Author: Nurture Mama

Traditions of December

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December is a wonderful month, filled with meaning and traditions. Here are some of the traditions and ways that we celebrate the season in our home.

Focusing on Jesus Christ: Beginning December 1st, each night before bed we read a story from the life of Jesus Christ. We first started this back in 2008, and we are still going strong! We use a reading guide from The Friend magazine (laminated for durability), and the pictures from the Gospel Art Kit. This year I put all of the pictures in sheet protectors in a binder, so they are ready to go each night. The children take turns placing a sticker on the chart to mark our progress. Read more about this here.

Watch Holiday Movies: We always enjoy watching movies as a family, and our never-to-be-missed movie list this month includes White Christmas, Elf, and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (the cartoon Dr. Seuss version). My husband and I enjoy It’s a Wonderful Life, but our children are still a little young and didn’t show much interest in it when we tried it last year. Sometime during the month we will have a Polar Express Pajama Party with friends and drink hot chocolate!

We also love to watch the Christmas messages produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mr. Krueger’s Christmas is a classic, along with Nora’s Christmas Gift. There are a number of moving videos on the Mormon Channel and from The Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Just released this year is an amazing collaboration by talented YouTube artists . Please watch and share this message, you will be touched!

Community Activities: We support the holiday events in our community! For us this includes viewing the lights at the hospital duck pond, admiring nativity sets from around the world at our church’s Festival of the Nativity, participating in a ward party (and with musical talents that usually means my husband and I are performing something on the piano), and holding a piano recital for my students.

Reading books: You can find our December reading list here.

Family Home Evening: When Monday night comes, this is what we are doing for FHE!

On the Menu: take a peek at our Christmas menu .

What special traditions do you have this Christmas season?

Family Home Evening in December

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I love planning Family Home Evening in December, because there are always lots of meaningful things to do. Here are our FHE plans for the month:

Week 1: Talk about the reason for the season. Work on *grandparent pages. Watch Mormon Message Christmas videos.

*My husband’s family has a tradition each year of doing memory book  pages for the parents/grandparents. The adult siblings take turns picking a theme, and then each family completes a page (or more) relating to that theme. Past themes have included testimony, creative works, family traditions, and work. Each page gets assembled into a large binder, to keep and view for years to come.

Week 2: Watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. Draw and illustrate our own nativity scenes. Stuff and stamp Christmas cards. Eat pumpkin pie (because we didn’t get enough at Thanksgiving!)

Lily_nativity_drawing

 

A nativity scene by Lily, age 7 (I like her cute sheep).

Week 3:  Learn about the names of Christ. Use this  free printable, and have the children color in the names as we talk about each. Listen to Handel’s Messiah.

Names of Christ Advent free printablePrintable from alivelyhope.com

Week 4: Symbols of Christmas. My daughter put together a great object lesson on this topic last year at Activity Girls, so she gets to teach this lesson. Another good lesson outline is here. Activity and treat: Decorate Christmas Cone Trees.

IMG_7253-225x300Week 5: 2014 Year in Review. Review our Family Blog and share our favorite memories from the year. Complete the Family Interview using the printable from TeachMama.

What are your Family Home Evening plans for this month?

Books to Read in December

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Reading good books with my children is one of my favorite activities, and in December we love to read books related to the Christmas season. Some people online (like here and here) have shared their tradition of wrapping their books every year, then taking turns opening one book to read each night. I tried that one year, and it was exciting for my littles to open a book every night. But the one drawback I noticed is that some books were left wrapped most of the month, and thus unreadable. We try to read at least one book a day, but some days we read many and we like having a lot to choose from and the ability to read our favorites repeatedly.

Here are the books that have made it on our permanent bookshelf so far:

The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

The Night Before Christmas by Clement Moore illustrated by Mary Engelbreit

Drummer Boy by Loren Long

Who’s Getting Ready for Christmas illustrated by Maggie Kneen

The True Story of Christmas by Nell Navillus

A Christmas Dress for Ellen retold by Thomas S. Monson

How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

Good King Wenceslas as read by Jane Seymour

One Shining Star by Anne Vittur Kennedy

We generally try to add one new book each year, and we also fill in our collection with favorites from the library (remember to put them on hold by the time of Thanksgiving, or they will all be checked out!)

Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree by Robert Barry

Bear Noel by Olivier Dunrea

Olive, the Other Reindeer by Seibold & Walsh

McDuff’s New Friend by Rosemary Wells

Mooseltoe by Margie Palatini

Christmas in the Barn by Margaret Wise Brown

Bear Stays up for Christmas by Karma Wilson

Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo: this is a new one for us this year, and I look forward to sharing its sweet message with my children.

For older readers, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson is a fun read (and one of my favorites I remember as a youth). We also love the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and nearly every one of her books has a chapter or two about their Christmas celebrations.

What are your favorite Christmas books?

“Ponder the path of thy feet” (Highlights from President Monson-Oct 2014)

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President Monson’s most recent General Conference talk comes from this scripture in Proverbs 4:26 “Ponder the path of thy feet”. This is an excellent talk and made for a great FHE lesson. I had the children each trace an outline of their foot while we discussed the highlighted quotes below. 

