Journaling during the holidays

Every year during the Christmas season, I keep a journal where I write down special memories of the season. They may be funny things, poignant memories, and practical things we don’t want to forget. We keep a record of who visited us and what we did together, special foods we ate for Christmas, and ways the Lord touched us during our Christmas season devotions (as well as a record of what we studied that year).

My book is just a simple journal. For those of you who are more crafts-oriented than I am, check out Our Christmas Mosaic for a beautiful example of what you could do for your Christmas journal. Why not take a few minutes over the holiday weekend to jot down some of your favorite memories from this season?

We keep a more detailed record of God’s goodness to us over the course of the year, which we take time to write as a family over the New Year’s holiday each year. For details on how to keep a journal like that, check out my post Memorial Stones on Counter-cultural Mom blog.

I’ll have some funny things to write in our Christmas journal this year. Every year we do a Jesse Tree, hanging ornaments that trace God’s sovereign plan from the book of Genesis through to the birth of Jesus.

One night we were studying Abraham and Isaac, and I held up a small plastic playmobil knife that would be that evening’s ornament. I asked the boys if they could remember what the knife reminded us of. I thought this would be simple for them, as we have been reading through the Old Testament this year.

After a couple wrong guesses my husband said, “Think of Abraham, boys! It has something to do with him!” Our six year old immediately answered, “I know!! It reminds us of circumcision!” We all had a good laugh at that one. Yes, God did ask Abraham and all the Israelites to be circumcised, but that wasn’t quite what we were going for!

We also read The Advent Book each night during devotions. Every night we start from the beginning and add the new day’s page. Over the course of the month our children become very familiar with the biblical account of Jesus’ birth.

One night as my husband read the words “At the sound of Mary’s greeting, the baby inside Elizabeth….” and our three year old supplied the words, “Jumped for joy!”

Our young son went on to say, “The question is…WHY did the baby jump for joy?” My husband thought this was a profound question from one so young, and he took the opportunity to probe further. He asked our preschooler, “If you were in Elizabeth’s tummy, do you think you would have jumped for joy?” To which our little boy responded, “If I was in her tummy, and if I had a knife with me, I would have cut my way out!”

After a moment of shocked silence we all burst out laughing. My mother in law was with us and she was a good sport, pointing out that it would have been “a cesarean in the time of Caesar!”