Be “All There” For Your Family This Christmas Season {A Guest Post}

Please welcome Jeanette, one of our site sponsors who blogs at A Moment With Mom. She wrote a beautiful post that I wanted to share with you. I know for me, as a mom who has a brain that is often three tasks ahead, I often struggle to be “all there” in the moment. I hope you are also blessed by what Jeanette has to share:

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What is your favorite Christmas memory?

I would venture to bet it has very little to do with “things” and more to do with relationships. As a mother of 11, it has been important to me to cultivate memories for my family that were of substance. While a child may jump up and down with glee for that new toy they’ve had on their list, it’s only a few months before the newness is worn off and the excitment is gone. However, when I put my attention on creating memorable moments, I hear the excitment and impact they had in my children’s lives for years to come.

There were many years of our marriage that we had very little. We have lived off the grid in a tent with five children at the time, while my husband built our cabin. We have washed clothes in the creek, used a wood cookstove to cook a pot of my home made potporri, and I harvested our food from wild plants. I know how to live with a little.

In that season of life I was always trying to create an environment that welcomed the beauty that was all around us. I would go out and cut cedar branches with the children and then sit and work with them on making our own wreath for the front door. These were some precious moments together as a family. We would sit and string cranberries and popcorn while talking about special family memories. Taking a drive to see the lights has always been a fun treat, especially with a cup of home made hot cocoa.

We’ve always had the family tradition of creating a gingerbread house, even though we’re terrible at it. It’s not about how the gingerbread house turned out, it’s about the laughter and working together that makes it a memory worth repeating each year.

How can you cultivate a favorite Christmas memory for your family? Singing Christmas songs while baking cookies? Taking a ride to see the lights and drinking hot cocoa along the way? Eating candy canes together as a family while reading a favorite story? There are so many simple things we can do with our family to cultivate environments for that special moment, but we have to be all there!

Jim Elliot once said, “Where ever you are be all there.” I believe we as wives and mothers we can apply that concept to our homes. We have so many distractions around us and it’s taking a toll in our home making. In order for us to purposefully create memories we can’t be distracted with texts, phone calls, Facebook, or other social outlets. We each need to take the time to be “all there” for our family!

These days will go by fast and before too long we’ll see that all we have are memories. Let’s make them meaningful memories!

I encourage you to read more of what Jeanette has to share on her blog A Moment with M.O.M.