Betsy, Emily, Jen, and Steph could talk forever about creative ways to celebrate the coming of the Savior! But thankfullly for you, we've taken our best tips and resources from our 4-part Christmas series last year, so you can listen quickly and then put them into practice! You'll hear fantastic book recommendations from Jen and thoughtful ways to pause this Advent season. Being a Christian parent is never more fun than at Christmastime, so make sure you are prepared!

Books Mentioned:

The Advent Book By Jack and Kathy Stockman

Christmas Day in the Morning By Pearl S. Buck

The First Christmas Night By Keith Christopher

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey By Susan Wojciechowski

An Orange for Frankie By Patricia Polaco

Shooting at the Stars By John Hendrix

Thanksgiving Graces By Mark Molton

Joy to the World By Charles Spurgeon

Unwrapping the Greatest Gift By Ann Voskamp

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever By Barbara Robinson

Links to The Full Christmas Episodes:

Part 1: Advent Episode

Part 2: Traditions to Solve Holiday Dilemmas

Part 3: Our Thoughts on Santa, The Talk, and More

They're the joyful agains our children shout on the swings, the

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exhausting agains of cooking and laundry,

and the difficult agains of discipline.

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So much of what we do

as mothers is on repeat.

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So what if we woke up with clarity,

knowing which agains we were called

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to, and went to bed believing we

are faithful in what matters most?

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We believe God's Word is

the key to untangle from the

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confusion and overwhelm we feel.

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Let's look up together to embrace a

motherhood full of freedom and joy.

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Welcome back to the again, podcast.

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I'm your host, Stephanie Hickox.

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And this is Ratu by entrusted ministries.

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Thanksgiving wrapped up and just

like that we're in December.

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Did the closeness of that

throw you off a little bit too.

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This year, we totally understand.

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Last Christmas, Jen Frackman

Emily DOE Betsy corny.

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And I.

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Sat down for a lengthy conversation.

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And we had four great episodes about

decorating for Christmas advent

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celebrations, book recommendations,

how we wrap presents and.

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Even developing codes.

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But if you're busy and just need to

get to it, I have taken some clips.

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So that you can get

right to our best tips.

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Of course, if you want to listen to

the episodes in their entirety, I

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will link those in the show notes.

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This episode is going to cover some

of our favorite advent traditions

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that we have done as well as some

favorite book recommendations.

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We know it's past December 1st, but it

really isn't too late to start spending

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some daily time making sure your

children know that this is all about

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celebrating the arrival of Jesus Christ.

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Last episode.

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I sat down with grace, Anna Castleberry,

and we talked about her amazing

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advent resource manger in danger.

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I've begun that with my family this

year and we are absolutely loving it.

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So I hope you had a chance to listen to

that, but if you're needing something

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simple that you can find around the

house of right now, listen for these

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ideas or perhaps it will be inspired.

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To purchase.

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One or more of the

books that we mentioned.

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All right, let's keep it

short and sweet and get to it.

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Stephanie: Let's get into Advent

traditions then, any book recommendations

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Emily: Jen, I know you have books.

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I know you do.

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Jen: I know.

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I was trying to, be but I was like

eager, just biting at the bit to go.

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Oh, I love it.

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I do.

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I had to pare down, but I picked

out like my best that I love.

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Okay.

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So the first one.

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It's called The Advent Book by

Jack and Kathy and we actually were

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gifted this, but it is beautiful.

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It has a bright, shimmery gold

cover that says The Advent Book,

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and then each page is very thick.

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Thick gold lined page.

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So it's what it's meant to be

like a keepsake and there are

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beautiful doors on each page you

open the door and it tells a story.

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It is so precious and so

pretty and just beautiful.

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All the doors are so ornate and

Detailed and It's just really So

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this one is one of my favorites

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Emily: and is this, good for families with

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young children older also?

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Jen: Yes, it's for anyone.

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Emily: Okay.

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Jen: Young, because It's brief, I

think young children can understand

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it as well but the beauty of it,

older children appreciate it even

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Emily: Yes.

