This year I have managed to get 90% of my Christmas shopping DONE by now, which is amazing, but presents some challenges as my boys know there are presents stashed stragtegically around the house. In an attempt to get their minds off all the gifts and focused on the meaning of Christmas, we have started a new tradition in the Bohlender family -- the celebration of advent! We began last night. I plopped a bowl of red and green M&M's on the coffee table and we all shared our favorite Christmas memory, which quickly turned into an hour of laughing and sharing all kinds of memories! Some of the highlights....
....Jackson's favorite gifts -- a roll of masking tape and a feather duster. These were not random, he specifically asked for these! And he cried with joy when he opened them. When we asked a couple weeks ago, "Why a feather duster" he replied, "So I could cuddle it of course". Of course.
....Grayson' first word spoken at 10 months late one night at the Ladd's lake cabin in Tennessee. Skip and Ann Cone were there feasting with us on Fazoli's cheesecake and Ann pointed to the tomato on the bag and got him to say, "BOB".
....the time Zion was lying on a blanket in the great room at 2 weeks old, I turned my back for 2 minutes and when I looked back the baby was naked! I looked at Grayson (age 4) sitting peacefully on the sofa and asked what happened. "He was hot".
There were countless other stories that came forth and it was so much fun talking about our history and making a new memory. As we all got ready to go to bed, Zion asked me, "Mommy, can we do that some more when I fall asleep?" He wanted to drift to dreamland with thoughts of our family stories - it doesn't get much better than that!
I wonder if this was part of God's plan when He told us in Deut. 6 to REMEMBER and talk about His commands as a part of life. Or when He institued the feast days as days of memorial. I have always thought of those as rigid laws, but after last night, I just wonder if what was on His mind was a great big family memory-fest. And my guess is that the M&M's in heaven will be amazing!
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4 comments:
great post Kelsey! You guys are such an inspiration to us.
I bet there will be some new colors in the bag too :)
Christmas Countdown makes me think of those red and green construction paper chain links. My sister and I would make them and tear a link off each day until Christmas.
Hi Kelsey,
My name is Julie Strasser. We attended Learning Tree in Cincinnati together. I think your middle son and my middle son were in the 4's class together! I'm also friends of Sandie and Owen Brock, know Steve and Lynne Willis AND go to Vineyard Central. ANYWAY, i read your entry about your new baby not sleeping so well and i felt the need to pass on the name of a book that helped me a TON with my last two babes (We have 5). It's called the No Cry Sleep Solution and was such a relief for me. I'm not so good at the crying thing and this book offered such a gentle way of helping them sleep. Congratulations and God Bless!!
so fun...
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