The Love Bug

In an effort to make our holidays more meaningful, I have been trying to focus on Christ, and learn from the scriptures. So, what do the scriptures say about love? There are so many scriptures about love. I picked just a few and put them together in this fun little activity to help my kids learn about love and the scriptures.

I think sometimes we get destracted by all the hub-bub of Valentines Day, and for that reason, I know many people don't like the holiday. We are all in different places in our lives, but we all love in one way or another. Most commonly Valentines day is a time for sweethearts to celebrate their romance. While that is a wonderful thing, I dont think we should forget all of the other wonderful loving relationships we have. We can love our parents, children, nieces, nephews, siblings, cousins, neighbors, those we visit teach, or home teach, friends, strangers, even our enemys. I find its a great time to remember our Father in Heaven and our Savior Jesus Christ, and their infinite love for us. I hope Valentines Day can be a day we celebrate their love for us, and try to share our love with those around us.

I really enjoyed searching the scriptures  to find out what they say about love. I learned a lot, and I hope you can too. These were some of the favorite ones that I found. What are some of your favorite scriptures about love? I'd love to hear from you.

There are a couple of ways you could do this activity. Last year, The Love Bug came to our house once a day for a whole week leading up to Valentines day. He would hide an envelope in a different place each day with a scripture and a little candy for my toddler to find. Once it was found, we would read the scripture, talk about it and enjoy a sweet treat together. This was a really fun way to do it, however I was not as on top of things this year. This time we will just do it all in one night for Family Home Evening. I will probably still hide the scriptures around the room for my kids to find one at a time. (This always makes it more exciting/interactive.)

If you do this as a Family Home Evening Lesson you can sing/listen to the songs Love One Another and/or Mother I Love You. There are many other Primary Songs, and even Hymns that are about love that would also be great for this.

[embeddoc url="http://www.happyhousewifeblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/love-bug-1.pdf" download="all"]

I hope you and your family enjoy this activity! Happy Valentines Day!

P.S. I have been learning to use Adobe Illustrator in a class at the community college, so I thought I would create my own "Love Bug". I think he turned out cute!

The Giving Tree

Over the past few years I have followed my beautiful cousin Aubrey's journey in finding the Spirit of Christmas through service. Her ideas have given me inspiration to create better traditions for my family during the holidays. I hope that by sharing her story, others may be uplifted and inspired, and be able to make their futures bright. Here is her story about creating the #PaxtonGivingTree in green below.

   "Three years ago on Christmas day 2013, after all the presents were unwrapped and the day was coming to an end, I turned to my husband and said, “I still don’t feel like it’s Christmas.” I remember all month long waiting for the spirit of Christmas to come, and it didn’t. There wasn’t anything really different that year. Christmas was the same day it had always been. I’d listened to the same Christmas music and ate the same treats that I love, so I knew that the problem was with me.

 

It was a busy time for our family. We had just added daughter #3 to our ranks the month prior, and I’m sure I was exhausted and caught up in figuring out how to run a whole new family dynamic...let’s be honest, 3 kids is hard! But it broke my heart that, because of my attitude, I had not only taken the true meaning of the holiday away from myself, but in doing so I was doing a disservice to my children.

 

So when December 2014 rolled around I was determined to make our house feel the spirit of the holiday! And the best way that I knew how to do that was by serving others. That year a friend and I had come up with an adorable advent calendar in the shape of a tree. I called it our Paxton Giving Tree! I put a little treat and a service opportunity in each box for each day of December leading up to Christmas. My girls were so excited to have a fun new way to count down to the holiday and I was excited to get the spirit of the holiday in our home, and it WORKED! Christmas 2014 was the best Christmas that I could remember having with my little family! Not only were we thinking about and serving others, but we were EXCITED about doing it! I knew that this was the start of a very fun and exciting tradition for our family!

 

This year, as I’m sitting down and coming up with ways that my family can serve others in December, I can’t help but think back over the last two years and the many awesome experiences we’ve shared as a family.

Doing a litter walk around the neighborhood.

I think my very favorite one came just this last summer during July. All summer long the girls had been asking to do a bake sale. I suggested that we could maybe do one, but wouldn't it be fun if we decided that with the money we earned from it we could put toward helping out a family this coming Christmas for our Paxton Giving Tree tradition. My kids responses made me very happy! This is how it went.

 

Madison (7): But why would we need money for that?

Me: Well buying things for Christmas costs money, and there are some families that don't have enough to get extra things at Christmas time. We could help with that.

Madison: But mom you don't need money to have Christmas...isn't it just about love and family? That's the important thing.

Kennedie(5): And celebrating that Jesus was born!

Reagan(3): And Santa! (Haha we’re still working on that one)

This was the best conversation ever! It was totally a mom win moment! I'm so grateful that my kids know what Christmas is really about...even in July!

I truly feel like my kids are learning not only what the true meaning of Christmas is, but also what it means to love and serve others. It has taught them many lessons about others who are less fortunate, and they have compassion for others that I know has come as a direct blessing of our tradition.

Supporting a local food drive by gathering supplies for those in need.

Like I said, this month I’m sitting down and making a list of things that we can do during our December service, but I would LOVE to hear any ideas that others may have! Please share! Also, if you want to keep posted about what my family will be doing this year, you are welcome to search the tag #paxtongivingtree on Facebook or Instagram."

Isn't this amazing? What a beautiful example Aubrey is to her kids about being Christlike. I love how involved her little children are in this wonderful tradition. Here are few more pictures and ideas for acts of service you could perform for your family's giving tree.

Taking cookies and thank you notes to their primary teachers.

Leaving thank you notes for the mail carrier and trash collectors.

Placing quarters in all of the vending machines!

The possibilities are endless! Be Creative!

For more inspiration to come closer to Christ this holiday season check out this video in preparation for the #LightTheWorld initiative.

Merry Christmas, and God Bless!

PS: If you want to check out Aubrey's cute shop for girl's hairbows, check her out on instagram.com @the.happy.squirrel.shop.