas Mom and Dad (Little Critter), 5 little Penguins Slipping on the Ice, Rudolf Shines Again, Auntie Claus, Carl's Christmas and The Mitten.

I would REALLY, SINCERELY appreciate a comment on what and how you teach godly concepts of Christmas to your children OR even what you plan to teach your children someday in the future concerning God and Christmas.

1 comment:

Heidi said...

Karen,

I really enjoy Christmas too - especially now that I can read all of the fun Christmas books to Oliver! He is LOVING Elmo's 12 Days of Christmas (even though he doesn't watch any TV and really doesn't know who Elmo is)! Of course, I have to sing the entire book! :-)

I have a few books on the true story of the nativity that are meant for children, but interestingly, Oliver isn't drawn to them and has a hard time sitting through them. (And he LOVES reading and storytime). I think many of the pictures are done in muted tones and the characters are sketches as opposed to proper pictures - have you noticed that?

Anyhow, we want to teach him about the "true" Santa Claus. And, he is really enjoying this book: http://www.amazon.com/Saint-Nicholas-Story-Christmas-Legend/dp/0758603762 I'm not sure why he's drawn to it so much, but it's a nice little book. Today, he even chose it over Clifford's First Christmas (which I also really love)!

I'm going to have to check out some of the other books you've mentioned!

I'm enjoying reading this series on your blog!