“As we look to Jesus as our Exemplar and as we follow in His footsteps, we can return safely to our Heavenly Father to live with Him forever.”

“Physically walking where Jesus walked is less important than walking as He walked.”

Walking-as-He-Walked-Quote2image via Simple As That

Like Jesus, we can walk the path of: obedience, service, and prayer.

Read the scriptures to find instructions given to us by the Savior: be merciful, be humble, be righteous, be pure in heart, be peacemakers, stand up for beliefs, let our lights shine, be morally clean, love and serve our neighbors, improve our talents, rescue others.

“As we strive to place Christ at the center of our lives by learning His words, by following His teachings, and by walking in His path, He has promised to share with us the eternal life that He died to gain.”

“Nothing else, no other choice we make, can make of us what He can.”

President Thomas S. Monson, “Ponder the Path of Thy Feet”. October 2014 General Conference.

Guidelines for the smart use of technology (Highlights from Brother Ridd-April 2014)

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“You have agency. It is the power to not only act on your desires but also to refine, purify, and elevate your desires.”

Principles to guide your use of technology

1)Knowing who you really are makes decisions easier

2)Plug in to the source of power

“Every time you plug in your phone, use it as a reminder to ask yourself if you have plugged in to the most important source of spiritual power—prayer and scripture study, which will charge you with inspiration through the Holy Ghost”

3) Owning a smartphone does not make you smart, but using it wisely can

“Don’t do dumb things with your smartphone.

4) The Lord provides technology to accomplish his purposes

“The divine purpose of technology is to hasten the work of salvation.”

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From New Era Magazine

Randall L. Ridd, “The Choice Generation.” April 2014 General Conference.

A Disciple of Jesus Christ (Highlights from Sister Burton-April 2014)

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“As true disciples, may we offer our willing hearts and our helping hands to hasten His work. It does not matter if, like Brynn, we have only one hand. It does not matter if we are not yet perfect and complete. We are devoted disciples who reach out and help each other along the way. Our sisterhood reaches across the generations to those faithful sisters who have walked before. Together, as sisters and in unity with living prophets, seers, and revelators with restored priesthood keys, we can walk as one, as disciples, as servants with willing hearts and hands to hasten the work of salvation. As we do so, we will become like the Savior.”

Sister Linda K. Burton, “Wanted: Hands and Hearts to Hasten the Work”. April 2014 General Women’s Meeting.

“The Savior makes all things right.” (Highlights from Elder Christofferson-April 2014)

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“Having satisfied the demands of justice, Christ now steps into the place of justice; or we might say He is justice, just as He is love. Likewise, besides being a “perfect, just God,” He is a perfect, merciful God. Thus, the Savior makes all things right. No injustice in mortality is permanent, even death, for He restores life again. No injury, disability, betrayal, or abuse goes uncompensated in the end because of His ultimate justice and mercy.

“By the same token, we are all accountable to Him for our lives, our choices, and our actions, even our thoughts. Because He redeemed us from the Fall, our lives are in reality His.”meme-christofferson-savior-1240579-gallery

Elder D. Todd Christofferson, “The Resurrection of Jesus Christ”. April 2014 General Conference.

“Family history centers are now in our homes”. (Highlights from Elder Cook-April 2014)

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The doctrine of the family in relation to family history and temple work is clear. The Lord in initial revelatory instructions referred to “baptism foryour dead.”13 Our doctrinal obligation is to our own ancestors. This is because the celestial organization of heaven is based on families.14 The First Presidency has encouraged members, especially youth and young single adults, to emphasize family history work and ordinances for their own family names or the names of ancestors of their ward and stake members.15 We need to be connected to both our roots and branches. The thought of being associated in the eternal realm is indeed glorious.

“Family history centers are now in our homes”.

Elder Quentin L. Cook, “Roots and Branches”. April 2014 General Conference.

“Families are the treasure of heaven.” (Highlights from Elder Anderson-April 2014)

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“While many governments and well-meaning individuals have redefined marriage, the Lord has not. In the very beginning, God initiated marriage between a man and a woman—Adam and Eve. He designated the purposes of marriage to go far beyond the personal satisfaction and fulfillment of adults to, more importantly, advancing the ideal setting for children to be born, reared, and nurtured. Families are the treasure of heaven.”

“The way you feel in the temple is a pattern for how you want to feel in your life.”

Elder Neil L. Anderson, “Spiritual Whirlwinds”. April 2014 General Conference.

Be a disciple of Christ (Highlights from Elder Rasband-April 2014)

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“Jesus Christ continues to extend the call “Come and follow me.”5 He walked His homeland with His followers in a selfless manner. He continues to walk with us, stand by us, and lead us. To follow His perfect example is to recognize and honor the Savior, who has borne all of our burdens through His sacred and saving Atonement, the ultimate act of service. What He asks of each one of us is to be able and willing to take up the joyful “burden” of discipleship.”

“Focusing on serving our brothers and sisters can guide us to make divine decisions in our daily lives and prepares us to value and love what the Lord loves. In so doing, we witness by our very lives that we are His disciples. When we are engaged in His work, we feel His Spirit with us. We grow in testimony, faith, trust, and love.”

Elder Ronald A. Rasband, “The Joyful Burden of Discipleship”. April 2014 General Conference.