Jennifer Lambert

A Sacred Balance

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Do They Know it’s Christmas?

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How can we be a light in all the sadness?

The horror in the media lately.

Wars at home and abroad.

Parents dying suddenly, leaving babies alone in this world.

Hurting people hurting others.

Ungrateful children spew jealousy and meanness with slammed doors, shutting themselves and anger inside with all the love beating on the door, knock knock.

It’s supposed to be Christmas.

Do They Know it's Christmas

We read the blogs urging us to remember the less fortunate and make sure we remember what they need at this time of year. We shop the stores and have our credit card number saved on Amazon. We’re comfy cozy in our warm, safe homes with our candles and twinkling trees and Advent calendars and Bible devotionals.

We say grace over our sumptuous dinners and smile over our wineglasses.

While others across town have nothing to celebrate.

We seldom do anything that really matters.

It’s Christmastime; there’s no need to be afraid
At Christmastime, we let in light and we banish shade
And in our world of plenty we can spread a smile of joy
Throw your arms around the world at Christmastime
But say a prayer to pray for the other ones
At Christmastime
It’s hard, but when you’re having fun
There’s a world outside your window
And it’s a world of dread and fear
Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears
And the Christmas bells that ring there
Are the clanging chimes of doom
Well tonight thank God it’s them instead of you
And there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmastime
The greatest gift they’ll get this year is life
Oh, where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow
Do they know it’s Christmastime at all?
Here’s to you, raise a glass for ev’ryone
Here’s to them, underneath that burning sun
Do they know it’s Christmastime at all?
Feed the world

Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid

We may do some volunteer work or donate some unwanted stuff. We may do some good, but it’s just a teeny tiny droplet in a huge ocean of hate.

It’s time our works lined up with our proclamations of faith. It’s time we were broken and got down and dirty and did something for Jesus.

Do they know it’s Christmastime at all?

So, I just burst into poignant tears as statuses scrolled through my social media feed with engagement announcements and births of healthy babies and happy news.

My heart is sore with the weight of the world.

Thank God someone is having a nice time this week.

Life goes on. How can we make it a happy one?

  • Pray.
  • Read current events with the kids. Discuss.
  • Limit physical gifts so they’re appreciated and you can maintain gratefulness.
  • Volunteer to show your kids how the other half lives. Start somewhere.
  • For every gift, donate an item to make room for it.
  • Bless others with a song or a homemade craft or goodie.
  • Donate to a worthy cause.
  • Go on a mission trip this year.
  • Visit historical and cultural sites to learn about those who are different.

Please, say a special prayer for those who are hurting in the midst of the hustle and bustle this week.

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Missing Home at Christmas

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So, we moved to Germany in May. I prayed for a simpler life, a life back to basics.

And we’re mostly happy with the results. We’re focusing on what is important.

We’re simplifying and purging our hearts and home.

An Expat Christmas

What I don’t miss about America:

Malls.

I don’t miss any of the shopping. I am so glad I am not inundated with all the commercialism, except on social media. We have enough. We are learning to be content. We order online if we want anything that we can’t find in stores here.

Competition.

We don’t have anyone to impress. We don’t do Elf on the Shelf. We don’t host family or even friends (since we haven’t made any yet and we live in the boonies). We can create holidays and daily traditions that mean something to our family. We can focus on Christ and family and deal with issues that we have buried too long.

Rushing.

We don’t have to go anywhere, be anywhere. We have no responsibilities or events. It’s refreshing. Previous years we had loads of holiday church events, recitals, appointments. The kids actually miss it just a tiny bit, but I am a little relieved at the slower pace.

What I do sorta miss:

Lights.

Electricity is very expensive here. We used to like to drive around and look at decorations during the holidays. There’s not much of that here. The Christmas markets are really tourist targets and the weather isn’t very conducive to our walking around at night to look at Etsy vomit or Made-in-China garbage.

Mail.

It takes Amazon Prime a couple weeks for shipments to arrive to our APO. Our essential oils orders take about three weeks. Personally shipped items are arbitrary: an envelope could take a week and a box several weeks to arrive. And the base post office has weird hours for when I can retrieve parcels. Several items will probably not arrive on time due to lack of planning on my part.

