Praise in the simple

It is drop-off week for Operation Christmas Child. Yesterday we dropped our box off and ever since posting a picture of our sweet babes laying hands on our box and praying for the little boy who will eventually receive it, I've felt compelled to write this post...

Because while OCC is an amazing ministry and we LOVE being a part of it every year, you don't have to be a part of it.

Because following a clever advent calendar full of daily activities and such is a beautiful way to celebrate Jesus, we don't have to do one.

Because while the elf is fun and exciting for the babes, we don't have to have one.

Because while Christmas lights hung around our windows would make this momma super happy, he doesn't have to hang them.

Because while serving at a local food pantry is an excellent opportunity, we don't have to drag our 5 littles there to add mass chaos to the whole scene.

Because while I LOVE sending and receiving Christmas cards, our bank account doesn't have to empty on the account of them.

We've tried so many different ways to make sure that this holiday season is fully focused on Jesus, family, and serving others, and have found that the simpler the better. For us. And there is so much peace with the decision to back off and simplify our praising. We've chosen what we believe to be top priority for our family and are careful to only add (or take away) what is in line with our family values in whatever season of life we are in.

I want to encourage you to do the same! As your friends post about the different things they do for the holiday season, build them up with encouragement! And be content with what God has called your family to invest time in. None of us can do it all. And no two families are the same. Relish your uniqueness!

We are going to focus on how we can best praise our Jesus this year and every year! And I'll be enjoying seeing how you all celebrate Him this year too :)

((If you are interested in packing a box for OCC, there's still plenty of time! Drop-off locations are open til Monday, and you can pack one online, too! Only if you feel so led, of course))

The Cross is More than Enough

I have tasted and I have seen.

*God is good*

But sometimes in the midst of it all, I just can't remember.

...But the Cross...

If all God had ever done for me was send His Son in my place--

If all Jesus had ever done for me was give His life in my place--

If all the Spirit had ever done for me was secure my place--

That is enough. More than enough. When I have trouble remembering anything else…

The Cross is more than enough.

Merry Christmas!

love, The Jacobs

Our 3 Gift Christmas

We don't have much money. We never have. And we likely never will. But that doesn't really matter when you're married to a man who gives any extra we might have away. In fact, I feel fairly confident that if we did make more money, I wouldn't even know it because Derek would give it all away before I ever saw it.

The man cannot hang on to a dollar. But most of the time it's because he's handing it over to someone in need. Or not in need. Either way.

And because of his incredible generosity, I have come a loooooooooong way in the last decade. Of course, I have just about that far still to go but I'm so grateful for how he has challenged me just by example.

All that to say, limiting our kids to 3 gifts for Christmas is a lot less about the money (although that is a key factor when there isn't much!) and a lot more about Christ. Because generosity is the leader-of-our-home's thing, we choose to give our kids gifts for Christmas. What is generosity if we can't be generous to those closest to us? But because Christmas is about Christ, we are very intentional about gift giving.

I originally came across this idea of 3 gifts from this blog post ((Make sure to visit!)). We loved it! It's a perfect fit for our family. So I'm going to share with you just in case it is a fit for yours, too!

When {the magi} saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Matthew 2:10-11

GOLD

Gold represents something the kids want. Gold was, and continues to be, very desirable. We give one gift to each kid that they've either asked for or we feel confident they will enjoy. We don't always give them what they ask for because, well, mommy knows best! And I simply don't want any more tiny, worthless Shopkins in this house! The clutter, oh the clutter! So we are very careful about this gift, trying our best to avoid more clutter, encourage education, and make it something they love.

Ideas:
Games (Jack is getting this this year!)
Blocks or legos (easy-to-clean clutter that is educational!)
Accessories to something they already have (American Girl accessories, additions to their Imaginex city set)
Puzzles
Costumes
Books
Movies/video games
Activity gift (dance classes, ice skating date with dad, etc.)

