Simple Decorating
Pearl usually takes on the task of sprinkling the house with nativity scenes, a camel tapestry and more. We have a wide variety of nativities, including a plastic one set up specifically for the Bible Study toddlers to play with, a lovely wooden nativity from my grandparents, a handcrafted set with beleaguered characters and meaningful-only-to-us accessories, and the newest addition, a ceramic nativity lovingly brought back from Peru by my cousin.

Monday Meals
I know, it’s not the most brilliant name, but for years now we have had a tradition of feeding the entire Timberdoodle crew a hot meal at noon every Monday from Thanksgiving to Christmas. This year’s menus have included cheesy potatoes with kielbasa, cookies, and even a breakfast theme with egg casserole and “World Famous” homemade cinnamon rolls!

Shoeboxes
We love building shoebox gifts with our whole Bible study! This year our small group shipped 18 boxes, and were excited to already hear that they have arrived in the Philippines.

Christmas Eve Service
Our small church is hosting its 4th annual Christmas eve service, a highlight of our year. Lots of worship through songs and Scriptures, complete with communion and fellowship (cookies) afterward. From making cookies and arranging the sanctuary to running sound and printing invitations, our family loves to take an active role in this event.

Christmas Day
With Christmas falling on a Sunday our Christmas Day is looking busier than ever. We’ll start with our regular involvements in our church service, then have Grandma and Grandpa over for a noontime Christmas dinner. Pearl’s birthday is on the 23rd, so we’ll have a combined Christmas/Birthday celebration. After that, there are plans for all who want to participate to head over for our first time helping out at a Christmas event helping the homeless in our area.

Wiseman Party
We save our gifts for New Years, to avoid being distracted from Jesus on Christmas day. (We don’t wait for Epiphany – mostly to take advantage of the time off at New Years!)
Our celebration has varied a great deal through the years. When we were young we each picked out a “family gift” that the whole family would enjoy, then went on a long treasure hunt to find them. I think this year’s celebration will likely include a treasure cake (chocolate cake with caramel in it) and watching videos as a family, in addition to camel bags.

Camel Bags
Camel Bags have been part of our Christmas/New Years tradition for years. (We debated about outgrowing this tradition, but it is so much fun that we weren’t all ready to move on!) In a nutshell, we each buy small, identical gifts for every member of the family, including ourselves. The trick is to find something creative that everyone in the family would enjoy – toothbrushes, candy, coats and flashlights have all been given in past years. In recent years we all decided to add a matching policy where each person donates an amount equal to what they’ve spent on gifts to their favorite charity. That just helps us keep our focus, while still enjoying giving gifts. Click here to read more about Camel Bags and here for directions to make your own Camel Bags. (If you actually do make your own, we would LOVE to hear about it!)

Handmade Nativity
Each year we each make an angel, shepherd, wiseperson, animal or other nativity prop to add to our hand-crafted nativity scene. In recent years we’ve worked hard to incorporate some element of the past year into the figure – angelic Krissy for the year we spent so much time with her, wise woman with a walker for the year we did a lot of Grammy care, cookies for the year of baking… This tradition is made MUCH more interesting by the fact that none of us are gifted in sculpting!

Specifically taken to make Krissy her own photo book of the Christmas story, this was a fantastic way to involve her in the Christmas story.

What We’re Not Doing in 2011 – Christmas Reenactment
For year’s we’ve reenacted the Christmas story but for the past few years our emphasis has instead been on the Christmas Eve Service. If we had the time and energy, this is a tradition I’d love to revisit, it was such a delight to be able to tell the Christmas story at the local nursing home and see the residents light up watching the little kids!

Links You’ll Probably Love:

Why Lie To Your Kids About Santa?
We really enjoyed this article and Clint’s perspective. Be sure to click over to our Facebook page as well to join the discussion!

3 Tips for making Christmas More About Christ
We were surprised by the strong reactions we received from this letter – some in agreement and others absolutely horrified at our perspective!

Don’t forget the Heart!
Our 2009 December newsletter departed from the controversial to remember what is really important at Christmas.

You Don’t Celebrate Christmas?
I loved this post by Renee of Baker’s Dozen and Apollo XIV, in fact it inspired this recap of our own family’s Christmas traditions.

