Holidays

Our Favorite Christmas Books

December 1, 2019 by mamakay 1 Comment

All through the year our family tries to gather together after dinner to read together. We can’t manage it every night but we come back to it time and time again. There is something special about a shared experience reading a book together and it is so simple to make it happen.

Here is a list of our favorite Christmas books with links to Amazon in case you want to add them to your collection too. (I receive a small commission if you buy through my link. Thanks for your support!)

For our Advent readings our 2 favorite books are:

Our favorite chapter books for reading aloud as a family are:

Our Favorite Picture Christmas Books:

These are wonderful for young children but you might be surprised how much you and your older children will enjoy these beautiful books.

And here is a link to here James Earl Jones read The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Tommey to you. It is the best!

http://www.candlewick.com/Toomey/

I am not a crafty person but I sure love a good book to read as a family. What are your favorite Christmas books?

MamaKay

* This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links it costs you nothing and it helps to support this site.

Messianic Passover Seder Dinner

April 13, 2019 by mamakay Leave a Comment

Many, many years ago some friends of ours introduced us to celebrating a passover seder dinner. We have celebrated it every year since. Although the Jewish observance of Passover doesn’t always line up with Easter, we always celebrate it during Holy Week. As Christians we celebrate the Lord’s Supper frequently as a reminder of Jesus’s sacrifice and his last night. A Passover Seder dinner is the full version of what Jesus would have partaken of on that last night of his life.

I found Celebrating Biblical Feasts by Martha Zimmerman to be a great resource. We use her Messianic Haggadah every year. It is a very good version for doing as a family and isn’t quite as long as a traditional haggadah. You can download a copy of it here

Seder dinner is an interactive reading with foods representing different parts of the story. Everyone has a copy of a haggadah that they read from. Some parts the leader reads, some parts are responses read by the rest of the family. Even the smallest child gets a part. I recommend reading through it ahead of time so you will be prepared. The whole reading and dinner takes about an hour and a half. Make sure to have your dinner all prepped and ready to go. The meal is served about 45 minutes into the ceremony.

What you need for the Ceremony:

Place settings for the number of people you have invited plus one more for Elijah
A copy of the Haggadah for each person
A jacket to put on the back of the chair for each person
A pillow on for the seat of the leader
At least two white cloth napkins for covering the afikomen (we use Matzo crackers)
Two candles on the table (lighting them will be included in the ceremony)
A pitcher, bowl and towel are also needed for the hand washing ceremonies.
A small bowl of salt water for each person
Plenty of Wine or Grape Juice

We have found that by practicing Passover we can pause as a family to appreciate the salvation we have received through Jesus. It shows God’s plan all through history to provide a sacrifice once and for all through his Son. So many times in our culture holidays turn into another reason to stuff ourselves with sweets and be greedy. This holiday slows everything down and helps us to focus on what really matters. I hope that it can be a blessing for your family as well.

We who are Christians can rejoice as we keep the Passover in remembrance of our own slavery to sin. We know that with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm the Lord our God rescued us. So that is why, even though we might all be wise, learned, full of experience and understanding, knowing God’s Word well, it is still our responsibility to tell the story of the going out from Egypt and to praise the Lord.
Celebrating Biblical Feasts

It’s that time of year…when we try so hard not to lose our minds

December 18, 2018 by mamakay Leave a Comment

Have you heard the song, The Christmas Can-Can by Straight No Chaser? I think it pretty well describes our culture these days leading up to Christmas.

What is Christmas all about? Is it about presents and food and running around like crazy? There are so many concerts, programs, rehersals, parties and extra events. And each event requires us to bring food and presents. It seems like the calendar fills up so quickly. And all of these things are added to the all of the things that make up our normal lives. The result is tired and cranky kids and mamas.

How can we do this different? How can we give ourselves space during this season? Are there things we can do to alleviate some of the stress that is bound to come our way this time of year?

I would like to propose that you carve a little time out of each of the next 7 days to do something that makes you feel like yourself. That could be making some comforting food, reading a book, going for a walk, really listening to your favorite music while you just sit down for a few minutes.

Our families need us to be our best selves during this season. I want to be able to connect and serve with a loving spirit and not an angry, stressed out heart. How about you? Let’s take a moment to rest and recharge. 15 minutes can make all of the difference!

What makes you feel most like yourself? I’d love to know!

Advent 2017

December 14, 2017 by mamakay Leave a Comment

I am soaking in and thoroughly embracing advent this year and I am finishing this post even though I wanted to publish it 2 weeks ago. Life has this funny way of going in ways that we didn’t anticipate and throw 10 people into one house and everyone’s ideas of what needs to be done make for different timelines.

