Vitafamiliae

With the holidays looming, our school work is focusing more and more on preparing for those days of celebration.  And you know what this means:  CRAFTS.  Now, when I carefully plan our school days, I don’t envision the days eaten up with construction paper.  If it were up to me, we’d curl up on the couch every day and just read about Thanksgiving.  But my children enjoy the art of creating.  And so I grit my teeth and we craft.

Hold me.

These four turkeys are the result of our efforts today.

And I admit, they are adorable.  We traced each child’s hands and feet to make those birds and I might even Treasure Them Always just a little bit.  But I was wrung out by the end of our crafting session.

Please note that, to even begin our daily craft, I had to cut out a bajillion little hand prints and foot prints.  Kill me now, please. Then Ellen got a hold of our glue stick and went to TOWN.  She glued anything within a two foot radius, including most of Ian’s turkey feathers.  The twins asked me for instructions and help over and over.  And Adam, who got his cast off today and now refuses to use BOTH his arms, just sat and stared at his papers in certain expectation that my help was forthcoming.

And then there was Willa, who now thinks glue is a delicacy to be savored.  Which is why there are two unmistakable little  tooth marks in my glue stick at this very moment.

Maybe I should have it bronzed.

Despite my moanings, the children have enjoyed our little foray into the holiday crafting and I plan on thinking carefully about how we spend the month of December.

I want what we do to serve a purpose.  Sure we made a craft today, but we made it out of their hands and feet (i.e. Mommy got a keepsake out of the deal).  We talked about how turkeys are part of celebration.  And we’re celebrating what God has done and the things we are thankful for.  (A bit of a stretch.  But do you see how cute the little cut-out hands are?)

And now it’s time to start planning for Christmas.  How will we do this holiday with a purpose?  This year, Andrew and I are proud to be part of something called Christmas Change.  I’ve told you before about The Mother Letter Project.  From that sweet gift a whole new movement has been birthed.  A movement to change the way we look at Christmas.  To cause us to look at Christmas as a season of true giving, and not with intent to receive.  To focus on Jesus, and not just in repeating “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.”  But in LIVING like Jesus is the reason for EVERY season.

So, we’re cutting back.  Simplifying.  But mostly, examining every activity under the lens of “Gospel Value.”  Does this point us toward Christ?  With most of our extended family, we’ve agreed to make donations to charities in lieu of gifts.  And we’ve got some fun and different stuff up our sleeves for our own Vitafam traditions.  I can’t wait to tell you all about them here and over at Christmas Change.  But in the meantime, go poke around.   Ponder your plans for the holidays.  Ponder your traditions.  How can you make them more about Christ?

Even if it means using more glue sticks…