HOUSE OF ROBERTS BLOG

I love the holidays, they are full of warmth, sweets, time spent with loved ones, lots of joyous occasions, generosity, and yes oh yes gifts! I love to savor the whole month and create moments throughout the days and weeks to share moments together with us and the kids. For Mike and I we have really tried to create a culture in our home where MOMENTS are more valuable than THINGS in our hearts. This is the same reason why every other birthday we go on an adventure rather than have a birthday party. Don’t get me wrong, we never “boo hoo” or shame the desire of wanting “things” but we just try to proactively make it not the main point of life. That being said we intentionally plan time together, little moments all month long to enjoy. I want to share a few of them and maybe it inspires…

• We do a Christmas Checklist: My kids LOVE this one! I will share ours with you here! It’s our goal each year to accomplish as many as we can on the checklist. It’s a fun little challenge that our kids get into and definitely holds us accountable. Things like: drink hot chocolate, go look at Christmas lights, take a family photo, bake Christmas cookies, finish an advent calendar. I find that the checklist is really good at encouraging MOMENTS rather than THINGS. I really feel that the checklist helps you savor and enjoy the whole month, helping it not go by too fast or be wasted! Click here to access our list!
• We watch Christmas movies every night! We loooove movies, popcorn, and hot chocolate. We turn the fire on and start enjoying one of our classics. Here is a list of the family-friendly ones we like:

1.    Christmas with the Kranks

2.    Elf

3.    The Grinch

4.    How the Grinch Stole Christmas

5.    Miracle on 34th Street

6.    Santa Clause 1

7.    Santa Clause 2

8.    Deck the Halls

9.    Fred Clause

10.  Home Alone 1

11.  Home Alone 2

12.  Christmas Chronicles

13.  The Princess Switch

14.  Falling for Christmas

15.  The Christmas Prince

16.  8-bit Christmas

17.  A Christmas Story

18.  A White Christmas

19.  Daddy’s Home 2

20.  Arthur Christmas

• What we do on Christmas Morning:
• Before we open gifts we read the story of Jesus’s Birth and Pray.
• We open one round of gifts and then stop and let the kids enjoy it for a bit before moving on. Mike and I early in parenthood hated how it felt like the kids tore through everything without really appreciating each gift they would open. This didn’t mean they were ungrateful in spirit, it just became an obvious area that we needed to parent and approach differently on Christmas morning. We found that stopping and letting them play for a bit, it gave them time to look, play, enjoy, and be grateful before moving on to the next item. This makes for a way less chaotic moment and also slows it down so you can savor it all. 
• After opening gifts, we eat Christmas breakfast. This has become one of our favorite meals, we look forward to it each year! Michael sets the menu for this moment and it never disappoints. It’s a tradition we have been doing ever since we have been married and now we share it with our kids!

The Christmas season is such a sweet time! A time to start new rhythms and traditions. A time to savor sweet moments and make memories with each other. I am praying over your December that it will be marked with so many beautiful moments with each other and that there will be laughter, love, and a deep sense of gratitude for all the Lord has given us! I am praying that as you give your eye to it, the Lord will show you something new to start and that you will savor the month with the ones you love! It’s going to be a great month, in Jesus name!!