"Christmas Books"

In keeping with our Christmas Traditions (read this post for more info.) we had our first Christmas Family Home Evening this past Monday.  The kids were excited to open and see what new Christmas Book they were going to read.  We chose the book, "The Inn Keeper's Wife, The Rest of The Christmas Story."  Each of us took a turn reading a chapter.  After reading the book we followed another tradition that we started just last year, Manger Elves.  We got the idea from one of the books we read last year called, "The Last Straw".  Once a week at Family Home Evening we pick a member of the family's name from the manger.  For a whole week we get to secretly do kind deeds for that person we chose.  When we have completed a good deed we can add a piece of straw to baby Jesus' manger.  Our goal is to fill up the manger by Christmas with lots of straw to make the bed nice, soft and comfortable for him.  Hopefully these simple acts of service and kindness will help remind the kids the true purpose of this holiday season.  So, for the past week our house has filled with busy little "Manger Elves" performing all sorts of good deeds like, making beds, writing love notes, putting out pajamas on the bed, making breakfasts, etc.  I am really liking this, I think we'll have to do it year round!