FRANKINCENSE

Theologians say that the gift of frankincense was symbolic of Christ's priesthood. This gift for our kids is something spiritual. While this one can be challenging, I love it! It's so fun to listen to the Spirit on this one and see how He uses what we get them!

Ideas:
Jesus Storybook Bible (every single household containing children should own this book)
Bibles (Marie and Jack each got their own last year)
Devotionals (like Jesus Calling)
Play nativity set (Kempton got this last year)
What's in the Bible DVDs
Just about anything Veggie Tales
His Little Princess/His Mighty Warrior (God has put these books to good use around these parts!)

MYRRH

This spice symbolizes burial and death in Scripture buuut we focus on the use of it. It was used as incense or perfume. Something put on the body. The myrrh gift is something the kids can wear.

Ideas:
Clothes
Belt (Kempton is getting this this year)
Shoes
Boots
Hats
Ballet shoes
Hairbows
Towel
Chapstick
Etc. Etc.

Now I am super curious - How do you do gifts for Christmas in your home?

Can I point out one last thing? In the verses from Matthew we learn that the Magi "rejoiced exceedingly with great joy." I don't know about you, but I can't help but think that some hooting and hollering and cheering and dancing was happening when they finally found Jesus. Let's enter this beautiful time of celebrating Jesus' birth with a little… no, how about a LOT of that rejoicing exceedingly with great joy!! There's no greater gift we could give our kids.

…Behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people!...

What was actually going on...

Our verse focus this morning in devotions was Romans 3:23-

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Well the kids got a good, old fashioned object lesson in how we ALL sin. Even mommy.

We were getting bundled up to take our very first Operation Christmas Child box to the drop-off. I wanted to gather together and pray over the box first. And, of course, get a picture.

We were supposed to all be grateful and excited. There was supposed to be all this joy and love surrounding the whole experience.

Not even sort of.

Tears. Tantrums. Spanks. Repeat.

...I need a minute to recover from just the memory...

The beauty in this mess is that God always forgives. We finally managed to snuggle up together, discuss our verse again, and thank God for sending His Son so we can be forgiven.

It was only then that we were able to gather around this little box and pray for the sweet boy that will get to meet Jesus through it.

Beauty from the ashes.



((I will be reviewing and giving away a copy of the book we are using for devotions right now in the very near future! Keep a look out!))

Christmas Crafts

The kids did a lot of crafts at Sunday School, MOPS, and random other places but I'm going to just show you what we did around here. I love that the side of my fridge is covered in glittery, Christmasy-ness!

These are simple and would be a great way to pass the couple of days next week while the kids are off school and eagerly awaiting Christmas!

The Hand Angel

We talked about the angel Gabriel coming to Mary and Joseph. We used finger paint to paint each hand then put glitter on the paint before it dried. The kids glued on cotton balls and drew their own interpretation of what an angel might look like. Jack thought it important that his had ears, while Marie thought arms and legs were essential and ears looked weird.

(I'm learning that it really is better to let the kids do as much of their own crafts as possible, even if they end up looking a little… strange. But in this case, I did quite a bit of helping with the paint because hand print crafts are dear to me, and because paint all over everything is not ideal. I still highly recommend giving your kids freedom to do their own crafts with minimal interruption from you in most cases!)

Coloring Pages

Use Do-A-Dot markers for this one.

I've mentioned before, my girl LOVES to color. HERE (within these awesome packets) are some we really enjoyed that also had more than just coloring to them.

Christmas Tree Name Puzzle

We've been working hard to help Jack learn the letters in his name. He usually recognizes his name but that's the extent of it. So when I found this idea HERE, I knew we had to do it! And I had no doubt Marie would thoroughly enjoy it.

I had Jack trace his name on the pieces (Marie wrote her name herself), and then they cut their own pieces out and glued them on. Marie spent a significant amount of time using every color of glitter we have, while Jack took about 2 minutes to decorate his.

