Thankful Thursdays – The Real Christmas Story

 

A lot of times you hear about families reading Luke 2 from the Bible for Christmas; the story of Christ’s birth. But the story doesn’t stop there! I am Thankful today that Christ came to earth to die for the sins of mankind, more specifically for me!

 

When I was 12 I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. It was the best decision I ever made. God loved us so much that He sent his son, Jesus, to come to earth as a baby (Luke 2). He did this with the single purpose of dying on the cross of Calvary for our sins. This was a gift that Christ gave willingly to each one of us, all we need to do is accept it, just like a Christmas present.

I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas on this Thankful Thursday.

Accept Christ’s gift of salvation today and enjoy

“the real reason for the season!”

Christmas Traditions

There were a lot of things I wanted to share about how my family celebrates Christmas but I kind of let it sneak up on me. So for my last “Christmas Traditions” post for this year I’m just going to give a summary of what we do on Christmas Eve.

My Grandpa was born on Christmas Eve so my Grandma tries very hard to keep his birthday special but separate from Christmas celebrations. So, Christmas Eve dinner(supper, depending on where your from) is his birthday part of the day.

 

Grandpa blows out his candle (its a grave stone that says, “Over the Hill, too OLD to count!”) and opens his birthday presents. After cake is done and the dishes washed, only then does Christmas begin.

My Dad always tells Grandpa that he is the only man he knows older than Jesus!

 

My Grandparents give each of the un-married, grandkids “Christmas Clothes Money” to pick out a new Sunday outfit for Christmas. So once dinner is cleaned up we all go change into our Christmas clothes and take way too many pictures.

We’ve been doing this for a long time! When we were little they only lined us up by age, now its done by age and then height to see how we’ve changed and grown over the years.

 

This picture (taken in 1988) from left to right:

Robbie Shahan, Missy Shahan-Hutchins, Ben Heffernan, Stephen Shahan, Abby Heffernan-Townsend, Becky Shahan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The picture on the left is all of us in 2008 (the last year everyone was at Grandma’s for Christmas) lined up by age and the one on the right is us lined up by height. :)

 

This is just my family Right to Left: Dad, Mom, Robbie, Jessica,(sis-in-law) Matt, (bro-in-law) Missy, Stephen, Christina,(sis-in-law) Me, Austin(the only grandchild at the time, Missy was expecting Jonathan!)

 

 

This is my Mom’s sisters family Right to Left: Dale, Jody, Ben, Elizabeth,(Ben’s wife) Candace, Abby, Marcus

 

 

After all the pictures we have what my Grandma calls a candle light service. Christmas is so commercial and this is a good way to get your focus off of the presents and on thanking the Lord for what he’s done in our lives through the year. We always start with my grandpa (since he’s the oldest) and everyone shares what they are thankful for in the past year. This picture is of Austin, he was still pretty young when this was taken, but he said he was thankful for Mommy and Daddy :)

One year Grandma decided not to do our candle-light service anymore, she said she thought that none of the grandkids would miss it (and I’m sure it made a mess). The next year my oldest brother, Robbie, I think he was 16 at the time, came to her and said, “we’re doing a candle-light service aren’t we?” She immediately started breaking out the candles! I don’t think we’ve missed doing it since. Its always been my favorite part of Christmas.

Well that’s pretty much it for the Christmas Traditions I hope you’ve enjoyed a peek into our family and maybe you’ll use some of these idea’s with your own families.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Traditions – Christmas Stories and Baking

(You can’t actually look inside, I borrowed this picture from Amazon.com)

Who doesn’t enjoy Christmas cookies and peanut brittle? Mom usually spends all of one day doing all of her Christmas baking – I tend to burn cookies so she graciously allows me to decorate the cookies, its kind of hard to mess up frosting and sugar! During our day together of baking and decorating we listen to Christmas stories.

Several years ago Mom found a set of tapes called “Christmas In My Heart.” (I think they were recommended by Charles Dobson on Focus on the Family.) It is a reading of the book written by Joe Wheeler containing true Christmas stories. Here is a blip I found on Amazon about the book:

“The anthology is an attempt to rediscover the family values inherent in this Christ-centered holy day. Preceded by saccharine and superfluous introductions, the 16 selections range from the ubiquitous "Gift of the Magi" through works by respected writers such as Pearl Buck, Taylor Caldwell, and Madeleine L'Engle to lesser-known and anonymous authors. The stories range from the poignancy of a mother's periodic "Jubilee" vacation away from her family through a teary-eyed twist on a Christmas pageant to the trauma of a homeless, pregnant teenager seeking refuge at holiday time. In its own way, each portrays God's intervention during the dark times.”

They are heart warming Christmas Stories that makes us laugh and a lot of times cry. My favorite one to listen to is called “Red Mittens.” I’m not going to tell you the story or plot line, I am going to tell you to find these tapes and listen to them! They are very well done and some of the stories really help you get your heart in line for Christmas.

Two years ago Mom gave me all four sets of tapes for Christmas so when I start my family I’ll have my own set, (I think it was more so I wouldn’t have to borrow hers!)

Christmas Traditions

I’m going to have to say that Christmas is my favorite holiday. Don’t get me wrong I don’t listen to “Jingle Bells” year round, I defiantly like Christmas to come only after Thanksgiving is done. However, when the end of November comes I can not wait to decorate the house for Christmas.

Kenny and I have been talking about how our families celebrate Christmas so I decided to share a little about my family and the traditions we enjoy.

The first tradition I’d like to share is Decorating

 

Friday Evening: Kenny helped out by carrying our tree down from the attic and setting it up. The original tree stand broke a couple years ago and this is what my brother Stephen came up with as a new stand… Kenny thought it was red neck :S …you can’t see the stand once the tree skirt is around the bottom anyways.

 

Saturday: Mom and I spent just about all day cleaning and decorating the house for Christmas. Because this is my last Christmas living at home Mom told me that I could choose what I wanted to set out. Here are a few of my favorite Christmas items and why they’re my favorites.

 

Nothing puts me in the mood more for Christmas music than playing them under garland and lights. The manger scene next to the piano was made by my Grandpa for my mom when she was in high school.

 

 

 

 

 

I have always thought this set was cute :) its one of those things I loved putting out every year.

 

 These stockings started out as a joke from my Aunt to my Mom when her and Dad got married. The Big one on the right says “Hers” and the little striped one on the far left says “His.” You’ll notice that all the boys stockings are smaller than the girls too! I can't wait to get my own set started :)

 

 

Mom and I also put lights up outside in the front yard. Nothing too exciting but we had fun!

Sunday: Kenny and I invited the Pastors kids, Brock and Emily, to come over and help decorate his house for Christmas and play games.

 

 

 

 

 

Emily and I decorated the house and the tree while Kenny and Brock fixed lunch. I thought it was a fair trade :)

 

Cindy, the pastor’s wife, makes these pretty wreaths, I liked it so much Kenny bought one for me! So I put it up in his house. :)

 

 

 

 

Now don’t laugh! My parents let us borrow this Little Tree this year so I can buy one on sale after Christmas for next year.