sweetmummy's blog

WEIRD Christmas? - Christmas Series

2008-11-30T21:40:51-06:00

Looking for something different this holiday season? Wanting to get down to business about Christmas instead of all the fluff? Expecting some fun, too?

Well, you're in the right place!

We do Christmas quite differently at our house, we focus on the real meaning of Christmas, and we have a blast for a whole month of celebrations!!!

I've shared our Christmas traditions before, and wanted to highlight the series that I wrote last year. I'll likely write more about it this year, but all the basics are included in the Christmas-time at Our House series. It's definitely not your NORMAL Christmas at our house!

Titles in the Christmas-time at Our House series:

part 1 - A Different Kind of Christmas

part 2 - A Christmas Tree with Purpose

part 3 - What Does Santa Say about Jesus?

part 4 - What Do You Do with Santa?

part 5 - Santa Lucia Day

part 6 - First, there was a Cow - A Progressive Nativity

part 7 - Who's Birthday Is It, Anyway?

part 8 - Fun Advent Family Devotions

part 9 - Reason for the Season Devotions

part 10 - Wise Men Still Seek Him - Epiphany Celebration

If you'd like specific information on any of these, leave me a comment here, or on the individual post, and I'll be glad to share some more about our festivities!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

A Perfect IN for Identity Theft...

2008-11-29T13:09:09-06:00

None of this is my real information. I saw this the other day and thought it was really cute... at first.

1. Your SPY name (middle name and current street name): Sweet Tulip

2. Your MOVIE STAR name (grandmother on your dad's side and your favourite candy): Jane Aero

3. Your RAP name (first initial of first name and first three or four letters of your last name): B-Mum

4. Your GAMER TAG (a favourite colour, a favourite animal): Purple Unicorn

5. Your SOAP OPERA name (middle name, and city you were born in): Sweet Kalamazoo

6. Your STAR WARS name (first three letters of
your last name, last three letters of mother's maiden name, first three
letters of your pet's name): Mummaifid

7. Your JEDI name (middle name spelled backwards, your mom's maiden name spelled backwards): Teews Nediam

8. Your ROCK STAR name (first pet's name, the street you grew up on): Candy Clearbrook

9. Your SUPERHERO name: ("The", your favourite colour and the automobile your dad drives): The Purple Ram

10. Your ACTION HERO name (first name of the main character in the last film you watched, last food you ate): Jack Cupcake

Those names are pretty funny - they were even funnier when I used my REAL information.

Even if you don't know me, these are the things you can now figure out about me from this list:

First Initial: B

Middle Name: Sweet

First 3 letters of last name: Mum

Mother's maiden name: Maiden

Paternal grandmother's first name: Jane

Mother's maiden name: Maiden

Current Street: Tulip

City born in: Kalamazoo

Pet's name (first 3 letters): Fid

First pet's name: Candy

The street I grew up on: Clearbrook

My favorite color: purple

My favorite candy: Aero

One of my favorite animals: unicorn

The vehicle my dad drives: a (Dodge) Ram

Those look like the answers to the security questions I have on many of my bank and credit card accounts (and other places...).

Don't forget your Pastor this Christmas

2007-12-25T00:44:43-06:00

"Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you." Hebrews 13:7a

Pastors work pretty hard this time of year. Special services, extra services, special events, extra events... there's lots to do. They have to come up with a way to tell the same story, the Christmas story, that is new and different EVERY year. They prepare 1, 2 or 3 extra sermons or messages for the season.

Lots of churches have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services. Did you know that in the 4 hours from 8am to 12pm that a minister spends at church for a regular Sunday church service they do the equivalent of 8-10 hours of work? How much more energy and effort goes into special holiday services. So while you enjoy your day off with your family celebrating Christmas together, your preacher often has to scramble his schedule just to have any energy left over for his family.

[note - I usually say 'he' but I am fully aware that there are also women pastors out there. I am addressing both genders here...]

I AM biased, obviously, being a pastor's wife and all. But I don't say this just for our family. I want you to take the time this Christmas to let your pastor and his family know how much you care about them and the work they do for you.

Fun Advent Family Devotions

2007-12-25T00:40:51-06:00

Christmas-time at our House: part 8

Some people hear 'family devotions' and say to themselves "B-O-R-ing". And trying to keep up with a devotion a day during one of the busiest times of the year might just be pushing the limits of sanity for some families.

In our house we've tried several different things, in the effort of keeping our focus on Christ's birth during the holiday season. We have had varying degrees of success. I think we've got one that works pretty well now, finally.

