Family
Best Christmas Movies for the Family
If you are like me I’m sure you have a few favorite Christmas movies. My girls are just starting to be old enough to enjoy some of my favorites, so I asked my friends to help me compile this list of our favorite Christmas movies for the whole family to enjoy.
Christmas Movies for the Family
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Arthur Christmas
Curious George Very Monkey Christmas
Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Elf
Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas
Frosty
Happy Holidays From Madagascar
Jingle All The Way
Merry Madagascar
Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mickey Mouse
Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas
Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas
Miracle on 34th Street
Muppet Christmas Carol
Polar Express
Radio City Christmas Spectacular
Rudolph
Santa Clause
Shrek’s Swamp Stories
Thomas &Friends: Santa’s Little Engine
Toy Story That Time Forgot
White Christmas
Winnie the Pooh. A Very Merry Pooh Year
If I’ve left one of your favorite off this list, please comment below!
Do you use a movie rating tool to help you decide what movies are appropriate for your kids? Here are a few I found:
“…gives parents an idea of what they will encounter when they take their kids to the movies. With that in mind, we look at a film’s violence, sexual content, profanities and substance use as well as both positive and negative themes included in the script.”
“We rate, educate, and advocate for kids, families, and schools”
“We enable adults to determine whether a movie is appropriate for them or their children, according to their own criteria.”
Don’t Let Christmas Be Chaos!
Is Christmas about to come and go right before your eyes?? Be intentional with your time. Plan it out, but don’t do too much. Too many of our days are overloaded with the busyness of the holidays. Choose one thing each day. Invite other people. Have fun with each thing you do. Here’s a list of things you can do.
With Friends
- Do a secret Santa Gift Exchange
- Go shopping with Friends
- Find a local place to volunteer
- Sit and relax and have a warm drink
- Have a hallmark movie night
- Bake together
- Christmas Lights
- Sock exchange
- Ornament Exchange
- Nutcracker or other plays
- Go to the snow
With Kids
- Advent Calendar
- Christmas countdown rings
- Crafts
- Bake cookies
- Read the Christmas story
- Go see Santa
- Watch Christmas movies
- Hot Chocolate outing
- Local Christmas parades
- Living Nativity
- Christmas Lights
- Dress Christmas-y
- Kids book exchange
- Gingerbread House decorating
Party
- Have a cookie exchange
- Throw a tacky sweater party
- Progressive Dinner
- Play minute to win it games
- Play Christmas Charades
- Different gift exchanges
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Read MoreTeaching Our Kids Compassion
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” – Ephesians 4:32
In light of the tragic shooting in San Bernadino this week, I am reminded of how lost we are without Jesus. In the midst of questions regarding why this happened only one thing stood out to me–that we serve a God that never falters, is always with us, and will never leave us. That is the only certainty in the world.
But what can we do?
As much as I want my kids to grow up in a world where they will always be safe and where I can protect them, I know that is not always the case. However, I can prepare their hearts and minds to be a light for God – to live their lives with compassion in a world filled with hate.
We just so happened to be watching “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” today and it brought up a lot of great conversations about “why the Grinch was mean.” We talked about how the other kids were not nice to him just because he looked different and how sad that made him feel. His sadness turned to anger and he became unkind. When we finish the movie I hope to talk about how Cindy Lou’s kindness and compassion made a difference in the Grinch’s life and how she taught him to be kind. I think this is the same way we can choose to react to this type of horror – to teach and show our children compassion in a hurting world. From small acts of compassion to the people in our lives, to global actions that first and foremost show God’s never-ending love.
