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MERRY CHRISTMAS

ONE MORE THING ABOUT CHRISTMAS

I have posted some things this week about Christmas. There is another thing I do around Christmas - it's usually includes me yelling "Come On" or "Seriously" - it also includes hitting my steering wheel or raising my hands in a "what are you doing" type motion. You see, I live about a mile from the mall. So Harvey Street is typically part of a daily trip. As Christmas comes, so does the Christmas traffic and people really start driving like morons...like they get in the left turn lane for ToyRus and the Lakeshore Marketplace about a mile too early, they don't play attention when there's multiple right or left turn lanes, people can't figure out when to stop or go when you enter the mall...if there was a round about out there I would probably get killed. SO, happy driving out there...be safe and don't hit me.

CHRISTMAS GIVING

What do you do at Christmas? What are your traditions? What do you do to make it meaningful? I will share a few things we do this week. Some are traditions some are new things. We approach Christmas with two thoughts -1. do some thing that create great family traditions or experiences - 2. do things that point to Jesus and the real meaning behind Christmas.

GIVING IS BETTER THEN GETTING
We do a couple things to keep a focus on an attitude of gratitude and giving. It's hard to teach younger kids that Christmas isn't all about toys and presents, especially when Emma has a birthday in December. That's a lot of gifts for her.
CHRISTMAS PROJECT
We participate in the Christmas Project at church. We try to include the kids in the process as much as possible and make it into a learning experience.
COMPASSION KIDS
We buy our compassion kids a Christmas gift & talk to our kids about it and look at the picture on the frig.
3 GIFTS
We don't go overboard on Christmas (especially since the Grandparents give a lot). So we get our kids 3 gifts. If it was good enough for Baby Jesus, it's good enough for our kids.

CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

What do you do at Christmas? What are your traditions? What do you do to make it meaningful? I will share a few things we do this week. Some are traditions, some are new things. We approach Christmas with two thoughts -1. do some thing that create great family traditions or experiences - 2. do things that point to Jesus and the real meaning behind Christmas.

TRADITIONS:
SANTA
Every year we visit Santa at the mall (usually a few times but one special time for pictures). We have one special picture frame that the picture goes in and we keep the previous years in there too. It's fun to look back and see how the kids have grown.

ELF ON THE SHELF
We bought one of these sets this year. It's made to become a family tradition. It's kinda fun. It encourages the kids to behave put it's more fun when every morning Emma tries to find his new hiding spot. Here's the Elf and Here's a funny story about it.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN
We have tried a few different things to build some anticipation. This year it's a placemat.

TREE
Every year on Thanksgiving weekend, we put up the tree and decorations. We let the kids help. It's a family thing.

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS
We take special trips every year to view lights (You should go to Holiday Road in Spring Lake if you haven't been there yet). It's a fun and I like it because the kids are belted in their seats - but they still like it.

CHRISTMAS EVE
We let the kids open one gift on Christmas Eve. 

SANTA PLATE
This year we painted a plate in the mall. It has Santa's and the Kids hand prints on it. But don't let anyone fool you, I'll be eating the cookie left on it.

   

CHRISTMAS STORY

What do you do at Christmas? What are your traditions? What do you do to make it meaningful? I will share a few things we do this week. Some are traditions, some are new things. We approach Christmas with two thoughts -1. do some thing that create great family traditions or experiences - 2. do things that the point to Jesus and the real meaning behind Christmas.

STORY OF JESUS
We have a variety of things we do to talk to the kids about the story of Jesus' birth.
BOOKS
We have a basket in our living room for books. We move all the seasonal books out there. So we have a variety of Christmas books we read in December. 
PLAYSET
We bought the Little People Nativity set this year. They had a basic, cheap, exclusive set at Target. So, we let the kids play with that and we talk about Jesus.
CHRISTMAS EVE
On Christmas Eve past, we have read the Christmas Story together. We also go to church for the Christmas Eve Gathering - that's a great idea!

SUNDAY RECAP FOR DECEMBER 13

LET IT BE CHRISTMAS - WEEK2
Jesus came to BE with us so we could belong, believe, become

RECAP
Yesterday - all my troubles seemed so far away. For many of us, the best holidays (or days) were in the past. The stress of family, shopping, and the holidays can effect our lives and leaving us longing for the traditions of Christmas past. But Jesus came to Be with us so we could believe - believe in a way the drives us to action that gives us hope. We saw that in Matthew 1 & 2 and the lives of Joseph and the Magi. They believed and they faced hard journeys with hope. In a strange way, Jesus came because He believes in us. Not live a crazy American Idol parent or not like He thinks we'll be good and not mess things up. But in a way that He wants us to be love HIm as He loves us. Jesus came to Be with us so we could have something that we can really believe in.

