Hurray For December!!!

True Gifts

"We all enjoy giving and receiving presents. But there is a difference between presents and gifts. The true gifts may be part of ourselves—giving of the riches of the heart and mind—and therefore more enduring and of far greater worth than presents bought at the store.
"Of course, among the greatest of gifts is the gift of love....
"Some, like Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens's A Christmas Carol, have a hard time loving anyone, even themselves, because of their selfishness. Love seeks to give rather than to get. Charity towards and compassion for others is a way to overcome too much self-love" (James E. Faust, "A Christmas with No Presents," Ensign, Dec 2001, 2–6).

It has been a flurry of projects in the house as I’ve tried to get a couple of ideas together in time to begin on December 1st. I have a gazillion projects (as usual) I want to give as gifts this year and I was terrified I was going to spend  the Christmas Season stressed instead of enjoying the memories and focusing on the Savior…so to try to off-set that I came across some fantastic ideas for my family to help us be more Christ centered during the month:

I get the Disney Family Fun magazine and in there someone reported the idea for a “Good Deed Jar” where they put in 24 good deed ideas and everyday the family pulls a good deed out of the jar to perform. When they’ve completed it they put it in a box and on Christmas Eve they put the box under the tree as a gift to Santa (we are doing it for the Savior to show our gratitude for his life and example to us). The hardest part of all this was not assembling everything but trying to get my family to focus during FHE long enough to come up with 24 good deed ideas (I had to threaten Don between my teeth when he kept breaking out in bizarre Christmas Songs).

It went something like this, after 10 long minutes of brainstorming (ME) “…okay you guys we’ve got 7 ideas so far….anyone got anymore?” (Bizzie) “We can make cookies and eat them!” (Autumn) “We can give each other our Christmas presents early!” Looking at Don for some parental help in re-directing the girls he chimes in with his favorite Christmas Carol “Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat! Please put a penny in the old man’s hat!” I gave him my stare and then raising a paper to shield my face from the girls I told him in an angry whisper, “Start helping me or you are doing the rest of this yourself!” He quickly responded with the more helpful suggestion of, “We can do something nice for someone who is not nice to you.” Hidden meaning in that…probably…but it got the ball rolling in the right direction again and we got all 24 ideas down and had a great time doing it (FYI: Don got that I was tired and did his best to curb any further “little-Donny” responses).

Anyway, hear are some of the pictures of putting together the jars with my friend Crystal.

I definitely enjoyed talking with Crystal more than crafting and I LOVE crafting, so what should have taken us an hour took us 2 1/2! Hee! Hee! I am continually amazed by this woman! In less than 5 minutes the sentences “Pine is an easier wood to chop than others,” “I was carrying my rifle in the desert,” and “I use to fix the carburetor on my old Chevy…” came out of her mouth…she finally looked up from what she was doing to find me with my mouth dropped open, unaware of her absolute coolness!!! I am so glad she’s around as another role model for my girls!

The kids had a great time playing, eating popcorn, and watching the Classic Christmas movies. Love these boys!

 

 

 

And here is the final product! My Cricut broke down so we ended up doing a lot of it the old fashion way – if scissors can be old-fashion – Don spoils me!!!

 

 

 

 

Crystal had the idea of curling the papers instead of folding them, so cute. So the little white on top of the jar is the selected good deed slip waiting to be completed so it can be put into the star box!

Good luck everyone keeping the Savior in your hearts during the season. I am convinced if I can just do that, that even if I don’t get everything on my children’s Christmas list, or am unable to complete all my gifts made for others, I will not look back on the season with any regret. I love you and hope this is a peaceful, meaningful season for you!