We tried the Advent Wreath. I couldn't afford one of those fancy wreaths with the candle holders in them already, so I had to make my own. It worked, usually, though sometimes the candles wanted to lean and drip their wax everywhere. When we had church on Sunday, it wasn't too hard to remember. We'd come home from church, and at our lunch meal we'd read a devotion I had found somewhere and light our candles. It got tricky when we moved to Saturday night church because the candle lighting didn't ever happen on Saturday night, and we'd forget on Sunday. When you miss even one week it feels like there isn't much use in continuing - there are only 5 candles (we always did 5, some people do 4). The candles just don't look right, anyway, when 2 are burned the same amount ('cuz you forgot one week) and the others are the correct heights.

Who's Birthday Is It, Anyway?

2007-12-25T00:36:34-06:00

Christmas-time at our House: part 7

Only 2 sleeps until Christmas Day. My kids are terribly excited!

We already started talking about how we're going to decorate - streamers, balloons, a nice party table cloth. The menu for the day is pretty standard (we do the same thing each year), and we still need to get more hot dogs and probably some hamburger buns before then.

Of course, the whole day is a big party at our house. It is the birthday of the most important person in history, afterall.

Christmas is the day we celebrate the anniversary of Jesus' birth - Jesus' birthday! In 2007, Jesus turns infinity +1 years old.

First, there was a Cow - a Progressive Nativity

2007-12-15T15:32:58-06:00

Christmas-time at our House: part 6

We have a few Nativity Scenes around our house: one was made in Indonesia (Papua I think) from a coconut shell -my sweetie brought it back from a trip overseas a few years ago; one we bought in Skagway Alaska this summer that has the holy family in an igloo; one is a music box that my mom gave me years ago; another is an ornament that my grandma gave us for our first Christmas married - it is a musical ornament and it has a lovely sound.

We also have lots of other nativity ornaments on our tree. It's covered with them!

Then, we have THE Nativity.

The 'official' Nativity Scene in our house

Pretty exciting, eh?

Well, that is what our Nativity looks like right now. After all, isn't that how the Christmas story starts? In a stable with animals and hay and such?

We do a Progressive Nativity at our house. That means that we start with just the cow and the stable and we add pieces to it as the season goes along. The way we add the pieces helps us to tell the story of Christ's birth.

Santa Lucia Day

2007-12-15T15:21:32-06:00

Christmas-time at our House: part 5

My alarm went off at 6:00am this morning. I rolled out of bed, grabbed my robe, and headed for the kitchen. I was on a mission, and time was a-ticking.

Today, December 13th, is Santa Lucia Day (St. Lucia Day, St. Lucy's Day, etc.). My daughter has the privilege of participating in a special celebration of this day every year. I needed to get a head start on a few things in order for the fun to work best.

So, once I got to the kitchen, I began working on some things for breakfast. I would get them started and then get my daughter up to help at a point where she really could help. Muffins, cut fruit, juice, hot chocolate... looks good.

While the muffins baked I got my daughter up (at around 6:30) and helped her to dress in the whitest, brightest clothes she has.

We got to the kitchen and gathered some small special plates, 2 serving trays, candles, and the lighted wreath crown we needed for our mission. We got everything laid out on the trays just about the time the muffins were done and it was time for the boys to get up. My daughter donned her crown and hid around the corner.

What do you do with Santa?

2007-12-15T15:13:57-06:00

subtitle: Christmas-time at our house - part 4

This is the 4th installment in my Christmas-time at our House series.

In my last post, I started talking about Santa, and why a Christian family might want to get away from the hype of the season and focus on the HIM of the season. For most of us, Santa Claus is part of our Christmas traditions, and has been for generations. We don't have lots of examples of what could be done instead.

In our respective families, my husband and I had different experiences with Christmas and specifically with Santa.

My grandma would take all of us cousins to have Breakfast with Santa every year at the BIG MALL, and then we'd watch a holiday movie together in the theatre. It was so much fun.

Then, of course, there was Papa greeting us on Christmas morning (he had to get there REALLY early because we were always up before the crack of dawn). My sister found out the hard way (from her friends) that Papa was NOT Santa Claus!

So after my sister and I were told all about "Santa", we always knew that our gifts labelled "From: Santa" were from Mom and Dad. Even though we knew they were really giving us the gifts, we always still had a present from Santa - usually the biggest of all the gifts, our PRIZED PRESENT, as a surprise on Christmas morning!

In my sweetie's family, at least since I've been a part of it, "Santa" was almost always Dad, and he deposited special, fun gifts into the stockings for Christmas morning. When he and his sister were younger, my sweetie would just receive a present from Santa under the tree. This was often an unwrapped present, waiting as a special surprise. Everyone had Santa gifts, but it wasn't the focus of the gift giving.