Nativity Scene

The top picture is Marie's from 2 years ago while the bottom is Jack's he did the other day. Since he had already done two manger scenes with popsicle sticks other places, I stuck with the simple. He also loves to cut and clue, but isn't big on decorating.

Birth of Jesus Mini Book

Cutting out the pieces for this was kinda a pain, but otherwise I really liked how this helped the kids tell the story themselves. And it's super cute.

((THANK YOU to the amazing women who came up with and put together these crafts/activities!!))

Books

I highly recommend these books be read in your home every year!

• The Candymaker's Gift (I talk about this more HERE).
• The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (When the Grinch realizes that Christmas… perhaps… is a little bit more, he doesn't specify what exactly. Today we were able to talk about what "more" Christmas is really about.)
• The Jesus Storybook Bible (This is a must-have for all littles, year-round).

Merry Christmas!!

Beautiful Christmas

We're thoroughly enjoying our extended PA visit! Right now I'm chilling next to Derek, watching Love it or List it while the babies sleep. Watching TV is a fun treat :)

We worked really hard to focus our Christmas on Christ and I think we were successful. The key: less busy-ness. More quiet-ness. Last year I literally was stressing about how to focus Christmas on Christ which totally took away from celebrating Christ. So this year, if I ever started getting overwhelmed or stressed, I just stopped. If it doesn't get done, it doesn't get done. Which resulted in being able to do a lot more Christ-centered activities with the babies.

We successfully read from the Jesus Storybook Bible and hung an ornament every single night of Advent! Go us! And we got treats to all the neighbors we planned to. French toast casserole on Christmas morning was a fail, but Jesus was okay with that :)

We didn't give our kids gifts (or each other) not only because we're totally broke, but also because they get plenty from the rest of the family, and we don't want them thinking Christmas is about getting gifts. It's about giving gifts. So when they are old enough to earn their own money (which will be this year for Marie and probably Jack through chores), they can buy each family member a gift and we'll buy them gifts.

That's our approach to Christmas in a nutshell. Since Christmas is over and I'm much more focused on bounding into the new year, I won't go into detail. Bottom line, we truly enjoyed celebrating Jesus and both the big kids seemed to, too!

Hope you all had an amazing Christmas! Leave me a link to your Christmas recap so I can catch up!

PA Christmas Vacation

Last year, for some reason, the Jacobs Christmas Recap was a very popular post. It was probably all the extended Jacobs family checking it out. There are a lot of them! Well, I'm very late and have all sorts to catch up on so I'll start with our wonderful trip to PA.

After an amazing Christmas Eve with the family, then our very first Christmas morning just the four of us (with spectators in the form of Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw), we set out for Cleveland.

Gram (aka G.G.) showered us with all sorts of gifts. In spite of Jack refusing to sleep, we had a great time. And God had some serious mercy on us for the final 6 hrs of the trip... we didn't have to stop once! (Well, except for a super quick refueling where only Derek got out). The kids were angels! Praise the Lord.

We made sure to get the wiggles out at Riverfront shortly after we arrived.

Then we had another Christmas morning

And were showered with gifts again.

We spent the rest of the week and a half getting as much in as we could. We played badminton almost daily. We caught up with as many friends as we could, and made sure Marie had lots of time with her friends.

We even got a library trip in!

We went to Heritage and New Life on Sunday morning. Didn't want to miss anyone!

And Derek and I got to go out just the two of us on a couple of occasions. One time we went to the imax and saw Mission Impossible 3. Awesome. And two separate double dates. Oh how I love my friends! Oh yes, and Thai Rak Thai's drunken noodles followed by a chocolate peanut butter milkshake from Mannings... my mouth is watering.

Overall it was just a fantastic and relaxing week and a half. We needed it.

It mostly felt like we never left even though it had been an entire year since we visited last. Huge pieces of our hearts are there and always will be. 

Now back to reality!

