Kid Friendly Friday - Christmas Books

I wanted to share with you are great list of Christmas books. I have been gathering them for a few years (some listed I do not own) and only take them out for the month of December. There's such anticipation and we have fun enjoying them during the advent season. I have gotten many of them at used books stores or on-line at half.com No need to buy brand new! Click HERE for more information about how we celebrate Advent all season long.

Traditional Christmas story:

Little One We Knew You'd Come by Sally Lloyd-Jones - my favorite

There Was No Snow on Christmas Eve by Pam Munoz Ryan

The First Christmas produced by The Complete Works

How God Decorated Heaven for Christmas by Ron Mehl and Melody Carlson

The Christmas Path by Sue Wright

The Christmas Story told through the eyes of an animal:

A Dozen Silk Diapers by Melissa Kajpust

The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado

Christmas is the Stable by Astrid Lindgren

Little Lambs Christmas by Josephine Page

The Donkey's Dream by Barbara Helen Berger

Who is Coming to Our House? by Joseph Slate and AShley Wolff

Christian Santa Stories:

Santa's Favorite Story by Hisako Aoki and Ivan Gratschev

A Special Place for Santa by Jeanne Pieper

Santa Are You for Real? by Harold Myra

Celebrations in Other Cultures:

The Legend of the Spider by Julie Puntch

The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tommy dePaola

Light the Lights by Margaret Moorman

Misc Stories:

The littlest Angel by Charles Tazewell

The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg

The Tiny Star by Arthur Ginolfi

O Holy Night; Christmas With the Boys Choir of Harlem Illustrated by Faith Ringgold

Silent Night illustrated by Susan Jeffers

The Indescribable Gift by Richard Exley

Do you have a favorite Christmas book? I would LOVE to hear about them!

This is Kid Friendly Friday so link your post to ANYTHING kid friendly below. Can't wait to see what you have been up to this week!

Advent Celebration Calendar 2009

When I posted about how we celebrate Advent all December long I told you I would post this year's schedule so without further ado:

2009 Advent schedule

Each night – go through the Christmas cards received that day and pray for those people.
Remember to have Christmas music on a bunch. Wear aprons when cooking. Light the smelly candles (I love evergreen).

Sun Nov 29 - Decorate the Christmas Tree! Light the first Advent Candle. Read Luke 1:26-31, 37, 38

Mon Nov 30 – Make a paper prayer chain for the advent season

Tues Dec 1 – E – Skate Night SO…D, L and S read Christmas books and watch Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer

Wed Dec 2 – Have breakfast for dinner in our pajamas!

Thurs Dec 3 – Make noisemakers with ribbon spools.

Fri Dec 4 – E’s Prophets and Promises event at church at. Bring Cookies

Sat Dec 5 – 9 am - Build a wagon at Home Depot! 3pm - Watch the Gator Championship Game. After the game - Visit “A Walk Through Bethlehem” 5-9pm

Sun Dec 6 – Let’s go shopping so you can pick out a gift for your sister! Then let’s come home and wrap it! Kendall’s Birthday party. Light the second Advent Candle. Read Luke 2:4-7

M Dec 7 – Look through scrapbooks and home video.

T Dec 8 – Bake cookies for the Northland Cookie Drive

W Dec 9 – Make Kool-Aid play dough

R Dec 10 – Make Christmas cards for your teachers (thumbprint reindeer).

F Dec 11 – Bring Cookies for Northland’s Cookie Drive – E performs Frosty at 7 pm!

Sat Dec 12 – Run the Reindeer Run! Deliver a basket for Northland. E performs Frosty 7pm.

Sun Dec 13 – Small Group Christmas Party. Light the third Advent Candle. Read Luke 2:8-14

M Dec 14 – Game Night! Make mulled cider and popcorn!

T Dec 15 – Neighborhood Christmas Party! See Santa!

W Dec 16 – L’s Christmas Program in the am. Read Christmas books. Color Christmas stained glass pictures.