As Christians, they wanted to try to steer things toward the real meaning of Christmas. Christmas Eve was not characterized by the 'hurry and get in bed before Santa comes' excitement. Instead, as a family they went to church in the evening and celebrated the sacrament of Communion together, around one table, all at the same time. That helped to set the tone and turn their hearts and minds toward Christ's birth as the reason for the season.

What does Santa say about Jesus?

2007-12-15T15:06:43-06:00

subtitle: Christmas-time at our house - part 3

This is the 3rd installment in my Christmas-time at our House series. We do holiday things differently around our house. After all, it IS my house and I'm OK with being weird. Is it any surprise, then, that "Santa" gets special treatment at our house? It's true. But it might not be quite what you think it is.

What do YOU do with Santa Claus? What do you think about him? Do you think about him at all, or do you just do the Santa thing because it's what has always been done and everyone around you is doing it? Santa is the fun part of Christmas, right?

So how do you (we) respect the magnitude of influence that this jolly old elf has on the Christmas season, while still focusing on the REAL reason for the season - Christ's birth? It's tough to do both, but it can be done, I think, if you are intentional about how you deal with all the hype, rather than the hype dictating to you what should be done.

A Christmas Tree with Purpose

2007-12-09T22:43:43-06:00

Alternate Title: "How to purposefully decorate your Christmas Tree".

subtitle: Christmas-time at our House: part 2

This is the 2nd installment in my Christmas-time at our House series. We do holiday things differently around our house. After all, it IS my house and I'm OK with being weird.

The weekend of U.S. Thanksgiving, usually on Sunday afternoon, my family has always put up the Christmas tree. Since we're all allergic to real trees, we could make this work with our lovely ~~fake~~ imitation Christmas tree. (I don't guess you can do that with a REAL tree, eh? Fire hazard and all...)

What does a Christmas tree have to do with Christmas anyway? Martha Zimmerman talks about the origin of the Christmas Tree in her book, Celebrating the Christian Year. I won't go into detail about all the tree stuff. It basically has very little to do with Christ's birth at all, but it has been very much a part of the Christmas tradition since Victorian times at least.

We've talked about it, my husband and I, and we can't find a real good reason to get rid of the Christmas tree altogether. But we have decided to be very intentional with the decorations that we put on the tree. What is on the tree should remind us about the real reason for the season - Christ's Birth.

"Put something where you can see it so your eye will remind your heart." ~Hebrew Proverb (I have probably already mentioned this proverb, and I'll probably say mention it again in this series. It is an important principle in the things we do during the holidays. My husband even preached about icons last night with the same idea in mind.) We try not to over-spiritualize things, but we are pretty intentional about what we do use.

Christmas-time at our House: part 1

2007-12-04T00:45:16-06:00

Many families (especially Christian families) find it difficult to balance the celebrations of Christmas-time, wanting to focus on Christ's birth but having so many influences from Santa and other traditions. Young married couples, celebrating their first Christmases together, also find it difficult to meld traditions from 2 family backgrounds to make their own new family traditions that are meaningful and that work for both of them. How do we truly celebrate the REAL reason for the season, while not leaving out all the fun stuff that we've all come to love and enjoy? How do we include things that are appropriate for the season and not completely discount the things that have been meaningful to us in our families growing up?

It is nearly too late to begin this since the season is already officially underway. I'm still going to give it a shot, though! This post is the first in a series (I'm not sure how many there will be in the series yet) about how we celebrate Christmas in our house and why we've chosen to do (or not do) the things we do (or don't do). We're not experts, but we have been very intentional about what we do around the holidays. I am not saying that these things are suitable for every family, because we're all different. I am also not saying that the way you do things (if what you do is different from what we've chosen to do) is wrong. I love how we celebrate the holidays and I thought I would share about it.

Christmas at our house looks VERY different and we have a whole lot of fun. I guess I could say that we're almost "anti-Christmas" in terms of what the world thinks about the holiday - Santa and excessive gift giving and that kind of stuff. But we relish the opportunity to teach our kids about Christ's birth and the magnitude of this miracle.

While we were in seminary, my sweetie and I lived over 2000 miles away from family. We also started our family while we were there. Our little girl would have been 6 months old when she celebrated her first Christmas and we celebrated our 2nd Christmas away from 'home'. So, we began to think about what we wanted Christmas to look like in our house. We wanted to do something about Santa and down-play the materialism that the season has encouraged. We had ideas about how to do that, which included (already) limiting our Christmas spending and becoming very deliberate about what kinds of ornaments we put on our Christmas tree (more about that later). We were well on our way to establishing our own traditions, and it felt good. So what if we were a little weird? It's OK to be WEIRD, right?

My feed-reader runneth over

2007-12-01T16:45:01-06:00

AACK!