I found this sermon by The Rock Church and World Outreach …
Read MoreThankful Hearts
“I am thankful for my faith and the freedom we have in our country to worship and share our world view with others. I am grateful for God who gives me life and breath and purpose. I am thankful for my precious husband who is faithful and devoted to our family and fills my life with fun and adventure. I am grateful for having wonderful relationships with each one of my daughters and am blessed by how they follow Jesus in their lives. They have all married excellent men and all choose to honor God and serve Him together and I LOVE being a Gammie to 7 almost 8 grandchildren. They keep me young and bring me joy! I am thankful for the gift of good healthy and the opportunity to gain “wellness wisdom”. I am thankful for my incredible girl friends, hiking buddies, prayer partners. And I am extremely thankful for the opportunities that I have in my life to love and serve the women in my community and the women and orphans in Malawi, Africa.”
Have Fun With Your Significant Other!
Do you have someone special to share your life with?! If you do, you know how important it is to carve out time together regularly.
A great way to spend time together is to do an activity. Pick something you have in common and join a group, club, gym, etc. to schedule that regular time doing something together.
My husband and I love fitness, so we bought a Groupon to take kettlebell classes together. The fun part about this is he has experience and I don’t–so he gets to be the “expert” of sorts, sharing something he enjoys as I learn the ropes (or should I say “swings” since we are talking about kettlebells).
It is fun to break out of the normal date routine of movies and dinner and share an experience together. I am getting to learn more about one of my husband’s passions, while also doing something I love–fitness!!
What do you and your husband do together? What activity would you choose?
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Baby On The Mind
You may not think that it is baby season but to all the mamas who deliver in the Spring (what is often known as Baby Season), Baby is definitely on her mind. We just finished our Baby Registry and it was quite the feat. I love researching, but there are so many options when it comes to baby it was hard to find the “right” answer for a lot of items. I also love supporting small, creative businesses -their products can usually be found online and not always in stores so it was important for me to find an online registry that I really enjoyed using so I could add that creative touch to our registry. And, I did!
We are using BabyList Online Baby Registry – www.babyli.st – and here are a few reasons why I have liked it!
- Easy to Use — As overwhelming as registering for baby can be, a difficult online registry is the last thing that a mom-to-be needs! BabyList is clear and concise and has made it really fun to find some unique gifts to add to our registry.
- Link for Other Registries — I was able to link my Store Registries like Buy Buy Baby and Target onto my BabyList registry so that they are all in one place! Great for friends or family that may not be as tech savvy – all the info for your baby registry can be found from one link!
- Organized — I am able to organize every item that I add to my BabyList registry to make it easier for me to see what we have in each category as well as for the shopper
- Awesome App — BabyList has a great app so I can add things right from my phone! The app and website are
Hesed-Showing Lovingkindness this Thanksgiving
“HESED”-Showing Lovingkindness this Thanksgiving
“Hesed” is the Hebrew word for loving-kindness and steadfast love. Hesed is a word used in the Old Testament to describe God’s covenant love for His people. In the book of Exodus 34 God is described as merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (hesed) and faithfulness. Hesed is more than LOVE, it infers a loyalty that is not fleeting or transitory. Hesed is best described as we look at the character of the God of the bible. He is a covenant keeping God; faithful, merciful, full of grace, kindness and loyalty. His love is freely given, not out of obligation or duty, but because of His desire to express His character to His beloved children.
During this month of November, I like to keep my mind focused on all the people and circumstances in my life that I can be grateful and thankful for. My husband, daughters, SILs and grandchildren are at the top of my list of gratefulness. It is a joy to serve them and show them steadfast love. This Thanksgiving season, I want to show kindness to others outside of my family as well, not out of duty or obligation, not to gain anything in return. I want to be an ambassador of God’s hesed, a messenger of hope and joy.
I have posted a few times this past month about Gogo Grandmothers. (to see previous posts about Gogo Grandmothers and how to participate in Hesed love projects, click here). Working with this organization gives me an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus and to show God’s hesed love to orphans and widows.
My heart is connected with these beautiful people even though I have not met them. I have a sense of …
Build Your Own Burrito Bowls – When Dinner Delights
I easily get stuck in a rut with meals. I forget that my three little mouths to feed need a change. Sometimes I get it right, and this week I had success with Build Your Own Burrito Bowls!