Potatoes.

The taters here just aren’t the same. They’re sweet or something and not the same as Idaho potatoes. They’re great chopped and fried or roasted, but not so great baked and mashed. I never thought something like this would be missed so much.

I do enjoy seeing many festivities on social media of friends and family. It helps me to feel close to you, whether we’ve met IRL or not.

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Christmas Unit Study

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We like to slow down for the holiday, but the kids still love learning.

I use this time to make learning fun.

The kids are enjoying some fun Christmas themed school time this week.

I got the reindeer idea and Very Hungry Reindeer printables here, but it doesn’t look available anymore.

Very Hungry Reindeer

Counting ornaments and matching with the correct number on the stars. I got these over at Musings of Me, but I can’t find the direct link anymore. They’re super cute!

Counting ornaments

Matching capital letters with lowercase letters in puzzles. I’m pretty sure these puzzles are from 1+1+1=1 somewhere. Alex loves the letter mazes too!

Matching Letter Puzzles

The whole family enjoys the history behind The Twelve Days of Christmas and these are fun printables for Alex.

Throw some baby Jesus clipart on a page and it’s “Christmas math”! It’s amazing how excited the girls were to do these.
ChristmasMath.jpg

I printed Christmas tree outlines and the kids used rosemary, glitter glue, stickers, and sequins to decorate those.

I was pretty impressed with the tracing the outline with glitter glue.

sensory Christmas tree craft

Then we hunted elves. We hid the cards and the littles found them. Bubba circled the numbered elves on his page as he found them. Sisters had to practice writing where they found the cards. Download Elf Hunt printables here.

elf scavenger hunt

Elf hats help.

Elf

We love fun free Christmas printable activities!

Christmas Resources:

12 Days of Christmas Printables:

Check out my Christmas Pinterest board:

Follow Jennifer’s board Christmas on Pinterest. Christmas Notebooking Pages (FREE)
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Hard Candy Christmas

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Life is but a vapor.

I sit here with such a weight on my chest, reading about a father who died suddenly in his sleep the other night…and another family whose car rolled off a mountain road, killing the parents and sending the two children to ICU…and countless other families walking through chronic illness or deployment or estrangement or just being far away from loved ones.

Christmas time is bittersweet for many families.

I woke to a phone ringing from Maryland on New Year’s Day 1994.

One morning, my grandmother didn’t wake up. She was discovered by a neighbor several days later. She lived lonely alone. I hadn’t seen her for two years, since my father had a fight with her.

Christmases were always tainted with walking on eggshells around my father.

Christmas Eves were spent at my aunt’s house, surrounded by cousins, nervous whispers in corners. I never knew what was going on, who was mad at who or why.

My father chose to stay home while I was whisked out into the chill evening wearing my overpriced Christmas dress and patent leather shoes alongside my mom and paternal grandma to eat ham and potato salad and watch all the cousins open their gifts.

This was their entire holiday celebration. I still had Christmas morning to look forward to.

But there was always something negative lurking in the corners that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

For many, it is “always winter but never Christmas.”

Endless Winter

But it doesn’t have to be. And we should protect the children from the endless bitterness of cold, hard winter.

Christmas wants you: “Winter has begun to melt away, I have broken through at last – long live the true King!”

Hard Candy Christmas - Christmas time is bittersweet for many families.

Kids are often oblivious to the negativity.

Thank God they often don’t know the horrors of the world or the sorrows of adults.

Kids see the magic and glory of the lights. While we didn’t attend church and Jesus was an imaginary baby in storybook Bibles and a name at my grandma’s church.

I realize it doesn’t matter if the cookies look perfect. The presents under the tree don’t have to be all sorted perfectly (maybe that child has more this year but this child had lots last year, etc.) or wrapped with elegant mismatching paper, no seams showing. Bows are a waste of money. My haphazard decorations look like Christmas vomited all over the windowsill. I am no interior designer. Our tree never has themes – it has more handmade ornaments than designer trinkets and no twirling, swirling ribbon at all. No one will ever accuse me of having a house that looks like it’s out of a magazine (unless it’s Mad magazine.) We have no garland anywhere.

The kids don’t compare our house to others. They love the magic and will remember it as theirs.

