Book Basket during Adoption and Thanksgiving Month.

We love books at our house and one way we celebrate holidays is filling a basket full of related books.  This month our basket is full of Adoption and Thanksgiving books (along with a few other special books sprinkled in).  It is extra fun this year because I have girls old enough to read some of the bigger chapter books about adoption.   Some are fiction some are non-fiction.   

It is great to see the books scattered about after little hands have spent time enjoying them.

My October Music Tradition

This is a tradition for me personally...to listen to this song sometime in October.  I love it...it speaks to me in some way I can't really explain.  It meant even more once Brad and I got married in October of 1994 and then on October 31 of 2002 Haley blessed this world with her presence.  

October is a great month!

PS:  I am a Barry Manillow fan...he is before my time but growing up with three big sisters some things kind of stick. :)

Christmas Traditions

I LOVE Christmas time!

It is my most favorite holiday each year!
I am the type of person who begins listening to Christmas music in early fall.
I love it when the radio stations start up early.
I also see how Thanksgiving isn't forgotten because the music is playing....to me it is part of the Holidays!
~HOWEVER~
The past few years we have noticed that while it is fun to shop for our children and it is fun to watch them open their gifts we felt like the true meaning of Christmas was being lost among the wrappings.
So last year we introduced a new tradition.
We have always done the Christmas Eve PJ's
and the
traditional reading of the Christmas story from the Bible.
But last year we combined them.
After reading the story our children were each given a wrapped present.
Each child opened up their gift and found what we introduced as "swaddling clothes".
Yes...they were pajamas but we called them swaddling clothes and talked more about baby Jesus and His swaddling clothes.
It turned out better than we could have planned....the kids LOVED it!

This brings us to this year.
We will still be doing the Christmas Eve swaddling clothes
but then on
Christmas morning our children will wake up to whatever Santa brought
(of course)
along with
three gifts for each child.
Each gift represents
the three gifts the wise men brought to
Baby Jesus.
This is our way of trying to bring the true meaning to life for our family.
Some may feel this is going a little "cheap"
but our wish for our family is that
the Birth and Life of Jesus Christ will be the center of our day.

We have also noticed the benefits this brings to our pocket book and allows us to help others.
This brings me to another New Tradition we are starting this year.
It is in Honor of my Favorite Baby.
Please check back tomorrow and join us in our New Tradition.

Meanwhile ....I would LOVE to hear about your favorite traditions! Please share in the comment section!
Happy Tradition Making!