One of the Christmas traditions our family has done for over 20 years now is reenacting the Nativity story. And so in honor of the season, for the next couple of weeks we will be posting short video clips of our enactments from the past.

Our reenactments have taken many different twists over the years. Beginning in the early years we toddled door-to-door amongst homes of relatives asking for lodging and of course being turned away, “No room. Sorry.” As we grew older we used puppets which we took to the homes of older relatives and retold the Story again. But when Pearl was almost a year old we began reenacting the Story ourselves “authentically” arrayed in various sheets, oversized t-shirts, towels and more!

Videotaped by Mom these tapes have provided years of entertainment and allowed us to move the whole production down to the grandparents by effortlessly pushing in the videotape.

As we grew, Abel became a bit weary of filling all the male roles and so we began growing the cast, from next-door relatives to whole church productions to multi church participations. Our locations have also changed from being held in our small mini-farm barn to the basement of our then unfinished home to most recently the dining hall of one of our local nursing homes. This year we are hoping that we can hold it for the first time ever in our church’s new building!

So here is the first year in all it’s “glory”
Laugh heartily, we do!!

If you know our family, you know we have some odd family traditions including limiting our Christmas decorations to a nativity theme (we don’t even have a tree!) and putting off gift giving to New Years. Of all of our traditions though, Camel Bags raise the most eyebrows. “Camel what?” And so we launch into this explanation, which seems to get weirder as we go.

We want to celebrate Christmas without making it about presents, but we love presents too. That’s why our gift-giving takes place on New Years Day. Camel bags allow us a way to give each other small, stocking-type gifts in our own unique way.

Unlike a traditional stocking, Camel Bags are not to be filled by Mom and Dad, nor are they stuffed with expensive gifts specific to each child’s tastes. Instead each child buys 2 different gifts for each person. The catch? We purchase 5 of the same gift, wrap them up, and place them in each Camel Bag, including our own!

Each year the contents vary greatly – from secretly-homemade-cookies to electric toothbrushes, immensely practical flashlights, and even coats!

We’ve talked about letting this tradition go, as it is hard to say that any of us really ‘needs’ anything. We just couldn’t do it though – it has become a favorite wacky tradition for us. Greed would ruin the fun though, so one way we guard our hearts is by donating the same amount we spend on gifts to a favorite charity.

This year we’ve decided to scale back a bit, and limit ourselves to $5 or less (approx – giver discretion advised!) gifts, with the idea that any extra funds will be set aside for a family vacation early next year.

We now have directions for making your own Camel Bags here, in case you are curious!  We’d also love to hear your traditions – what does your family do that makes Christmas special for you? Anything you have to explain to new friends every year?

On our honeymoon more than 28 years ago, we were confronted with the question, “should a Christian celebrate Christmas?” Having read and studied both sides of the controversy, we’ve come to the following conclusion. While we acknowledge that Jesus wasn’t actually born in December, it is the time that the world pseudo-recognizes it. And, although the world’s acknowledgment of the Messiah’s birth is nearly choked out by the commercialism of the season, we as Christians desire to use whatever means we can to redeem the time.

Our thoughts are that the best way to accomplish this is to celebrate in a distinctive way, one that helps our children to focus on this wondrous act of God. But how? Here are a couple ideas that have worked in our family.

Reenact the Christmas story.
Every year from toddlerhood onward, our children have participated in this amazing account in one form or another. When they were just toddlers they memorized the verses and used the Betty Lukens felts to tell the story to indulgent relatives. As the children got a bit older we began to have them act out the account, originally with our family only. Later we roped in families from our Bible study. Now it has evolved into a multi-church event performed at a local nursing home. Since 1994 we have videotaped these presentations.

Infuse your celebration with symbolic reminders of whose birthday it is.
For younger children a natural way is through meals: large shredded wheat cereal can depict the hay in the manger; pocket bread, mozzarella cheese, dates and figs for lunch could replicate a shepherd’s meal, with, of course, shepherd’s crooks (candy canes) for dessert. Last year, we made angel cookies to take with us to the local nursing home for the residents to snack on while we performed our nativity pageant. Directions are available here.