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Jen: Okay, so there's that and then

another of my favorites is Christmas

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Day in the Morning by Pearl S.

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Buck.

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And it just is a sweet story of a little

say a young boy who works on a farm or

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farm and he wanted to surprise his dad.

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and give him and so he went up before

his dad was awake and for him so be

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there In the morning when everyone

woke up and his dad was never around.

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In the morning on Christmas morning

to see the children come family

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being together and realizing that the

gifts don't have to be worth a bunch

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of money, and the love behind it.

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It's just really good

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this is my absolute favorite.

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It's The First Christmas Night,

written by Keith the artist is

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Illustrated by Christine

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Kornacki, K O R N A C K I.

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The paintings in this

are absolutely unreal.

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They look like they are live

people jumping off the page.

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But it is set...

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To the night before Christmas,

that poem, Twas the night before

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Christmas and all through the house.

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But this is night.

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So it starts off and it says let's

see, I'll read the first part.

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Twas the very first Christmas

when all through the town

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not a creature was stirring.

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There was not a sound.

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shining bright in the heavens So

high gave the luster of midday sky.

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So it goes through the

whole Christmas story.

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But set to the night before Christmas.

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And then I love the Christmas

miracle of Jonathan Toomey.

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This is a special one.

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I tried to make molasses cookies and then

we read this story, Sitting by the Fire.

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But it's just about an old

harsh man who lost his, wife and

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child and he's, pretty gruff.

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And a widow and her son move

to the town and they ask him to

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make a manger scene out of wood.

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And he teaches the child how to make

them and He describes, like, no, the

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cow is very interested in looking at

Jesus this way and just the thought

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that goes into making the manger scene

out of wood It's a very sweet, story.

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So we like that one.

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And then another one is An Orange

for Frankie by Patricia Polico.

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And this one is Again, about

family and it's about their

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family feeding homeless people.

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And this little boy gives a sweater

that his sister had given him to a

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homeless man because he was so cold.

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And then there's a.

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A special portion about how the

family gets an orange every Christmas.

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It's very special.

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And the boy lost his orange.

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And so the whole family gave

a slice of their orange a

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wedge of their orange to him.

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And the way that they show it and

illustrate it in the book, and the

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way that they come together as a

family, it's just really sweet.

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It's just a nice

heartwarming story as well.

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And this book is very different, and

I wouldn't recommend for younger kids.

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But for older kids, it's

actually a really neat story.

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It's called Shooting at the Stars,

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It's written by John Hendricks,

and how in the middle of the

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war, there was a Christmas truce.

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where they stopped fighting and

they sang Silent Night and so

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it's a true Christmas story in the

battle, in the midst of a battle.

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And so it does talk about war, so

that's why I wouldn't recommend

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it for the younger ages, but

just the Christmas spirit.

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Of

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being in the middle of a war and knowing

it's Christmas back home and everyone is

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celebrating family and what they got to

do this Christmas was pretty remarkable.

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Those are some of my favorites.

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And then we, I have a whole basket full

of books that anytime that I find one

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that talks about the Christmas story

in a different perspective, I will.

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Put it in the basket.

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And so we probably have a good 30

different books that we read through

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all of December that are just

different ways to tell the story.

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One is from the perspective of an animal.

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One is from the perspective of baby Jesus

looking out at everybody coming to visit.

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One is from the perspective of

the shepherds just all different

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ways that we can talk about this.

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Just think of how.

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Amazingness is that Christ

came down to be a baby born in

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a manger and all other Kings.

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Are so royal and majestic and get the

best, but our Savior came and was born

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where animals eat from a trough of hay.

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So as many ways that we can just

show them and put that in front of

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them that this is such a moment to

treasure and to remember each year

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Is a good book in

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my book.

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Stephanie: We want it to stay fresh

and new to them no matter how old

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I get, I find the Lord does that for

me and gives me a new perspective

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or someone in the Christmas story to

really connect with and empathize with.

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There's so much richness there.

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So thank you for all of those

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Betsy: Those are great.