Christmas memories will be about feelings and smells and tastes.

I want my children to remember the yummy prime rib and twice baked potatoes and not the spilled wine. I want them to remember the fuzzy pajamas and warm cocoa with Christmas stories around the twinkling Christmas tree. I don’t want the confusion of angry whispers and shots of Jack and stifled tears. No hiding behind masks. I want them to remember the snuggling while we read the Advent lessons every evening.

It’s ok that Christmas be bittersweet. It’s healthy to take the joy with the pain.

Like the song, Hard Candy Christmas:

“Lord, it’s like a hard candy Christmas
I’m barely getting through tomorrow
But still I won’t let
Sorrow bring me way down.”

It’s my job to protect my kids from the horrors of this world as long as I can, but also to prepare them to deal with the negative in a healthy way. I need to be a role model.

At the deep darkest time of the year – in cold winter (for half the world) – a Light was born in the darkness.

Let the Light shine.

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Celebrating Saint Nicholas’ Day

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We don’t do a typical American Santa Claus Christmas.

We “did Santa” in the very early years with our daughters, but it never felt right to me. I remember how devastated I was and how I felt lied to when I discovered Santa was just imaginary and my parents did it all. No wonder I never got that pony!

My son has grown up with no deceit. My kids know not to spoil the magic for others who prefer to do things differently.

We can have magic and make-believe and learn about history altogether.

The kids love the idea of Santa so we read about the legend and history of St. Nicholas each year.

St. Nicholas History

Traditionally, Nicholas was born in the city of Patara, on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.

In one of the earliest and most famous incidents from his life, he is said to have rescued three girls from forced prostitution by dropping a sack of gold coins through the window of their house each night for three nights so their father could pay a dowry for each of them. In his youth, he is said to have made pilgrimages to Egypt and the Palestine area. He became Bishop of Myra.

Legend claims that he was temporarily defrocked and imprisoned during the First Council of Nicaea for punching the heretic Arius. We love that story.

While living in Germany, we had lots of awesome options to celebrate St. Nicholas Day!

We look forward to Speculoos cookies, fun chocolate Santas in all shapes and sizes and colors, parades and markets galore! Many German heritage towns celebrate like this in America.

The kids like to do fun Santa crafts, bake cookies to give to friends and neighbors, read books and watch movies and sing carols about Santa and St. Nicholas.

We put out shoes or stockings on December 5 and the kids wake up to chocolates and little gifts.

St Nicholas

Celebrating St. Nicholas Day:

Resources:

Do you celebrate St. Nicholas?

Visit my Christmas Pinterest Board:

Follow Jennifer Lambert’s board Christmas on Pinterest.

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How We Celebrate Advent

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It’s a busy season. I like to slow down and worship amidst all the rushing and buying and visiting.

Advent is the beginning of the liturgical new year. It’s a time of light, cleaning our homes and hearts, preparing the way for Love.

Of all the seasons of the church year, Advent most closely mirrors the daily lives of Christians and of the church, asks the most important ethical questions, presents the most accurate picture of the human condition, and above all, orients us to the future of the God who will come again.

Fleming Rutledge
Advent Ideas for Families

How We Celebrate Advent

Advent activities and devotionals make the Christmas season special.

I love Advent. I didn’t grow up with these traditions, but we’re doing them as a family to make Christmas time more special than just presents, cookies, and ornaments.

We look forward to reading devotionals, worshiping, and singing praises morning and evening during the Advent season.

Reading

I love Bible studies that focus on Christ and His Coming. I love teaching my children about Advent. There are so many to choose from that I have to scale down. I can’t do them all and I don’t want to overwhelm my kids with too much. We read new ones each year to grow in our faith. I often read one of my own before bed.

Jesse Tree Resources

Our Jesse Tree

Candles and Wreath

Our family loves this simple Advent Wreath and we light it every Sunday during Advent. It stays on our dining table.

Acts of Kindness

We especially love our Advent house calendar with little strips of paper printed with offers of kindness.

The kids take turns reading them each morning and it really helps us all develop an attitude of servant leadership.

Advent-Calls-to-Action.png

Homeschool Advent Printables:

Calendars

Now that my kids are getting older, we find unique advent calendars online, even Etsy.

