Teaching Teens

Are you enjoying our Advent Countdown?  If you haven't gottenyour free copy, go get it right now.  You'll get 25 daily emailswith ideas to celebrate Advent & Christmas.

http://budurl.com/ChristmasCelebration  

As the week comes to a close, I want to remind you that today wassuppose to be  the last day to get our Advent & Christmas Celebration package on sale.  I won't go into all the details,BUT... we had email complicationsand have EXTENDED the sale until Monday, Dec 7.You can grab it for $27.  After Monday, it goes back to itsregular price of $37.

When you sign up for our Advent Countdown, you'll get all thedetails and website to save money & time.

http://budurl.com/ChristmasCelebration 

Remember you get our Star of Bethlehem Family Study Guideand can print out as many copies as you need for yourimmediate family.  Here's what one mom had to sayabout this study:

====================================="The Study is Called Star of Bethlehem Bible Study Ebook. Not only is there a fresh focus on God's AWESOME communication with us throughout time, but you will learn more astronomy than YEARS of study in a text! Kerry takes you deeply into the Word of God to dig out what God has to say about stars, astronomy, astrology, and neatest of all, how God used STARS to tell about His plan forsalvation through Jesus Christ!"

Cindy Rushton=====================================

And my other favorite book at Christmas time is our Celebrationsbook: Celebrate Advent, Christmas & Epiphany with Family Traditions

You'll get hundreds of ideas to put Christ back into your holidays.Here's what another mom said...

====================================Thank you again. I really appreciate you providing all of these items for such a low amount of money. We don't have any Christmas traditions YET!  . . .I am like a sponge trying to suck it all in so I can give the best to my children (Get them spiritually grounded).God Bless and thank you for sharing your knowledge, experience, and ideas with us.

Teresa Pinnick====================================

If you've ever thought about investing in this package, today'sthe day!  Save yourself both money & time and enjoy your familythis Christmas season.

Blessings,Kerry

http://budurl.com/ChristmasCelebration 

You are probably saying to yourself that I have lost my mind if I think I can have a Stress-Free Christmas. Well, my mind is still here, and we have had several Stress-Free Christmases in the past few years. I thought I would share some of the lessons I have learned to help reduce the stress during our holiday seasons and celebrate the origins of Christmas.

1. READ GOD’S WORD EVERY MORNING
Starting my day with God’s Word seems obvious, but sometimes it gets left out. I need to hear from God and speak to Him each day so that I am strengthened and ready to be the mom He wants me to be. At breakfast, we have family devotions and can start our kids’ day on the right foot as well. Each of the kids know they are to read their Bible when they wake up. Of course, some need a little more reminding than others.

2. DON’T DO EVERY ACTIVITY THAT COMES ALONG
This seems quite apparent, but it took me about 10 years to learn this lesson. Actually, my wonderful husband helped me learn how to reduce the activity in our lives during the holiday season. In the past, I wanted our kids to experience everything available during this season. What was actually happening was I began to harbor stress that would usually explode around Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. (I’m sure none of you have ever experienced this )

3. SIMPLIFY YOUR ACTIVITIES
What works for our family is to choose 1 or 2 Christmas activities to attend outside our home. Anything else we do is done in our home. One of the best ways this reduces stress is that I am not "persuading" my husband to attend one more Christmas activity each week. He still spends all day working to provide for our family. Consequently, he is much happier going to a few activities and enjoying our family and friends at home. We enjoy having others in our home, so we capitalize on this. Our children help us clean and cook, so our work is reduced and I am not stressed when our guests arrive.

4. ENJOY YOUR HOME
I will always have more activities for us to do than we have time for. This past Thanksgiving weekend I decided which activities will wait until next year.

REMEMBER: YOU CAN’T DO EVERY THING, EVERY YEAR.

I try to choose activities that encourage my children to think of others, instead of themselves, during the holidays. One of the activities we used to do is raising money for a missionary family. My children would take orders for small loaves of pumpkin bread and chocolate chip cookies. After baking and delivering the goodies, they would pay me back for the supplies. The rest was their profit which was used to buy games and toys for a missionary family friend. This year we hope to have some kids over to bake cookies so that their moms can do some Christmas shopping alone. We might host a Christmas card stamping party for younger kids. I’m still brainstorming how that will work. I have some other ideas that are included in Celebrate Advent, Christmas and Epiphany

5. MAKE CHRISTMAS YOUR SCHOOL
Drop some of your formal academics and enjoy the season. There are plenty of math, writing and reading concepts we practice as we bake, shop, and prepare for Christ’s birthday. When my kids were homeschooling, we still read aloud each morning and then worked on a Christmas project. This may include handwork type crafts or other quiet projects.

DO YOU FEEL STRESSED DURING THE HOLIDAYS?

Take a moment right now and prioritize all the activities available to your family. Choose only 1 or 2 activities that the entire family can enjoy and pass on the rest. Enjoy your family being at home. Have another family over to roast marshmallows and enjoy the fellowship. Most of all, keep your eyes focused on Jesus Christ. Without His love for the world, you would not be celebrating the true reason for Christmas:

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ~ Romans 5:8

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. ~Ephesians 2:8

Blessings,
Kerry Beck

P.S. If you want to receive more ideas about celebrating Advent and Christmas "Simply" at home with your family, go to this website: http://budurl.com/christmascelebration

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Copyright Kerry Beck, 2009
You have permission to reprint this article as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below.

Kerry Beck gives free Advent calendars with daily Christmas projects to prepare you for Christmas. You will discover lots about the the symbols of Christmas with her projects.