It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas ~ The Greatest Mission Trip You'll Ever Take

Do You Desire To Bring Your Child Into The Kingdom?

It's hard enough to be a Christian parent in this world. How do we combat the forces of evil while at the same time raise our children to desire to walk in God's light? By seeking His face, His Word and inspiration from each other as we stumble through this parenting process together. You will find all the instruction, encouragement and resources you need right here at The Greatest Mission Trip You'll Ever Take to help you be the most effective witness to your child that God would have you be. Look around and come back often. Let's learn together.

Friday, November 21, 2008

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

photo by Randy Son of Robert

Celebrating the birth of our Savior, aside from all the commercial hype, is a season long opportunity to teach our children about God and His salvation plan for His people. Nothing does a better job of that than the establishment of traditions. Traditions not only anchor a family with shared memories, they provide a rich resource of teaching moments that will imbed themselves in the hearts of our children.

Terra Hangen, co-author with five other Christian women of the book Scrapbook of Christmas Firsts: Stories to Warm Your Heart and Tips to Simplify Your Holiday, will be presenting today’s Resource Friday post as she explains how the six of them came together online over an idea.

Then be sure to come back each Tuesday through Christmas week as Terra graces us with simple, low or no cost ideas for celebrating the real reason for the season. I’ve gotten a sneak peek of some of the ideas, and they are really awesome. Christmas will never be the same in your house again.

As always with books I recommend, you can purchase them through The Greatest Mission Trip through the amazon.com link at the bottom of the post. This is definitely a book you’ll want for your collection.

Terra shares with us:

Six writers formed an online friendship and writing support group and wrote a book together, about celebrating Christmas. Our book, Scrapbook of Christmas Firsts: Stories to Warm Your Heart and Tips to Simplify Your Holiday, reflects the love that we poured into it.We six gals have not all met in person yet, and we hope that happens one day. I live in California, with my husband and two cats, and our adult children live nearby. Cathy Messecar and Leslie Wilson live on ranches in Texas, and Karen Robbins, Brenda Nixon and Trish Berg live in Ohio. Karen is the only one to have met each of us in person.

Our friendship began in 2004 when we became encouragers to each other in our writing careers, and eventually in other aspects of our lives. As those of you who are writers know, there is a lonely aspect to this business since we must spend a lot of time writing. There is rejection for writers to deal with as editors and publishers turn down magazine article queries and book proposals, and it is sweet to have cheer leaders to lift our spirits after disappointments, and even more sweet as we celebrate each success together.

Cathy Messecar had the idea to write a book about Christmas firsts, and she said yes when we asked to write it as a group project. This is the only book I know of that has lots of “firsts” stories. My story of camping in the Everglades one Christmas, Karen’s story of her two adopted children joining her family, a family reunited with their prodigal son for Christmas dinner at Waffle House, and many more are here.

Paul L. Maier, noted author, wrote that our book “keeps the nativity front and center in our annual celebrations, where it belongs” and Cec Murphey, co-author of “90 Minutes in Heaven,” says, “The authors draw readers into preparation for a new old-fashioned Christmas.”

Our book has many fun tidbits, all displayed in scrapbook appearance, with full color on each page. Cookie canister recipes, Scripture, old time poems and hymns, and the story of the first Christmas cards, the Christmas spider ornament legend, and our favorite holiday movies, books and charities are some of what you will find in Scrapbook of Christmas Firsts.

We six ladies each write a blog post once a week at our book’s own blog at http://scrapbookofchristmasfirsts.blogspot.com/, so for lots of free ideas and recipes please visit there. I post on Fridays, and I welcome you to leave tips and comments on my posts.

I also have my own blog with an eclectic mix of garden ideas, book reviews, book giveaways, a family recipe for gingerbread men, and more at http://terragarden.blogspot.com/

Be sure to visit Scrapbook of Christmas Firsts' blogsite for lots of great ideas to make this Christmas a special focus on Christ for you and your family. You can purchase the book by clicking on the amazon.com link below.