“For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9: 6
Merry Christmas from our family to yours! May you be filled with an understanding of the true meaning of Christmas this holiday season!
Photo Credit: Stephanie Nicole Photography
Are you singing the song yet? Sorry about that! It is no secret that Christmas is my favorite time of the year. From the Christmas carols, the beautiful trees, the celebration of the birth of Christ…there is something so wonderful about all of it.
So when my friends at DaySpring contacted me and asked if I was interested in getting a sneak peak at some of their newest Christmas items a few months in advance of decorating time, I jumped at the chance!
One of the things I love most about the DaySpring products is that they center around the real reason for the season. Christ has come! Each of the pieces they sent me captures that message in its own unique way.
The Nativity Hurricane Trio Luminary Set has to be my favorite item from the set. I purchased the original hurricane set years ago and have it up in my home year round, but this set is so beautiful. I don’t know that I will be able to put it away after Christmas is over! One of the things that makes it so unique is that it can be displayed and enjoyed from both the front and the back!
On the front each piece has a different word at the bottom. Savior, Jesus and Messiah. On the back are three different Bible verses! Matthew 1:21, I John 4:14 and Luke 2:10. I will be displaying mine on my fireplace mantle but these would be beautiful on a bookshelf or as a centerpiece on your dining room table.
The Christmas Door Banner is bright and bold and fits around your door so that there is a message on both the front and the inside of the door. It was easy to install and could be used on any door in your home!
These Boxed Christmas cards will be donated to a friend at church who has a ministry of making sure that people are given cheer and encouragement through the written word. When I received the cards I knew she would put them to good use. I love getting Christmas cards, don’t you?! We do send Christmas cards/pictures and a letter each year to our family, friends and business clients. The list keeps growing and at times it seems like a lot to keep up with, but people tell us again and again that they love to receive them so we keep doing it! Do you send cards out at Christmas?
If you have been to my house during Christmas you have seen my multiple Christmas trees. They are becoming so heavy with ornaments that I have threatened to buy another tree. I LOVE ornaments. I have ornaments that my mom collected for me when I was a child and now I do the same thing each year with my kids. This Glory to God Porcelain ornament is beautiful. I will be adding the date on the back of it so that I can remember what year I received it and probably will be ordering a few more from DaySpring’s collection!
And finally, I received this fun Christmas Countdown board. I have one of those chalk pens and wrote in a number inside of the star. This could be hung anywhere in your home and every day your kids could help you countdown the days until Christmas. And just for fun, in case you were wondering, it is 95 days until Christmas today!
Here are a few items that I haven’t seen in person but look like something I’d love to have in my home!
The Joy to the World Round Wall Hanging would be a fun addition to my wall space.
We have the Shepherd on the Search Advent kit from last year and it’s a great alternative to the Elf on the Shelf!!
I love the rough wood look of this A Savior is Born plank!
And these hand-thrown mugs are awesome, they have four styles, Jesus, Peace, Joy and Shine!
As you can see there are a variety of items to choose from in a wide price range. DaySpring offers free shipping on all orders over $50 as well!
I love DaySpring products. You will find them all over my home. It was a joy to receive these pieces for free in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own! Affiliate links throughout.
What is your favorite piece from the new collection?!
I wish that I was able to send out a Christmas card to everyone that has stopped by my blog over the years, but since I can’t I thought that I would share our Christmas letter and some of the most recent family pictures we had taken.
Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends! I am always amazed at how quickly time has passed when I find myself here once again sharing about our year!
Isaac, now 20, is in his second year of college. He switched his major after his first year and is now living in Sioux Falls with my parents. They enjoy having him there while he attends classes through the University Center and SDSU. He is working at the Hy-Vee pharmacy in Sioux Falls and he plans to continue working and focusing on his general courses through next year. After that, maybe Pharmacy school….we will see where God leads him!
Gabriel is officially a teenager and is in the seventh grade. This past year he has grown several inches and is now the proud wearer of glasses and braces! He is in an upper level math course this year and doing well. It is a lot of hard work, but he has grown in knowledge already, and it is exciting to see that continue. He is involved in jazz band again this year and they recently started their practices. Last year, because of his hard work, he earned a solo at the All City Jazz concert!
Elijah is seven and in the first grade at Parkside Elementary. He likes his teacher Mrs. Peterson and enjoys being in her class! He has become a wonderful reader and we are amazed at how much he has grown since the start of last year! He currently has four loose teeth that mom really wants to pull out for him!
Karlena is so very ready to turn six on the 20th of December and is in kindergarten at Parkside this year. She loves school and her teacher Ms. Austin! And she enjoys seeing her older brother in the lunch room or on the playground each day! She continues to love all things horses and has declared that when she is Isaac’s age she will buy one of her own and ride it to school. We fully support her and her dream! If anyone can do that, she can!