We do love the fun little chocolate calendars.

chocolate Advent

Traditions

Though you may be wrapping gifts, planning special meals, and spending time with family and friends, I hope you will also take time to allow the Advent darkness to do its work as well.

Richard Rohr

How do you celebrate Advent?

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Gifts for the Geek

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I’m so proud that my kids like geeky stuff.

Great Geeky Gifts
I think it’s so much better that my girls obsess over David Tennant and Benedict Cumberbatch than the latest pop music star boy group. I’d rather we watch intelligent BBC programming than Disney – or whatever it is that’s mindless and popular with tweens and teens. I am loving seeing my kids’ senses of humor developing with brilliant British jokes.

A great geeky company with loads of fun gifts is Thinkgeek.

Doctor Who

This Christmas, the kids are gonna be so excited that I scored some awesome DW loot on zulily.com.

Star Trek

Because nothing geeky is complete without Star Trek. Even if it’s not technically British. At least there’s Sir Patrick and Benedict. :) Whether they prefer the classics or the new shoes and movies, there’s a great gift for your Trekkie!

Sherlock

For new and old fans, BBC with Benedict…and the movies with RDJ (not mentioning that blasphemous American show, ahem)…Sherlock Holmes is a beloved icon.

Narnia

The brilliant writing of CS Lewis and the lovely imagery of the movies, these are timeless stories with a great message.

Harry Potter

I was ecstatic to stop by the Harry Potter shop in London and get all sorts of goodies for the kids. They love their Marauders’ Map and wands and Hogwarts tickets.

Tolkien

The ultimate in fantasy geekery. I have loved Tolkien since the little Hobbit cartoon by Rankin and Bass in the ’70s!

Star Wars

I really, really, really wish I still had my original Ewok village and star fighters. And all my figures. I saw Return of the Jedi in theatres and I was sold on the whole franchise. While we wait anxiously to see what Disney does to our beloved characters and stories, here are some fun gifts for your Jedi lover.

What’s on your geek gift list?

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10 Best Gifts for Travelers

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What do you buy someone who loves to travel?

Here are some unique travel gifts for your globetrotter.

10 Best Gifts for Travelers

10 Fun and Unique Gifts for a Traveler

1. eBags Packing Cubes to pack everything smarter and make it fit. Especially in those carry-ons.

2. A good quality small rolly suitcase (Europeans only do carry ons and I have no idea how they fit everything they need in that for a long trip – even with cubes!) Here’s one to fit your budget. They’re all fun:

3. Silicone Travel Tubes. These won’t take up as much space as the hard plastic containers!

4. A fun portable charger like this pink lipstick-sized external battery.

5. Fun Luggage Tags that personalize your bags.

6. Jet Bag for packing breakables. Padded and absorbent!

7. Aquis Hair Drying Turban. I love these so much we use them at home and when we travel! Wicks away the wet super fast.

8.Travel Wallet. To keep important forms, papers, ID. Don’t keep all your ID and currency and credit cards all in one place! Several colors to choose from. Unisex.

9.Bose Noise-Canceling Headphones. Trust me. You want these.

10. A fun and functional travel adaptor for all your electric needs worldwide (150 countries).

What are your favorite travel accessories?

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Gingerbread Unit Study

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Gingerbread is yummy.

We made scented gingerbread paper crafts, read books, made scented playdough.

Gingerbread activities:

  • Make gingerbread or cookies
  • Gingerbread playdough
  • Gingerbread crafts
  • Gingerbread books
  • Gingerbread printables

We love all the holiday Jan Brett books.

Bubba really got into the Gingerbread stories and these fun printables.

Make gingerbread playdough with spices!
gingerbread playdough

We did a fun gingerbread sensory craft.

I printed gingerbread boy outlines on brown paper. (I Googled for the outlines.)

I had the kids paint white glue on the gingerbread kids.

gingerbread craft gluing
glue gingerbread craft
gingerbread craft

And then decorate the gingerbread men with beads, sequins, etc.

And then sprinkle on spices.

Lots of spices.

and that wasn’t enough!

He who controls the spice controls the universe.

