Sunday, December 13, 2009

Tis the Season

Written by the husband this time :) (you can probably tell!)

Well, the Christmas season is upon us. As parents, this time of the year presents us with so many challenges and joys. We always try to engage whatever culture we live in with a critical eye and present creative alternatives when we feel there may be a better way. We refuse to let commercials and consumerism hijack the celebrations we cherish. We're experimenting with our own family traditions. This is what we've come up with so far:


Instead of shopping on Black Friday, we observe Buy Nothing Day. This year we all had breakfast together, read stories, and started decorating. We talked with our kids about what Christmas really meant, and told the parable of the sheep and the goats. Jesus said "whatever you do to the least of these, that you do unto me." In that spirit, we got out a large box and asked the kids if they would want to give any of their toys to kids who might not have or get very much. They had tons of fun and put a lot of thought into what they chose. They filled up the box with toys, and mommy and the girls wrapped it together.

We've bought an Advent calendar, and the girls enjoy taking turns opening it each day and reading the bible verse with it.

We thought that maybe it was hypocritical to celebrate the birth of the guy who said "sell your possessions and give to the poor" by purchasing new possessions and giving them to the rich. We decided to either create gifts, make donations in someone's name, or, if we do buy something, buy local or fair-trade items.


We've limited the gifts we purchase for our kids. We each choose one smaller gift for each girl, and then we'll get one larger gift for the whole family.


Last night we went caroling at a few nursing homes with Miriam and Jordan Briggaman, Andre and Mandi Knepp, and Brianne and John Davidson. The kids seemed to have a blast and were definitely a blessing.

We're still trying to figure it all out, but we mainly want our celebration and anticipation to bring glory and honor to the One whom we anticipate and celebrate. Hopefully we'll make some fond memories along the way.



Pictures from the last few weeks.


A typical evening at the Rainey house.



Ava and Aspen "swimming at the Y." Aspen is in the pool.
Penny helping Than make breakfast burritos.

Some of our group of carollers.


The girls after carolling at Mandi and Andre's for hot chocolate and marshmallows.

2 comments:

Beth said...

thank you for sharing your traditions! we have had the same struggle, especially now that theo is here. we want to lead by example, and don't quite know how. we love the "buy nothing day" idea for black friday. we didn't shop, but we didn't do anything special as a family either. i think pete and i went to work with the humane society and left theo at the grandparents :-(
i hate that christmas has been turned into "giftmas" and we want to make sure that theo never gets bitten by the "conspicuous consumption" bug. your girls will thank you later that you've taught them this lesson early in life. season's greetings! beth/pete/theo

Leah Robinson said...

Your girls are too cute!!