How is it that in just a few days one can amass 354 unread new feeds in Bloglines? I guess it could happen in any feed-reader, really. I haven't been keeping up with all my favorite blog because I have been busy - flowers and bedroom stuff come to mind. So I sit down today to catch up a bit and there were seriously 354 NEW posts since I had been there last (which I think was Tuesday).

I think I have a few too many blogs to keep track of.

How do you do it? How do you decide who to follow and who to let fall off your blogroll? Every blog I am subscribed to has had at least one cool thing that I enjoyed or valued. There is a lot of good stuff out there, but I have a life in the real world, not just in the blogosphere. There isn't time to keep up with it all. Add to that e-mails and Facebook... SO much stay connected with! How do you decide? I would seriously like to know.

I'm very tired today. It's been a busy few weeks and it's a cloudy day. Even though I could just sit here and read all afternoon, I don't have the mental space for all the stuff in my feed-reader. I'm just not going to get to all 300+ new posts - there's no way. So I'm having to pick which ones to just overlook. It's not an easy choice.

SO, if I usually come to your place/blog/website and you don't see me responding to the last few of your posts, you'll know why.

I have to draw a line somewhere. I can be very indecisive, so this can be very hard, but I am choosing to release the posts and let go of my guilt for not reading all of them. PHEW! That's not easy. It might even sound silly, but I know there are some of you out there who know exactly what I mean. Tell me about it - I'd love to know how you prioritize your blog reading / web time.

"Who's chatting with me?" (To borrow a line from my friend Karen)

Please comment on my regular blog, It's OK to be WEIRD!. I don't often think to check comments here on BlogHer, but I LOVE to chat wit my readers. THANKS!

Stop - Listen - Pray

2007-11-24T21:39:11-06:00

All over my house today I have little sticky notes that look like this:

I'm doing all I can to be more aware of the Lord's presence in my every day activities. I've got to do something because it doesn't come naturally to me. I need to practice and be more mindful of the Spirit. These little notes remind me to stop what I'm doing or thinking, listen for His voice, and pray in and for all things. I really want to talk to Him more, to discern and learn the sound of His voice, and to include Him more in my day-to-day life. I believe St. Francis of Assisi called it "practicing the Presence".

BUT these little sticky notes also remind me to stop my busy-ness, listen to my children, and pray for them while I'm dealing with them. This is a little like Karen's Irritable Mother Survival Guide.

Inspired by Veggie Tales

2007-11-24T21:34:00-06:00

Laura the Carrot sings a song at the beginning of the Veggie Tales video called "Rack, Shack and Benny". She is greeted by the gate-keeper, George, and she can't talk to him because she's got so much to get done in her day. So she sings this song:

Laura Carrot:
Good morning, George. How are you?
I hope you're feeling fine!
I'd love to stay and talk but it's almost eight o' clock
and I haven't got the time!!

Because we work real hard at the Chocolate factory
We start at eight and we don't get lunch 'till three
I've gotta drive a truck
To make a buck
So I can send it home to my family!!

Laura speeds off in her little milk truck to go about the jobs needing to be done.

As strange as it sounds, I often think of this song when I first sit down to spend time with the Lord each morning. I think it's because I say, "Good Morning, Lord! How are you?"

Sitting down a few days ago, I thought of a new version, kind of based on where I was at, and what I've been sensing in those around me:

Robinsons and Ratatouille

2007-11-11T22:31:29-06:00

The cool of fall has set in, and around here that means darker shorter days. Our outside activities are almost all completed. So we are indoors more now.

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven
(Ecclesiastes 3:1)

We don't normally watch a lot of videos, but between healing for myself and now a houseful of sick people (kiddos and mom-in-love) we have picked up a few movies to watch recently.

Last Sunday we watched Meet the Robinsons. Today we watched Ratatouille.

The first time my husband and I saw Meet the Robinsons we were chaperones with our youth group to go to a big drive-in-movie double-feature where we saw “Meet the Robinsons” and “Pirates of the Carribean 3: Dead Man's Chest″. (YES, it was in the summer which meant #1) that we all sat in lawn chairs in FRONT of the cars with boom boxes on the hoods of the cars, and #2) the movies didn't start until it was dark and that was VERY late,so we didn't get home until 3:30am. We really went to see Pirates, but we had to be there for the Robinsons so we thought we could 'endure' the animated flick to get to 'the good stuff'. HA! How surprised we were to enjoy a fantastic Disney/Pixar movie! It might have been the better of the 2 movies, actually!

After seeing the Robinsons we knew we’d just have to buy the DVD, which we finally did last week. We enjoyed the movie and felt like it would be a good one to own and watch with our kids. So last Sunday we all watched it together as a family. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that movie! It's a great family film with a great message.