The finished “cookie”

scented gingerbread paper craft

We had fun with this sensory craft!

Gingerbread resources: 

Books:

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How to Have a Debt-Free Christmas

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We changed our focus and priorities to have a simple, debt-free holiday.

Christmas should be about family, experiences, Jesus. Not stuff. {Tweet this}

How to Have a Debt-Free Christmas

How can we have a debt-free Christmas?

Pay cash.

We don’t do adult gifts.

If we don’t have enough money, we don’t buy it.

Stick to a budget. Plan for the holidays year-round by putting a portion of income each month into a savings account.

We’ve prepared the kids that we well have smaller Christmas than in the past. We don’t do Santa. We don’t do that ridiculous Elf or any of its cousins.

We don’t have piles of gifts like our parents provided us. I shop sales and have been very careful. I find great items year-round and store them away for the holidays.

Planning is key. I keep an Amazon wishlist updated throughout the year and watch prices with Honey.

Set a standard.

I only buy a few gifts for the kids.

I send my parents a gift card because they have more stuff than they could ever use and they like to eat out at restaurants.

My husband and I don’t give presents to each other or extended family.

If you have to do gifts with others…Organize some kind of swap with extended family, like a name drawing. Send money to a charity in family’s name instead of a tangible gift. Be creative.

We don’t watch TV.

By not being exposed to commercials, we don’t have cases of the gimmes.

It almost makes gift buying difficult and I have to be more creative and search for the perfect things. We’ve downscaled a lot. We’ve simplified. We’re picky.

I prefer quality over quantity.

I love this gifting plan:

  • something they want

  • something they need

  • something to wear

  • something to read

But, for us, there’s very little we need (such a blessing!) and I don’t often buy clothing for Christmas gifts.

We don’t know what the “popular” toys are. When someone asked if my girls wanted a particular toy for Christmas since it was “all the rage” at her daughter’s school, I had to Google it. My girls probably would enjoy it, but not because it’s popular. But then they would discard it too soon or it would break.

We don’t strive to keep up with society and it’s so much more relaxing not to have to compare.

We focus on the meaning of Christmas: Jesus.

We read through Advent studies each day. We love the books by Ytreeide. This year we’re reading Bartholomew’s Passage. We light candles and pray and sing carols and we’re together.

We read about and celebrate St. Nicholas day on December 6. The children know this is the base for the legend of Santa Claus.

We learned about and celebrated Hanukkah during our Ancient Studies history and it has become tradition now.

We decorate simply.

Our house doesn’t look like it’s out of a magazine or store catalog. No Anthropologie or Pottery Barn here. We live here; it’s not a museum.

We have an artificial tree. We have a lovely Advent wreath and a new Jesse Tree this year! We’re making do with what we have. Alex wanted the outside of the house decorated and we managed to do it well with lights we bought on clearance years ago. Win!

Our church has an ornament exchange so each of my children gets a new ornament each year. They love it. And their hearts are better than mine that they’re never disappointed in the ornament they receive.

We just don’t go shopping.

It’s really that easy.

My mom used to love to go shopping as entertainment. I don’t. I don’t need retail therapy.

I don’t subscribe to store emails. We don’t get newspapers.

We stay home on Black Friday. We don’t go online all weekend long. We find other stuff to do.

We have a budget and are doing better sticking to it. I go to the grocery store when we need to stock up (and honestly, this is where most of our money goes! We like to eat well).

We go to stores when we need a particular item.

I do most of my buying online long before November. If we don’t go to stores, we’re not tempted. But I’m also learning to get offline when all the sales start. That’s becoming a temptation too. Just because it’s a deal, doesn’t mean we need it.

We read lots of fun and meaningful Christmas books.

I keep books with the holiday decorations and we get more from the library.

A favorite this year is The Dinosaurs’ Night Before Christmas. The accompanying CD is a parody of Christmas carols with hilarious dinosaur fun. The kids love it.

I hope to do some useful crafts and homemade baking projects to share with friends this week. The kids love that and it fits in with our servant leadership goals. We don’t eat many sweets, so these are fun and frugal gifts.

Check out this Essential Guide to a Crap-Free Christmas.

Resources:

How do you stay of debt during the holidays?

What are your priorities?

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