Dominic and I continue to work together at Legal Estate Planning Solutions, and we are grateful for each and every client we have had the privilege to work with in both Minnesota and South Dakota. We were invited to participate in a leadership and discipleship class through church earlier this fall and we spend each Monday night with others from our church learning and growing in our faith!
Our prayer for each of you this coming Christmas season would be that you be filled with an understanding and gratitude for the gift that Jesus is for us! In this time of what seems like increasing darkness in our country and our world, we, as believers, can hopefully be a light of peace and hope to others. Merry Christmas!
Love, Dominic, Kristin, Isaac, Gabriel, Elijah and Karlena Smith
We have had an unseasonably warm fall here in Minnesota, something that has been such a gift this year. So it has been hard for me to get in the “Holiday” mindset. Maybe it is the impending blizzard watch we are under for later in the week or the fact that every store is decorated for Christmas, but thoughts of Christmas were on my mind this morning.
I was remembering the times we spent at my grandparent’s home and how before we opened any gifts on Christmas Eve my grandpa would pause and read us the Christmas story. As a child, I was filled with the excitement and anticipation of what was in the packages under the tree …not of the miracle of Christ’s birth.
But my grandpa recognized something that I now understand more deeply myself…the season should be a celebration of the amazing gift God sent for all of humanity.
I try and put myself in the place of those we read about in Luke 2. How must Mary have felt, carrying the Son of God inside her? What was the journey like that the wise men took to travel incredible distances to bring gifts to Jesus?
Or the shepherds, have you ever thought about the shepherds?
Typically the shepherd was kind of the low man on the totem poll. They spent their days and nights out in the field with sheep. And yet God sent His angels to the shepherds so that He could announce the coming Christ child.
Luke 2 paints a beautiful picture for us:
8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”[d]
15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
As a parent, I would love for my kids to see the wonder of Christmas in the birth of Christ and not just in the gifts laying under the tree.
With wish lists and toy guides and elf-on-the-shelf, often Christmas loses its focus on Christ pretty quickly. So we have to be intentional during the Advent season to bring things back into a right focus.
One of the ways we will be doing that this season is with Dayspring’s Shepherd on the Search kit. In the kit is a book, a small shepherd doll and a box that creates a manger scene. The book tells the kids the journey the shepherd will be on throughout the month of December.
Inviting the kids to go on a journey of their own, each morning the kids will search for where the shepherd might be. His final destination is the stable on Christmas Eve. One of the things that I loved about this kit was that Dayspring has a website specifically dedicated to sharing ideas on how you can incorporate this kit in your day to day life.
This is a fun, yet focused way that you can incorporate the anticipation and celebration of Christ’s birth every day during the Advent season.
Dayspring also has a Christmas CD that features kids singing some of our favorite Christmas Carols! What a wonderful way to create a worshipful environment all season long!
The excitement of presents and new toys will always be something our kids will have, but my hope is that with a daily focus on the miracle of Jesus, we will help establish them a love for the true meaning of the Season.
What are some of the ways you keep Christ present in the Christmas season for your kids? I’d love to hear your ideas!
I was provided the Shepherd on the Search kit for free from Dayspring in exchange for my honest review. All stories and opinions are my own.
This Christmas will be the first Christmas without my grandpa present. He passed away suddenly and so I am sure that this Holiday season will be tougher than most, especially for my grandma and my mom and her siblings.
While it has been years since we have spent Christmas Eve with my grandpa, I still remember those times in vivid detail.
A beautiful table was set with all of my grandma’s meticulously cooked creations. A cookie plate was loaded with multiple baked goodies and it was difficult to choose just one, or two!
Once we had eaten we had to wait the HOURS it took to clear the table and hand wash the special dishes grandma used. Torture to us young kids who just wanted to open a present already! 😉
Finally we would find our place in the big circle around the living room and before we would start with the gift opening my grandpa would take some time to read us the Christmas Story from Luke.
Luke 2 – In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration when[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed,[b]who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”[15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”
I wish I had a recording of him reading that story….I wish I had thought to record it when we had a chance.
Last week I was contacted by my friend Kashoan about a new Winter Collection that was being introduced in their shop. She shared a few of the newest pieces and I was instantly drawn to the Luke 2:11 necklace.
Immediately I thought it was the perfect way to remember my grandpa this Christmas season. His words won’t be in our ears any longer, but they can be close to my heart.
I love gifts like this, tangible ways to remember those we love, those that have gone before us. While he is gone from us here on earth he is always remembered and never forgotten.
Today Krafty Kash is revealing their entire Winter Collection and it is all so fun! And even better is the news that starting at noon on Thursday there is an amazing sale happening…one you won’t want to miss! So sign up today for their newsletter by email here at the bottom of the page. And stay informed about the details!
See the entire Krafty Kash Winter Colllection here. What is your favorite piece?!