You can use any of your favorite Mexican foods – just place each food item in its own bowl with a serving utensil and let your family choose what they want and scoop it themselves into their bowl.
Here are the foods we had for our burrito bowl feast.
Build Your Own Burrito Bowls
Brown Rice
Black Beans
Pinto Beans
Sauteed Kale
Chicken
Grated Cheese
Cucumbers
Sliced Red Pepper
Salsa
Avocado
Tortilla Chips
The girls LOVED serving their own food and ate so many things they never eat! We actually had to stop dinner because they wouldn’t stop eating!
It can be fun to get your family excited about meals again just by changing the presentation of your meals. Try finger food lunch in muffin tins, use cookie cutters to make shape with your foods, make muffin pizza or mexican taco cupcakes.
How do you get your family excited about meal time?
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Fall in Love as you Serve-Gogo Grandmothers
Falling in love through service is an incredible experience. When your heart is moved by an unmet need and you know that you are being called to participate in fulfilling that need, an instantaneous thing happens in your heart-you fall in love with the people you are serving. TRUE greatness in this world comes through serving others. True love also comes when you give 100% to another person and that happens through serving one another.
Look at these faces and read the “Did you know” facts that accompany each photo….. These are the faces of the new people I love…I have never met them but my heart is drawn towards them all because I have taken the risk of joining in, making myself vulnerable and jumping into serving these beautiful women and children that live in Malawi, Africa.
Ten days ago, I attended a Gogo Grandmothers retreat held at Mariner’s Church in Orange County. This 10th annual Gogo Grandmothers retreat was a glorious day spent renewing our hearts and reaffirming our commitment for the continued work being accomplished in Malawi. I am privileged to be a board member for the SAFE /Gogo Grandmothers ministry and have loved every minute of my time serving with the other members of the board. (SAFE stands for Sub-Saharan Family Enrichment) We serve a mighty God who moves in mighty ways!
Gogo Grandmothers provides for the orphans of AIDS in Malawi, Africa by assisting the grandmothers who care for them. In America, and across the world, individuals and Gogo Grandmothers groups (often uniting women who are grandmothers themselves) gather monthly to pray and carry out fund-raising projects that provide what poor “gogos” in Malawi need to raise the orphans whose parents have died due to the ravages of AIDS in their country. In …
Read MorePumpkin Preschool Activities
I had the pleasure of teaching a pumpkin themed lesson today for our preschool coop. We had so much fun!
Here are some of the fun things we did today with pumpkins:
Pumpkin Sensory Bin
I filled a plastic bin with decorative pumpkins and gourds, pasta, and Fall foam characters. Hanna enjoyed scooping things out of the bin and putting them in other things. Ellie discovered that when you rubbed two pumpkins together they made a cool sound. We also measured some of the items in the bin.
Pumpkin Measuring
I put mini pumpkins out on the table with different kinds of measuring tapes and rulers so that the kids could measure. Ellie also had fun measuring the items in the sensory bin. We even measured one of our giant pumpkins.
Pumpkin Snack
I served pumpkin chocolate chip mini muffins, cuties (because they look like pumpkins!), and pumpkin O’s from Trader Joe’s.
Pumpkin Painting Craft
Paper plates, red and yellow paint, paint brushes, green paper, green pipe cleaners, pencil, stapler.
I showed the kids how red and yellow mix to make orange then we painted our pumpkins with washable paints. I cut the center out of a paper plate to make a circle. After the kids painted their pumpkins I wrapped a green pipe cleaner around a pencil to make it curly and stapled the pipe cleaner and a green paper stem to the top of their pumpkin. The pumpkins were a perfect fit for silly pumpkin face pictures.
Pumpkin Observations
2 pumpkin pie pumpkins, an ice cream scooper, zip lock bag.
I precut and hollowed on pumpkin and put the seeds and pulp in a clear zip lock bag. I pre cut the top of the second pumpkin but did not scoop it out.
I asked the kids to …
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