R Dec 17 – Have dinner using the fine china (dress up for dinner)

F Dec 18 – Bring the tabs to the Ronald McDonald house (bring cookies too!). Dinner at McDonalds

Sat Dec 19 – Make Gingerbread Houses for Neighbors.

Sun Dec 20 – Feed the homeless. Bring them Christmas cookies, blankets, mittens.. Light the fourth Advent Candle. Read Luke 2:15-20

M Dec 22 – Watch The Christmas Story (our traditional holiday movie) and eat popcorn!

T Dec 21 – Have a picnic dinner at the park then go look at Christmas lights.

W Dec 23 – Camp out in front of the Christmas tree and read stories. Make Cinnamon rolls for family and friends.

R Dec 24 - Make a birthday cake for Jesus! Church! Party at Aunt Susi’s.

F Dec 25 – Traditional Christmas morning Breakfast!

Win The Jesus Storybook Bible

The Jesus Storybook Bible Deluxe Edition will be available October 2009 but you can enter to win a copy of your own (plus more). It is written for ages four and up and comes with three CDs so that your child can read along with the audio. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful!

To enter, blog about The Jesus Storybook Bible and you could win 16 copies (a case) of The Jesus Storybook Bible Deluxe Edition! Submit your e-mail address and blog-post URL at their site.

Praying for Your Kids

I'm not sure where I got this but have been using it for awhile. It's a sheet with daily prayers for your children in areas such as faithfulness, generosity, self-discipline, courage, etc. I printed one out on cardstock, cut it apart, and am going to send one each day with my husband.

You can click on the image to make it bigger. Let me know if you would like me to email you a copy. Enjoy your weekend!

I'm a Missionary in Yangon, Myanmar

As a busy stay-at-home mother my priority is to raise healthy kids that know Jesus and can see Him in me. Too often I find myself dismissing my call to service outside my home because I have young children. I would love to go on a mission trip (our church has amazing distributed journeys everywhere in the world) but at this stage in my life it's not possible and I haven't yet convinced my husband that we should be missionaries to Africa. (How cool would that be? Now THAT would be elite education for the kids.) When the opportunity came along to serve throughout the world from my home and with completely flexible hours, I knew it was for me. I have been involved with Global Media Outreach for a couple of months as an online missionary and it has been an amazing gift.

As people from all over the world search for Jesus through one of GMO's over 90 web sites, they have the opportunity to contact GMO with questions. Their questions come to the volunteers (this is me!) who answer their emails and help them know God better. You wouldn't believe the places where my emails have come from....Kenya, Romania, Egypt, India, Philippines, Morocco, Japan, just to name a few. It's a great learning experience for me, which I get to pass on to my children ("Do you know where Mommy got an email from today?.....Let's go find Yangon, Myanmar on a map.").

Here's a bit more about it from their website....

Our Mission
Global Media Outreach prays that we see…
A world where we reach every person for Christ using the internet and other media.

Our Vision

The vision of GMO is to give everyone on earth multiple opportunities to know Jesus, see hundreds of millions accept Christ and see them grow in their faith and connect them to Christian movements everywhere.

The strategy: move people from isolation to connection and from information to transformation

Our Technology Plans

We plan to utilize internet-based outreach and communication technologies in text, video, audio on multiple platforms. We use computers, things that think, iPods, cell phones, Podcasting, internet radio, TV, film, and other emerging communication technologies. CRM technologies are currently in development for relationship, Bible study, devotionals and discipleship. Our goal is to provide ubiquitous, wireless, always on, global network communications 24 x 7 x 365.

Our Goal for Languages

We want to present the gospel in the top internet languages covering 85% of the 1 billion people using the internet – in English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Korean, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Arabic, and Russian.

Your Goal for Personal Ministry

GMO has developed a unique response system that can securely empower thousands of people as online missionaries to personally share their faith one-on-one through the Internet as they respond to seekers.

Great Resource For You - Economy

I am involved in a ministry called Young Life. Last night the regional director gave us this. What a wonderful resource in these economic times. If you can't get it big enough or can't read it (try to click on the picture), let me know your email address and I will email it to you.