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Jen: Yes, there's one more

that I have to mention.

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It's not technically Christmas.

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It's called Thanksgiving Graces, but

we read it at Thanksgiving, but then

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we also read it at Christmas because it

talks about how families come together

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and there's a little boy who's nervous

because his grandma and his mom are

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in the kitchen cooking for everybody

and more people keep showing up.

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This aunt and uncle came and they didn't

know they were coming and then this niece

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and nephew show up home from college

and they didn't know they were coming.

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And so the little boy goes into the

kitchen and is worried for the grandma

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and the mom and says, What do we do?

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You didn't know they were coming

and the grandma stops what she does

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and it's doing and takes the child

upon her knee and says, Do you

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remember how Jesus fed the 5, 000?

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And all it took were two loaves

and Five fish or three fish.

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What was it?

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I can't remember.

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five two loaves and three fish.

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or five fish.

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Remember how Jesus fed the 5, 000?

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and so she just goes through how

God always makes it be enough.

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and she says, we've never Hungry God

just makes it happen and makes it work.

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the whole family then sits around at

the table and sure enough, at the end of

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the story, there's enough for everybody.

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Everybody is filled.

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Everybody's hearts are filled

as well as their bellies.

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And so we read that at Christmas time

because that's when we're all together.

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Stephanie: My kids are at an age where

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The advent calendars are

still really special to them.

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And we've done different ideas

where I've taken little gift bags.

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They were at Ikea one year, but

it was like 25 little gift bags.

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I'd put a chocolate in there for

each of them and then an idea.

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So I have to say, I did not put the

Christmas idea in the bag beforehand.

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I waited till the night

before and thought, okay,

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what's feasible for tomorrow?

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Because this is when they were

pretty little and I would know,

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okay, tomorrow's the day we're

going to do our gingerbread house.

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So I would put a little note

in there that says, today we're

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making a gingerbread house.

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And they loved that surprise

of it wasn't just a chocolate.

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It was, what are we going to

do together that's special?

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I didn't just have it be

activities or fun things.

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It's, there are service projects in there.

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So it might be write a thank

you note to the librarians or

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shovel snow for a neighbor.

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I want to be really careful that.

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in celebrating Christ that I'm

not making my kids think that

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December is all about them.

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It's not.

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How can we delight in the joys

and make these fun memories, but

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also keep it centered on others.

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So that's a way with the Advent

traditions that I've done that.

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One of my favorites is One year we

built a manger at church together, and

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it came with its own devotional, but

just having that manger, and we have it

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empty in front of the tree, and, can

put a piece of hay every day, just

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preparing the way for Jesus to come.

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Honestly, kind of a sweet story Maybe

five years back and I had decorated my.

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My house for the time

where I felt good about it.

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When you have toddlers and you're

like, it's just so much work.

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And it.

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was the first time where I was

like, my house looks beautiful.

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I felt like I had some advent systems

in place where in traditions that I

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was excited to begin with my kids and

I felt like I've really prepared well.

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This is exciting to head

into December like this.

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And then I went to my friend's house

she has her own design company.

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And so I went to her house and her kids

are older and it just, it was amazing.

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And, in the front of her

house, she had this manger.

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I looked at it and I just had to

fight the no, like I'm not doing

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it right because clearly that's

the most beautiful tradition,

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but I didn't even know about it.

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And I went home and I looked it.

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up and okay, number one, it's

not going to be here on time.

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And then number two, I can't

afford to buy it right now.

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I just had to fight that battle of

someone's doing it differently And that

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seems better than what I'm doing , I'm

mentioning that because there are so

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many different traditions you can do.

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So many different books you can read

it's good for me to remember don't

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have to do every idea on Pinterest.

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We don't have to embrace every tradition.

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It's about keeping peace in the

home and focusing on Christ.

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And often that means doing less.

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What was so sweet about it is then

the next week at church, our church

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announced that they were having

this workshop where families were

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going to build majors together.

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Jen: Aw,

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Stephanie: it was only 10.

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And.