Our Christmas Traditions

A couple weeks ago I promised I'd post about what ideas we decided to implement this Christmas season. Some things we've been doing, some are new!

So here's the list you've been holding your breath for...

1. Goodies for our neighbors

2. Jesse Tree

3. $20 gift budget for each of us
4. Christmas caroling at a nursing home
5. Gifts and dinner for hurting families (we're giving to 2 this year)
6. We got a couple of gifts for a couple of Lifeline kids - the cool thing about this was one kid wanted jewelry and one kid wanted a soccer ball. Perfect! We already had both!
7. Marie is going to use some of her "spending money" to buy Jack a gift.
8. Church Christmas morning followed by reading Luke 2, singing happy birthday to Jesus, and opening gifts!

One of the many things we learned (and are learning!) during our toughest trial of this year was that God expects us to give even when it seems we have nothing to give!

(I can't tell you how many times I've promised God if He just gave us a little bit more money than absolutely necessary that we would give it all away. He told me He's already got that covered and it's time to give! As soon as I can find the passage that really convicted me, it will be posted!)

It's been so cool to see how God has not only provided for us, but has also provided for us to bless others.

We have truly enjoyed focusing on our Savior this Christmas and are so excited to continue implementing Christ-focused traditions in the years to come. I just love how Marie is constantly talking about Jesus' birthday.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas on Conor - Livingroom

Last year we didn't decorate because we were living in the cockroach house, we spent Christmas in PA, and we were going to be moving in a month so we didn't want to bother.

That added to my excitement to decorate this year! It feels like Christmas has been gone a long time! Even Derek has gotten into it. I didn't even have to ask him to get the tree out.

And speaking of the tree, we finally have a full size tree. And not just any full size tree, the Jacobs family tree! Isn't it a beauty??

I just love how it fits so perfectly in our wonderful blessing of a house. And it's just loaded with gorgeous blue and silver ornaments my MIL got me over the past couple of years. I have so many I could probably decorate another small tree with the left overs. But that's probably good as I'm sure not all will survive with Jack the destroyer wandering around.

We used blue/navy, silver, and white for our wedding - a "winter wonderland" theme. Now we're a little obsessed.

We even use blue and silver wrapping paper every year.

And surprise, navy and silver stockings! :)

 

Our Jesse Tree boxes...

And some more blue and silver decor...

We have been gifted some things that aren't navy and silver, but I love them anyway. One of my favorites...

 

And I love these little guys...

I hung some snowflakes from the fan. I also hung one on the kitchen light, but that's a different post for a different day. I know you can hardly stand the anticipation.

I love the simplicity in our decor, and the consistent color scheme.

I could never be an interior designer because not only am I horrible at it, I have trouble seeing past matching... everything must match. Always.

I don't think that's in right now.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the little tour. I am realizing just now that I didn't get an overall shot. Next time. Or you could stop by and see it in all its real life awesomeness.

Linking up...

Buckeyes

Buckeyes... ah buckeyes. How I love thee.

And I have passed my love for you down to my mini-me.

I did a quick search and ended up using this buckeye recipe.

We enjoyed rolling the peanut butter mix

And eating the balls that were just a little too small :)

We also thoroughly enjoyed dipping them in the chocolate but it was a little too chaotic to take pics.

This recipe, in spite of our constant nibbling, made a million buckeyes. Good thing because we wanted to give some to our neighbors and still have plenty for ourselves.

As I write this, we have yet to catch our neighbors home while we're all together (including Derek) to drop off their little gifts. Good thing buckeyes last a good long time!

This is one of the traditions we are implementing... giving baked goods to the neighbors. We've done it in the past so I guess it's already a tradition. We're just making it more of an outreach effort. (We did give some to neighbors that are close, godly friends, too. Just because we love them!)

What are some ways you are reaching out to your neighbors this time of year? Please share in the comments! I'd love to highlight some of your great ideas!