THOUGHTS
- My wife can sing...no really sing.
- There were a ton of kids at 11:00 today. Some volunteers stepped up. BIG THANKS.
- Nothing says Christmas like Napolean Dynomite and The Beatles, eh?
- Virginia was in the nursery holding Eli before church. I didn't even recognize her with her new hair cut at first. I was like, who is holding Eli? Looks good V.
- Good day again today

ANNOUNCEMENT
Christmas Eve Gathering  Dec. 24  5:00 pm. More Details Here. There are invite cards at church and there will be a online e-vite next week.

SONGS
Mary Did You Know - Mark Lowry
Beautiful One - Tim Hughes
Here I Am to Worship - Tim Hughes
Yesterday - The Beatles
Arms of Love - Vineyard
Mighty to Save - Hillsong 

SNOW

I know you might think I'm crazy but I love winter. Emma loves the snow too. Eli liked it until he feel face first into the snow. However, the last couple days when it was windy and cold & Eli would just laugh when the wind hit him. I love when it gets colder and I can take a deep breathe of cold air. It's invigorating. The best is snow in December. It makes it feel like Christmas. It makes all the dead fall trees and stuff look beautiful. Here's some fun in the snow from our weekend:

    

JOURNEYERS ARE GENEROUS

This was on Mark's blog yesterday in case you missed it:

Hey Journeyers, read this message of gratitude from the person who is in charge of the McLaughlin Christmas Store.  It was sent to several people/churches/organizations connected to this project to help people in need this Christmas.  As I read this it reminded me of how good God is and how proud I am to be a part of The Journey and connected to all of you!

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to pass on this information because I'm excited about it!

Today, the Journey Church dropped off their donations for the Christmas Store.  I helped to unload everything and you would not believe how many gifts they gave!  They are all in an empty room upstairs in my house and they take up the whole room.  I am estimating around 300 gifts, but it could be more than that.  That is about one third of all the gifts we had from last year.  So if anyone has any connections with the Journey Church, make sure to tell them a big Thank You!

--Kristy--

Awesome Job Journeyers!

WEEK IN REVIEW

Here are some highlights from this week:

- 14 Days, only two weeks till Christmas
- I tested something for Christmas Eve. It was awesome. I'm pumped.
- Did some planning this week for future stuff - short and long term. Love where God is taking us.
- Had a video chat meeting with Paul this week. I love technology.
- Snow Days were great but the first seemed unnecessary. Great to have the whole family home for a few days. But I think Steph was ready to go back to work at two days stuck in the house trying to entertain the kids.
- It really windy by our house cuz our back yard is the airport and it's wide open. So my driveway has been 90% clear because it all just blows away. 
- I was driving down our road today and an illuminate green line showed up. I thought maybe someone signed me up for Fidelity Investments but No. It was the traffic light reflecting on the road. That's when I figured out the our road must be really icy.
- Emma's birthday was this week. We had a party for our extended family on Saturday. We celebrated on her birthday. Here's her birthday cupcake.
- Emma is now 5. She is the best. So funny, full of energy, creative and I love that little girl so much.
- We took the kids to Holiday Road in Spring Lake on Tuesday. Pretty cool. I heard it's rated as on of the top 10 light shows in the world. Crazy. It was cool. Here's a pic.
- We have new characters in our nativity scene every day.
- ND hired the right coach. Brian Kelly has won everywhere he's gone. He took CINCY to an undefeated season and #3 in the nation. If you can do that, I would like he can take ND towards a national championship. U of M had the chance to hire him...they missed out.
- The show Community is becoming my favorite show. There are so many funny things in the margins of the show. Like the mascot - the human being - I laugh every time I see him, especially this week with him driving the sleigh with a red nose - Merry Happy!
- I made up some business card invites for Christmas Eve. Make sure you grab on this Sunday.
- Let It Be Christmas Part 2 This Sunday. BElieve is the topic. Any guess on the Beatles song for this week?

JOURNEY KIDS

I have two kids so I put a big value on having awesome kids stuff at The Journey. My daughter loves going to her room, she has a blast, and she learns stuff about God and can repeat it back to us. She goes to church with her grandparents sometimes and they go to a mega-church in GR. This church puts on conferences to train other kids workers. Emma doesn't like going to their kids rooms because she says they are boring. Virginia has done an awesome job with Journey Kids and not even a brain tumor can stop it. But even beyond her, we have awesome volunteers. I looked in the rooms this past Sunday and Emma was totally into it. Shane and Rosenda had the kids jumping and cheering because they were totally into it. I looked in all the other kids rooms and the same thing - awesome volunteers totally investing into kids. It's a beautiful thing. Virginia was sharing some conversation at staff meeting of parents sharing about their kids and how much they get out of Journey kids and how they love to come to class. So - thanks to V but thanks to all the volunteers (there's like a million of you) for invest in my kids and the other kids at The Journey. If your kids don't go in the kids rooms - they are missing out on fun and age appropriate learning and you are missing out as well - if they are in the rooms you can focus and they will have other positive role models and adults investing in them and you will get support for parenting and for teaching your kids about Jesus. JOURNEY KIDS ROCK!