It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas....

This past year, we changed churches. Our new church is small and does not own its own building or have a paid preacher. What I really love is that the church gives 75% of its contribution to outreach and missions. Because we don't have a building, we rent a senior citizens garden center. It is owned by the city so a city worker always has to be there. This past weekend was a holiday weekend and so we were unable to have our regular building. Josh and I used the opportunity to have our own family devo. It was important to me that we teach our children what Christmas should really be about. I love Santa and presents and trees but I want Jesus to be first. So we read the story of Jesus birth and and sang a few religious Christmas songs. I hope we got through to the kids that He is the reason for the season. When we were finished with or devo, we put up our little Christmas tree. I really struggled with it. We usually take the whole family out and buy a BIG fresh tree. This year we used a small fake tree. We will be in and out this year during Christmas and wanted to be able to take down quickly. So fake tree it was. I pretended I loved it so that the kids would love it, too. It did turn out ok after I messed with it a lot. So here are some pictures of our tree. One of my favorite things about decorating for Christmas is the GLiTTeR! I just love sparkles and glitter. I always look for the most sparkly ornaments. This butterfly is one of my favorites.

The reason for the season! I love to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus! Mary and Joseph have a little bling, too.

This reindeer is covered in glitter and has beaded legs.

Found this GLiTTeRy word.

If you look close, you can see GLiTTeRy poinsettia flowers throughout the whole tree.

....and all the presents have sparkly tags and ribbon.

Merry Christmas everyone!!! I hope your holiday sparkles just as much as mine does!!