Celebrating CHRISTmas: Post #3 Decorating paper ornaments to His glory

Keeping Christ Central the Whole Season: Christmas Eve

We really get excited thinking about Christmas Day. Christmas Eve is a great time to redirect our excitement from all the things we will get (ouch!) back to the real gift- God with us, Jesus taking on flesh to save us from our sin.

One annual “must” for us is to celebrate with our church family at the children's service. There is something so special about setting apart certain times annually to gather together in special celebration of Jesus and Christmas Eve always has that feel. My favorite part has always been singing "Silent Night" in candlelight. I get tears just thinking of all of us singing "Christ the Savior is bo-orn." He IS born! Immanuel- "God with us" came from heaven to us. Beautiful. One funny memory for us will always be that Jimmy was a donkey in the play last year and continually turned around backwards to stare at himself on the big screen. Ha!

Once we’re home, we continue the anticipation of Jesus’ birth by prepping for His birthday party! We each write on paper ornaments some things we love about Jesus' character to post on a large paper tree that says “Jesus, we love that you… (examples of characteristic on an ornament- "always obeyed the Father", "forgive", "are God", "like me") It's so good to really remember who He is but also really fun to tangibly praise Him as a family through a fun craft! Next post I’ll share what we do with these on Christmas morning.



We end the night by reading the Luke 2 story out of Daddy’s bible as a family and then share His full life and death and resurrection that allow those who are His to have eternal life. We want to show that Jesus is THE gift to us at Christmas.  "The Lord Saves" came to save us from our sin!!!

Once the kids are asleep, Andy and I transform the dining room into a huge birthday party, wrap some stocking stuffer gifts, and hide them around the house. I’ll share what happens Christmas morning in the next post…

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