Finally, consider an alternative to the Christmas stocking.
This will be hard for those of you with handmade stockings of emotional value, but consider what a stocking represents. It is an obvious link to the most corrupting influence in this holy season, Santa. While the ancient story of a generous old man may have some truth to it, today’s lies of Santa benefit no one except Satan. Only God knows when you’re sleeping, knows when you are awake, and knows your full sin status. As a mother, it would be tempting to wag my finger and threaten about Santa’s gifts. It is far better to point my child to God and to speak of His daily gifts to us, to say nothing of the gift of eternity that Santa could never deliver.

These are just a few ideas that have worked well for our family through the years. What is critical when planning your family’s holiday is to plan in such a way that will leave no doubts in the minds of your children about what is most important to you on that day.

May God be glorified as you make those decisions.

Dan, Deb, Joy, Hope, Grace, Abel & Pearl

Dear Friends,
This year we are taking a slight departure from our annual bashing of secular Christmas, to urge you to take inventory on the condition of your children’s hearts.

What if you discovered, quite by accident, that your married daughter was flirting with the UPS man? Would you not beg her to remember the vows she made before God and man? And wouldn’t you feel sick if she laughed and continued to engage in such destructive behavior?

Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians implored “…I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” If your children are to spend eternity with Christ, as a godly parent, don’t you see a need to train your children to treasure Him above everything else?

For all the warmth and joy that the Christmas season can bring, it can also become a cesspool of impulsive passions. Or it can be a season of opportunities, uniquely designed to sanctify your family. The caroling missed because of the flu, the must-have toy not purchased because of a scaled back budget, the annual Christmas pie tossed because the cat sampled it, are all occasions to take a peek into where your child’s affections are. For all the hoopla surrounding Christmas, there is disturbingly little emphasis placed on pleasing the One whose birth we are celebrating, and wholly too much importance placed on making ourselves happy

Samuel Rutherford, a Scottish Presbyterian theologian (1600-1661), wrote “… if you see a man shut up in a closed room, idolizing a set of lamps and rejoicing in their light, and you wish to make him truly happy, you would begin by blowing out all his lamps; and then throw open the shutters to let in the light of heaven.”

This Christmas, may we all remember to whom we are betrothed and set our affections fully on Him,

Enjoying Timberdoodle products in a whole new way,
Dan, Deb, Joy, Hope, Grace, Abel, and Pearl

Doing it with your friends.

A world-wide outreach of Samaritan’s Purse, Operation Christmas Child distributes shoeboxes full of necessities and toys to children across the globe. Each year, thousands of families wrap shoeboxes and fill them with items such as socks, toothbrushes, dolls, t-shirts, and toy cars, and bring the finished boxes to their church to be sent to Samaritan’s Purse’s processing center.

While we found packing shoeboxes as a family to be fun, we wanted a way to include our friends.

Now for the second year we are packing the shoeboxes as a Bible study. How do we do it?

Step 1: Determine how many shoeboxes we will be doing, and of what age and gender.

Step 2: Write all of the needed items out on post-it notes.

Step 3: Place the post-it notes on windows. Each person or family can select what items they want to purchase and bring.

Step 4: A week before Thanksgiving, get together and eat Thanksgiving dinner. Then lay out the boxes on tables. Have a team wrap them, and the rest of the group can fill them. You can have teams in charge of each age group, or a person in charge of each item. You can get your children involved, too – “take these washcloths and put one in each box.”

Step 5: Take the boxes to your church, or a church that is collecting them. You’re done!

For more information about Operation Christmas Child, you can visit: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/occ/

Our mom is hard to shop for. She doesn’t like flowers, and she is determined to eat healthily, so a box of chocolates wouldn’t be a blessing for her. What else can we do for Mother’s Day? Breakfast in bed? No. A day shopping? No, she doesn’t enjoy shopping. A cleaning supply, such as a vacuum? No, if we need one, she will research and purchase it herself.

So then, what are we to do? Thankfully, we can just ask Mom what she wants (after all, she doesn’t like surprises). She requests hours.

