Tag: Christmas

Our Cozy Christmas Home 2023

Posted on by Lauren Lane

The tree is decorated, my winter containers are done and looking festive, and the house is full of twinkly lights, cozy candles, and holiday cheer. Grab your warm coffee and come cozy up in our holiday home…

Did I stand in the rain to take this picture? I sure did.

Our warm living room…

My favorite piece from Nathan’s Grandma’s village set is this house with a greenhouse attached…

Our Santa picture is getting an update this year still…

And the outdoor containers this year…

And the boys got their own little trees in their rooms this year for their own ornaments…

Our kitchen table doesn’t have much room for extra things, but you have to have a little bit of Christmas on your kitchen table…

And our main family Christmas tree…

Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

Happy Advent!

Posted on by Lauren Lane

It’s December! And this house has FINALLY turned a corner on all of the sicknesses. I’ve slept in my OWN bed for several nights without being woken up. Coughs are subsiding. And my goodness, it’s December and time to look forward to the holidays.

Last year, I began a journey to make our advent season more intentional. I love the anticipation of the season, but wanted to feel like we could do a little bit each day to celebrate the season and build up to the celebration of the birth of the Christ child. In particular, I wanted our advent season to focus on the joy of giving. And thus, we began doing an advent calendar that incorporated some fun activities for the boys, and various ways to “Be the Gift” in the holiday season.

The boys are still so young, but I want them to grow up having always looked for ways that they could show kindness and love to others.

I’m sharing two pages of printable advent prompts with ideas of how to Be the Gift this season for little kids (and big kids alike!)

Advent Calendar- Be-the-Gift-promptsDownload

Hoping your advent season is full of meaning and expectation as we get ready to welcome the Christ child this year.

Praying for Your People

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Every Christmas, I look forward to the Christmas cards that flood our otherwise junk mail and bill filled mailbox. The smiling faces and life updates from families that have impacted our lives some since childhood and otherwise more recently just bring me an immense amount of joy. I started years back, though, my very favorite tradition of all around the New Year.

As I pack up Christmas, I take the Christmas cards off of our walls and put them in a stack. Then one quiet morning, I take my stack of cards with a cup of coffee and go through and hold each one in my hands again. I read the card. Look at the smiling faces. And I pray for each family one by one.

Usually my prayer consists of thanking God for bringing them into our lives and the way they have enriched and impacted our lives. I pray for their upcoming year that it might be filled with joy, good health, and wonder. I pray for the struggles they have shared with us and those that they have carried silently by themselves. And I end the prayer asking that God help us with helping to remind them how important they are in this world and our lives. That they might know they are loved today and evermore.

It usually takes me a couple of mornings to get through all of the cards. And I’ll admit, as I pour myself a coffee to start on this year’s stack, I’m a little farther behind this year than I was in year’s past. But it’s a wonderful habit to add to your new year. And I find that it just lifts my soul in ways that new year’s resolutions, word of the year, and intentions ever do.

Christmas 2022: A Photo Diary

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I’m sitting at my kitchen counter with a bar of dark chocolate while one of our little boys naps upstairs after being sent home from daycare with a fever yesterday. Looking back through these pictures makes me eternally grateful. With little ones, I find myself treasuring any holiday we get without sickness and spent with family.

Here’s a look at how our winter break went…

Our annual making of our Chex Mix with the boys. I love a “recipe” that is so easy for kids this little, and they can snack while we make it.

And yes, we make it on the floor of the kitchen every year. It works for us.

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My Winter Containers

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Hi friends! And happy 2023! We had a really wonderful holiday and winter break. I feel like I say it every year, but Christmas with a four and two year old may be my favorite yet. I’m going to share some favorite pictures from the break tomorrow, but today I’m finally getting around to sharing my winter outside containers this year.

In fairness, I put together my winter containers before the holidays, but I love making them easily non-Christmas-y, so they look beautiful all winter long.

In the front, I anchored the container with a spruce top picked up at my local garden nursery. I bought the white berry, pine cone, and birch wood accents last year, so they cost me zero dollars this year. 🙂

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Our Advent Calendar

Posted on by Lauren Lane

This advent season, I wanted a way to incorporate all of the holiday memories and experiences I look forward to this time of year. But I also wanted to incorporate and focus on ways of giving back, too, and finding ways for the boys to start to learn how to give back. Thus was born this year’s advent calendar.

I sat down about a month ago and collected experiences and ways to give back in one big long list. Then a few weeks back, I looked at our family calendar and started assigning the items to a particular day in the 24 days that lead up to Christmas. About half of our days will be fun Christmas experiences this year, and the other half will be ways that we can bless and be the gift to someone else.

I noticed this fall with Harrison, our oldest, in particular as we collected peanut butter for a food drive for kids that didn’t have enough to eat at home on the weekends, that he really started to grasp that there were kids that weren’t as privileged as himself. And I love that their little hearts, even as young as Jonathan, are already so geared towards helping others. I hope we can encourage that now and as they grow to be looking for ways to be helpers all year long.

If the boys aren’t already so excited to start opening the calendar, I think my excitement may top even theirs!

Here are some experiences that we have planned for them this year!

  • Popcorn & Christmas movie night
  • Visit Santa
  • Snack tray dinner by the fire
  • Wear your Christmas jammies to bed
  • Listen to Christmas songs during dinner
  • Read the Christmas story
  • Hot chocolate + Home Alone movie night

And here are some of the ways that we’re going to serve others this season:

  • Make a snack basket for delivery workers
  • Donate a new toy to a child in need
  • Pick out a present for your brother
  • Deliver presents to the neighbors
  • Refill the bird feeders and bird baths

The excitement for little kids in opening the activity and seeing at as special before it even happens is half the magic, in my opinion. Activities don’t have to be big, expensive, and grandiose. Little things that are slightly different and outside of their norm is what makes it special to little kids.

It’s a blessing to be able to help build someone’s childhood memories. I’m hopeful that there were will be memories created this year that the boys look forward to year after year. Or maybe many years from now when they have kids of their own, they’ll think about recreating with their own families.

What are ways that you give back this season with your kids? I’d love ideas for outside of the Christmas season and for next year, too!

How I’m Keeping Holiday Shopping Organized

Posted on by Lauren Lane

It never fails that December 16th-ish rolls around, and I start to panic. Gifts have been stuck in hiding places all over the house. I have no exact idea what I have bought for each person, and I start to think that maybe I haven’t done enough. Thus ensues the panic buying leading up to Christmas…

At least Baby J is displaying how I feel inside. I’m not proud of my tendency….and that’s why I decided that things needed to happen differently this year.

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Let’s Look At…Where We Shop for Our Moms

Posted on by Lauren Lane

It’s Let’s Look day with Shay @ Mix and Match Mama and Erika @ A Little Bit of Everything! If you’re new here, it’s one day a month that we share a little peak into some aspect of our lives. So far this year, I’ve shared:

Today we’re talking about where we shop for our Mom. This is my mom, Cheryl.

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