I hope and pray that you are taking time this season to settle your heart and make room for Jesus. Maybe these ideas can help you this year or you can tuck them away for next year but know without a doubt that it is NEVER too late to look for meaning and to find Jesus as we approach Christmas.

~~~~~

The word “advent” comes from the Latin word “adventus” which means coming or arrival. When we celebrate advent we are preparing our hearts and minds to celebrate not only Christ’s first arrival but to prepare ourselves in anticipation of his second coming. Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. This year Advent started on Sunday, December 3.

Advent Celebrations vary from family to family. Most commonly they include reading of selected passages from the Bible, the singing of Christmas carols, prayer and an Advent Wreath with 5 candles (3 purple, 1 rose and 1 white one or 4 white ones with 1 red one in the middle). Each candle represents an important part of Jesus’ story leading up to his birth. The scriptures focus on that theme for the week. The first purple candle is for prophecy. The second purple candle is for Bethlehem. The third candle is pink and represents the shepherds and God’s love. The fourth candle is purple and represents the angels. Then, finally, the white candle is lit on Christmas Eve and represents Christ.

Another tradition that we have adopted is the Jesse Tree. I first heard of it on Ann Voskamp’s blog and now she has a lovely book about it called The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas. We use this children’s book, The Jesse Tree to follow the Bible story from Creation through Jesus’ birth and hang corresponding ornaments on our Christmas tree as we read each story. The idea comes from Isaiah 11:1 “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.” This passage is referring to Jesus coming from the line of Jesse. It is such a wonderful way to show God’s plan all along for the salvation of mankind.

We try to “do Advent” every evening after dinner but life is busy this time of year so it doesn’t always happen. Usually on the weekend we will take extra time and catch up on our readings. Some years are better than others but each year we strive to do our best and it is now a firm part of our family tradition and believe God blesses our efforts to focus more on him and less on the materialism and craziness of the season.

During our school day we are working through Cindy Rollins’ book Hallelujah: A Journey through Advent with Handel’s Messiah. It includes scripture reading, guided listening to Handel’s Messiah, carols, poems and verses to memorize. It has made our group time so easy to pull together. We are also reading (& coloring) Through Ann Voskamp’s beautifully illustrated book, Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: A Family Celebration of Christmas. Her website has a free link to coloring pages I downloaded for the kids to color as they listen.

For read alouds we are reading Tabitha’s Travels this year as well as a few other books such as The Best Christmas Pageant Ever! and lots of picture books like The Story of Holly & Ivy, An Orange for Frankie, The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, The Legend of the Candy Cane, The Crippled Lamb, Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Christmas in the Barn.

I pray this Christmas season will find you curled up with your children reading good books that will draw you closer to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas,

MamaKay

Thanksgiving

November 21, 2017 by mamakay 1 Comment

It’s the week of Thanksgiving! One of my favorite times of the year. It feels like each year the world wants us to rush past this week. Halloween gives way straight to Christmas. But I find myself wanting to hold back the rush and just savor this week. To me it is a time of reflection of the blessings God has bestowed on me. It is a time to gather family together and enjoy good food and good conversations. To connect. To be present. No need to rush around. Just time to engage right where we are. Yes there is lots of cooking to do but we can do it together and sing and talk as we go along. We keep the menu the same every year. We know what to expect and we know it will all turn out okay.

I have been pondering the question, “Do you consider yourself a grateful person?”

I want the answer to be “yes!” But is it true? Am I grateful for this life that I am living filled with complexity and uncertainty and pain? Can I find the blessings that come through all of this? I am trying to. My relationship with God has grown so much the past two years! And really isn’t that what is most important? I’m learning to connect with others on a much deeper level and I am starting to find the beginnings of community that I have been longing for.

I have returned to my Gratitude Journal and am determining to write in it each night before going to bed. I thought I would look back over the 1000 Gifts challenge that I documented here over the years and am floored by the fact that its been 11 years since I began working on this from Ann Voskamp’s challenge. Here is a link to my first post on it!

I encourage you to hit pause on the anticipation of Christmas and all the lists of things that need to be done to prepare for it. There will be time enough. For now reflect on God’s blessings and those around you and love them well.

Resources for Thanksgiving:

We put up our Thanksgiving Tree and have been adding leaves to it.

Here is a link to our traditional Thanksgiving feast.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Psalms 100:4

MamaKay

Observing Lent

March 1, 2017 by mamakay Leave a Comment

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
    remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
  learn to do good;
seek justice,
    correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
    plead the widow’s cause.

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.

Isaiah 1:16-18

I did not grow up in a church that observed Lent or really any holidays. We did celebrate Christmas and Easter as a family but without any connections to any religious significance. As my husband and I began building our family we recognized the helpfulness of establishing traditions that draw our family to the Lord. My husband has proclaimed that we are Protestant Catholic Jews! Above all we seek to draw near to God and enjoy using as many ways as we can to do so.

Some friends invited us to a Passover Seder dinner and the depth of meaning it held for us was so significant that we immediately added it to our family’s traditions. I was then introduced to the idea of Advent was our first entrance into a liturgical practice. It blessed us in so many ways as we took our focus off of gifts and turned our hearts towards embracing Christ’s coming.

A few years ago we began observing Lent. For us it is a time to really focus on our need for our Savior. We attempt (and fail miserably) to fast from certain things turning the 40 days leading up to Easter and we try to add something that will draw us closer to God and/or bless other people. (We were very confused as to why Lent was supposed to be 40 days and yet turns out to be 46 days, evidently Sundays don’t count as fasting days!) I believe that God wants to teach us so many things and that opening ourselves intentionally during this season allows that to happen on a consistent basis.

We don’t force anyone in our family to sacrifice anything but discuss it and share ideas. It is not about legalism. However, it certainly points out our sin and inability to be good on our own and how we all need grace so desperately. In past years we have given up sugar, coffee, Facebook, candy, and complaining just to name a few. This year, I am giving up hitting the snooze button so that I can have time with God first thing in the morning with hopefully fewer interruptions.

I was so excited preparing for Lent this year that I bought two different helps. One is Put On Love Prayer Journal by Elizabeth Foss and the other is You Are Mine: A Study of Isaiah by She Reads Truth. They are both wonderful resources and I would highly recommend either (or both) of them!

I pray that you will draw near to Christ during this season and that we will all see our need for Him everyday and rejoice that has He has already paid the price for our sin and God sees us as white as snow!