Our Christmas 2014

Gus, Maddie and I on Christmas Eve.

 

 

On Christmas Eve, Josh's parents, sister, and fiancé drove to our house to spend Christmas with us. We were very glad they made the long drive to spend time with us! I finally got a picture of all three kids in front of the tree.

 

 

During the night, Santa came!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a nice day. The kids all had colds, but they did ok. I think everyone had a good Christmas. We had a big traditional meal of turkey and ham, etc. It was pretty cold outside but the kids still got to ride their new "bikes" outside a little.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gus was most excited about his new guitar. He wrote Santa a letter asking for it, and he loves it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are just a few random pictures from our holiday.

 

 

 

Where's Waldo with Matt.

 

Big new toy from Matt and Brittany- jump-o-lene!

 

Aunt Brittany

 

 

 

 

We are still all recovering from all the busyness and colds - enjoying being inside where it is warm.  

 

Merry Christmas 2014

From our family to yours- Merry Christmas!!!!

May the Lord richly bless your family this year.

 

The Hawvers

Josh, Catie, Gus, Maddie, and Jack 

The Journey of the Wise Men - Days 5 and 6

 

On Day 5 Gus found the wise men looking at a shepherd and his sheep. We talked about how Jesus is our shepherd. We talked about the shepherd's staff and how a shepherd uses it to take care of his sheep. We talked about how the staff (candy cane) also was in the shape of a J which stands for Jesus.

 

 

 

 

 

Day 6 began with the kids hearing music and singing. We told them to go find the music. They found the shepherd looking up at an angel. We talked about how the angel visited the shepherd and told of Jesus in Bethlehem. We then spoke of how the sky filled with angels singing and praising God. We can praise God too through singing and making music. The kids each got a tambourine and harmonica to make music to praise God with. This was a really fun day.

 

 

 

The Journey of the Wise Men - Day 4

Maddie found the wise men watching Mary and Joseph head to Bethlehem. We had the Bible open to the verse in Micah where it says Jesus would come from Bethlehem.

We placed the star over Bethlehem, and for our activity we got a gingerbread kit. Since we were talking about where Jesus would be born or his "home" when he was born, we thought it was a good fit.

 

We got this kit at Target. Josh, Gus, and I did this together and we had so much fun! It was a perfect opportunity for a family activity.

Don't let Josh's face fool you! We were laughing at Gus most of the time because he just kept eating all the candy. The floor was covered in candy at the end- and we loved it :)

 

The Journey of the Wise Men - Day 3

 

 

 

Day 3 found the wise men looking at a Bible with two crowns. The theme of the day was the names of Jesus found in Isaiah. The Bible was open to the verse that calls Jesus the Prince of Peace.

 

We continues to emphasize that Jesus was promised long before He came. We reviewed that Jesus was the Prince of Peace all day. I could not find crowns anywhere so I just made some. And these crowns were such a hit with our kids- they are still playing with them!

 

 

 

Day 2

Day 1
 

The Journey of the Wise Men- Day 2

 

 

 

 

 

On Day 2 of  The Journey of the Wise Men- the Wise Men were looking at the star.  

We talked again about how the Wise Men knew the scriptures and knew to look for the star. We talked about how they followed the star.

We also talked about how this was another promise that God made in the scriptures.

Each day when we talk with the kids, we review what happened the day before.

 

Hope you are following along on our journey! And click HERE for Day 1.

 

The Journey of the Wise Men- Day 1

Today we began a fun activity with the kids - The Journey of the Wise Men.

 

I have seen all kinds of daily activities to do with kids leading up until Christmas. I saw one that interested me that involved the wise men. I couldn't find anything that was exactly what I wanted to do, so Josh and I came up with our own. If you are like me doing something daily for the whole month of December seems like a lot. So we decided to just do this for a week. So it began today.

 

Theme: Promise

 

Isaiah 9:6

 

The wise men were found this morning on my Bible, and also on a new Bible for our kids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We talked about how God told Isaiah that He was going to send Jesus. We talked about how God promised He would send His son, and that God always keeps his promises. We looked at the story of Noah in the kids' new Bible. We talked about the rainbow and how that was another promise that God made. We talked about how the wise men knew to look at the Bible. We told the kids that if they wanted to be wise they needed to read the Bible too.

 

The Bible that we got the kids was The Big Picture Interactive Bible Storybook. So far we like it. It has an app that you can download on your phone to help tell each story.

 

I love that this will emphasize each day leading up until Christmas that the real reason for Christmas is Jesus.

 

If you do something similar, or visit this blog and are new- please leave a comment and let me know about it!! Tomorrow I will post about Day 2!