Happy Advent!

Dave and I can hardly wait to put up our Christmas tree each year! This year we put it up on on November 29th, four Sundays before Christmas. This is the first Sunday of Advent.

It was more fun than ever because we had a tiny person to do it with! Elnathan tried to grab everything and put it into his mouth.  Having a tiny baby gives us an extra opportunity to contemplate the miracle of God becoming man. Isn't it wonderful that God was faithful to provide us with a Saviour from our sins so that we can have eternal life! We sent some of these pictures and more to relatives overseas today, and hope they take some of our joy in Christ with them. I've also been scrapbooking our Christmas tree decorating this afternoon - fun!

December pictures

We had a wonderful month celebrating Christmas! Dave loves to decorate the tree.


My sister gave us a bassinett some time ago, and it is set up in our room looking pretty . . .


On Christmas Eve, we had "Nine Lessons and Carols" at our home. This is a worship service with carols and Bible readings and prayers. Christina was to give birth to Eve the next week (who, by the way, is a most beautiful baby).


On Christmas day we harvested some veggies to take to our family Christmas lunch.


Our sister-in-law obligingly took photos of us in my parents garden.

I hope you also had a fantastic Christmas and December.

Christmas pictures

I created these angels for our tree after seeing one at a local Christian book store. They are achievable for anyone who is confident with paper craft and is not a perfectionist. The angel I originally saw had a white head but I could only find brown ones, so I figured it would be good to have a multi-racial Christmas tree! Our tree is mainly decorated with angels and stars, as these symbolise aspects of the story of Christ's birth. If you would like to know how to make these angels, I can give instructions in the comments section of this post.


Dave cooked a turkey for Christmas day. Well done, Dave!


We had a lovely time with family.

It was our second Christmas at my parents' home, and our second with my sister's twins.

We also enjoyed relaxing together at home. It was a lovely first Christmas as a married couple.

St. Nicholas

Faith has posted about some of her traditions. You can read about her family traditions in relation to St. Nicholas, the man behind the tradition of Santa Claus, in her second traditions post.

Decorating the tree

Dave loves decorating Christmas trees! He has many fond memories of growing up years when the whole family would join in the fun.


This was a pleasant break in the midst of the hard slog of PhD completion and wondering about the future. We are currently wondering how to manage a move to Melbourne for a couple of months in the new year, which is necessary due to Dave's PhD.


A bit of light fun in the midst of lots of work . . . and a fun memory of our first tree as a married couple!

Christmas presents

I was very interested in Bron's recent comment on my post about Christmas traditions.

One tradition I'm hoping to start: instead of the whole presents thing at Christmas, I'd like to have a family dinner where each member of the family makes a contribution. When children are little this could just be 'helping' with something. When kids are older or teenagers if they aren't interested in cooking they could buy something nice to share. I like the idea because it means the focus isn't on individuals, it's on the family. Individual presents are better at birthdays anyway because then it really is a celebration of that person's life.

Bron makes a good point that Christmas isn't supposed to be about individauls: it is about the family and it's about Christ. Giving lots of presents to individuals counteracts this message. I've been thinking quite a lot about Christmas presents recently. A few weeks ago I asked my niece what Christmas was about and all she would say was "presents". This is not surprising, since she has received mountains of them on the two Christmases that she may be able to remember.

I began to think that it may be better to purchase a "family gift" at Christmas time - something that is for everyone. The problem with that idea is that an item that is officially for "everyone" always ends up being more for one or more people than for others. If you buy a swing for the little kids, the older ones don't feel like they "got" anything. If you buy a mat for the living room, it is really for Mum and Dad.

Another idea is that the focus of Christmas giving could be to give to someone outside the family. The family could plan and save together to give money to a worth organisation that helps the poor or persecuted Christians, or spreads the gospel.

Have any of you thought about Christmas presents? If so, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Christmas traditions

As a new wife, I often think about the traditions we are forming in these early stages of our marriage. Are they traditions that will reflect Christ to any children God blesses us with? Or are they meaningless or harmful?

As Christmas nears, I've particularly been thinking about Christmas traditions and what they convey about the meaning of the day. Many children associate Christmas only with presents. How can this be avoided?

My birthday was last month, and Mum gave me some money to spend on whatever I liked. A few weeks after my bithday, I finally had a chance to go shopping! After exploring the city, I finally came back to this Advent calendar . . . something I really loved that I definitely didn't need!


Each little drawer holds a magnetic figure, which you stick to the stable scene. I think this would be real help to children in learning to focus upon the meaning of Christmas day. It is also lots of fun for adults :). I sure had fun arranging the pieces! With children, the Bible story that goes with the particular piece could be read out on the day that it is pulled out.


You may like to read more about traditions in Stacy's post on the topic. Here is some of what she wrote.

We may have family traditions that seem meaningless to others, but to our own children they communicate Christ. Because we live in Christ, the simple traditions we create in our own families are powerful. They don’t have to end in the word Christian or Jesus to reflect Christ.

Our primary purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. By glorifying God in our daily living, we can pass on that purpose and joy to our children. As we tell the story of Christ’s birth to our children—maybe over a cup of hot spiced cider or warm pumpkin bread—we are creating a memory. And if we do it every year, we’re creating a tradition.

The success of our family traditions isn’t based on how creative we are or how much money we spend on a certain yearly or monthly event, but on how well they reflect Christ and how real they are to our children.

I recommend that you read the whole post!