The book starts out with a great suggestion: read a chapter in Luke every day. There's 24 chapters and you read through the life of Jesus. Great idea! Then, each chapter in this book has something different to focus on, encouraging you to recenter your thoughts on the true meaning of the season.
You get to read about the origins of loved Christmas carols and traditions. Learning about "Silent Night" and "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" gave me a deeper understanding of the songs. I have to say I learned the most about "12 Days of Christmas," because I read about it a day after I'd commented that I didn't understand why someone who really loved you would give you so many birds! Now, the song helps me remember what it means and focuses my thoughts on Jesus.
There's also stories about the origins of traditions: candy canes, Christmas trees, and sending cards are some of the stories included. I thought these were also interesting and shared them with my children.
I have to say that I did pretty well keeping up with this until Christmas Day. Up until I started reading this book, all the Advent activities in our family go up until Christmas Eve, so the entry for Christmas Day and the day after, Boxing Day, I had to catch up on. I was disappointed to read that for Christmas, he suggested baking a birthday cake for Jesus. I don't know about Collins' house, but I don't just have the ingredients to whip up a cake on the fly like that. I liked the idea, but if I'd known about it earlier, I might have actually been able to do it. Hopefully I'll remember for next year.
Even if I didn't agree with every suggestion, they are just that - suggestions. For instance, he suggests everyone opening gifts one at a time and taking pictures of everything. For us, we gather up everything after it's been opened and take a picture then. I found that if I make the kids pose after or during each present, it disrupts their fun and I'm more worried about getting a good picture than being part of the moment. It's a personal preference, but I can also see where the author was going with the suggestion and appreciate it.
Overall, this was a good book and I was glad I read it. It's a great way to have a few minutes focused on Jesus each day, and you get to learn something along the way! Good Book!
No comments:
Post a Comment