Back in the good old days, when we misbehaved, we would sometimes receive “extra jobs” that correlated with whatever our wrongdoing was. These were chores that no one was ordinarily assigned to, generally odd jobs that only had to be done on occasion. I guess we’ve matured with age, because none of us have been assigned an “extra job” in years. But good behavior doesn’t make clutter, dirt, or projects go away.

Now, on her birthday and Mother’s Day, Mom usually requests our time. We give her a set amount of hours we commit to work for her, perhaps 50 hours between the five of us kids. Back when Mom owned alpaca geldings, her hours might go to shearing them, moving them from field to field, or whatever care they needed. This time, her hours will likely go to cleaning out the hummingbird feeder, assembling furniture, or whatever she says she is “too feeble, short, or lazy to do”.

Now, I hope you don’t think we are dreadfully selfish, that we wouldn’t simply do a project for Mom whenever she wants us to. But the truth is, in our family, things tend to get put off indefinitely. So what Mom is really getting is a little more assurance that we might actually follow through and finish what needs to be done!

So, what are you doing for your mom this Mother’s Day? Is it something conventional, or a bit wacky? We’d love to hear what you have planned – join the conversation on Facebook!

Most Famous Cinnamon Roll Recipe

Ingredients
½ cup warm water
2 packages yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1 package instant vanilla pudding
2 cups milk – room temperature
½ cup butter – melted
2 large eggs – beaten
1 teaspoon salt
8 cups all-purpose flour

*****
1 cup butter – melted
2 cups brown sugar
2-3 tablespoons cinnamon

*****

4 ounces cream cheese – softened
¼ cup butter – softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk

Directions
In a small bowl combine water, yeast, and sugar. Stir until dissolved, set aside.

In large bowl, mix pudding with milk. Add ½ cup melted butter, egg, and salt. Mix well.

Add yeast mixture to pudding mixture and blend well.

Gradually add flour and knead until smooth, adding a little more flour if needed (this is a soft dough).

Place in a very large greased bowl. Cover and let rise until double in size. Punch down and cover and let rise again.

Roll dough out on a large floured surface to a rectangle, about 34” x 21” in size. Brush the 1 cup of melted butter over dough. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over butter.

Roll dough up and cut into about 20 rolls. Pat each roll as you place it into a large greased pan to keep rolls in shape.

Let rolls rise in a warm place about 20 minutes. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, until done.

Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth, beat in vanilla and milk. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

Frost rolls while still very warm.

Serve and enjoy!

Ingredients

Crust:
2 cups flour
2 cubes butter
1 cup finely chopped pecans

Middle:
8 oz. Cream cheese
1 cup Cool Whip
1 cup powdered sugar

Top:
1 lg. Pkg. Raspberry Jell-O
2 cups boiling  water
24 oz frozen raspberries
Cool Whip

Directions

Make The Crust

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
• Cut butter into flour and add nuts.
• Pat into a  9” x 13” pan.
• Bake 10 – 20 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
• Set aside to cool.

Make Filling

• Mix cream cheese, 1 cup cool whip, and powdered sugar.
• Spread on cooled crust.
• Put in refrigerator and let set up.

Make Raspberry Layer

• Mix Jell-O and water.
• Add frozen berries.
• Pour over cream mixture and refrigerate until set.

Frost with with Cool Whip and keep refrigerated until served!

A few years ago, our family began a quirky birthday tradition of not wrapping our presents with wrapping paper. Instead, pillowcases, bags, towels, and even tablecloths are not-so-elegantly draped around the presents. Once all the presents are opened, there is no mess of crumpled paper, and we just put the linens back into the cabinet for the next birthday. It’s easy, economical, practical, and green! Not everyone prefers it though, and it isn’t a requirement. A couple of my siblings always choose the road more traveled and ask that their presents be wrapped in real wrapping paper; claiming  that it adds to the festive mood. We do that willingly,  but the majority of our family opts to receive their presents in reusable wrapping!

Our giveaway this week is for the notoriously difficult to wrap Bilibo! The winner will get to choose their favorite in-stock color of Bilibo, perfect for spinning, balancing, playing, or just sitting. Perhaps they will try out a Timberdoodle Family wrapping technique on their new Timberdoodle gift! Enter to win here on Facebook. For more information about our giveaways read this article.

Giveaway now closed, congratulations to Alyson B. of CA!