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That was just another way.

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where I felt like, Lord, like saw

my heart in that and you provided.

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And so now we have the memory of building

it together and it was even better.

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So we love having our manger and then

my daughter loves putting her baby

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doll in there on Christmas night.

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One year we did something that

was completely my husband's idea.

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And he said there's 24 days in December.

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And there's 24 chapters in Luke.

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So what if we just read a

chapter of Luke every night?

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Jen: That's cool.

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Stephanie: And you start with Luke one

and Luke two, and then you're a couple

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of days before Christmas and you're

reading about the crucifixion and

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everything Jesus went through for us.

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And it was almost like this is too hard,

wanting to enter in the joy of Christmas

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and it's the pain of good Friday.

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But I realized though, this is so

beautiful we understand why Jesus came

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so much because we've been meditating

on everything he's going to do.

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So when we wake up tomorrow morning.

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We're waking up with that story of

his death and resurrection so fresh in

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our minds and it ended up to be such a

beautiful way to meditate on why Christ

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came and we all have Bibles, right?

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That's a free option.

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and I mentioned that because

sometimes we do overcomplicate it

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one of our more recent Advent Books

is Unwrapping the Greatest Gift it

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goes along with the Jesse tree idea.

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So you can, I think, buy ornaments

to go with it, but I make my own.

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I just bought some plain ones

at Hobby Lobby and then wrote

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numbers on them or names and then

decorate them with paint markers.

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And then the kids hang them on

the tree and, I would put tea

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lights around the room and then

we would take the time to light.

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It's the 10th of December, then

we would light 10 candles and that

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anticipation of building the moment for

the devotional, they really loved that.

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It seemed to just help them

meditate on the sweetness of it.

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And I think for little ones, having

them maybe color a picture or something

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while While you're reading can always

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help their attention span.

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we really love the best Christmas

pageant ever by Barbara Robinson.

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And I will warn you, there's

some sassy moments in here.

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But these naughty children learn about

the Christmas story and their fresh eyes

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to see what Jesus did for us and what

Mary and Joseph went through in the story.

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It's funny and relatable.

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We just laugh so hard at it.

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Jen: Oh, that's so fun.

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We listened to the audio book of

that and it was an old grandma with

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a really raspy voice that read it.

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Oh, it was so good.

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I was laughing so hard.

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I had to stop the audio because

they couldn't, we couldn't

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hear what was happening and

I was laughing so hard at it.

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It's a good.

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Good book.

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Stephanie: And the little girl

saying, I would say, Shazam!

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He's here!

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And it's just really

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sweet.

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Jen: So true.

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Aww.

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Betsy: Unsolicited comments.

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I love what you said.

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Shazam, he's here.

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teaching Sunday school one time.

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This little girl, we asked her, Jesus

was going to Zacchaeus house and

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we asked her, if Jesus was coming

to your house what would you do?

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and she raised her, hand right

away and said, I would decorate a

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little bit and practice my bowing.

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It was so

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cute.

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Just right

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Stephanie: Oh, that's

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Betsy: a little five year old.

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I always remember that.

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just so sweet.

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the Lord has laid on our hearts.

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If you've been blessed by this podcast

or by this ministry, please head to

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And consider giving to help

us continue in our efforts to

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spread the glory of God in homes.

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Stephanie: We know you're busy,

Mama, so we are truly grateful you

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joined us for this episode of Again.

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If you're looking for more information

about building your home on the

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foundation of Jesus Christ, head to www.

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EntrustedMinistries.

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com to learn more about our study for

moms, Entrusted with a Child's Heart.

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This scripture saturated study

has blessed families around the

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world, and we want it for you, too.

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Before you go, I want to pray

this benediction over you

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from 2 Thessalonians 1, 11 12.

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We're rooting for you.

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To this end, we always pray for you,

that our God may make you worthy of His

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calling, and may fulfill every resolve

for good and every work of faith by

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His power, so that the name of our Lord

Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in

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Him, according to the grace of our God.

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And the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Amen.

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Until we meet again.