We love Christmas in this home! It is truly a special time of year. Christmas in our home starts when we load up and head to our local tree farm to pick out the perfect tree. The kids love to be a part of this process, and help cut the tree down! We decorate the tree while we play our favorite Christmas songs and sing at the top of our lungs!
Once Thanksgiving is over, the Christmas music is on repeat all day! We have a special little Elf on the Shelf that visits with us after Thanksgiving, and he likes to get into all kinds of mischief around the Ranch. So far, he has toilet-papered the Christmas tree, made a zip-line from one end of the house to the other, and even brought the kids treats from the North Pole! When the kids finish their letters to Santa, our elf hand-delivers our Christmas wish lists to Santa himself.
We also love to make gingerbread houses. The boys like to make everything competitive, so it usually turns into a “whose house is the best” competition! We celebrate Christmas a few days early so the kids can be home with their family on Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve, we let the kids open one present and then we get to making our goodies for Santa and the reindeer! We decorate cookies, make hot chocolate and magic reindeer food. The kids sprinkle the reindeer food in the front yard so that Santa knows to stop here! Christmas morning is usually a mad house, but we always start it out by reading the Christmas story. We have fun with Santa, but our kids know the true meaning of Christmas is Christ coming to the world because of God’s great love for us. Christmas is love. It is for joy, for giving and sharing, for laughter, for reuniting with family and friends, for tinsel and brightly decorated packages. It is for reconciliation and forgiveness. A time of peace, hope, and God’s promise to us. It was and still is a remarkable evidence of God’s love and care for us. It’s God’s best gift to us.
We love how our community has so many things to do around this time of year as well. We love, love, love the Christmas parade! We also really enjoyed the tree lighting ceremony and the Christmas celebration service at Dogwood Park! We always find a family in need to help out as well. Last year we decided to partner with Life Church and went shipping for a family in need through Putnam County Christmas. When it was time to deliver the gifts, the kids delivered them to this precious family. It was very moving to be the ones giving and the kids talked about how it felt good to be on the giving end.
The community is so good to make sure our kids have a Christmas to remember! We could not do Christmas without the community’s involvement. Life hasn’t always been the easiest on our kids. They don’t always have fond memories of this time of year, however, they are so thankful for everything. It revives hope in them to see so many coming together to make their Christmas season memorable!