12 Days of Christmas Giveaways (2017) – Day 3
*Give Away has Ended*
THIS YEAR THERE IS ALSO A GRAND PRIZE!!!
One of you WHO COMMENTS ON ALL TWELVE POSTS AND ALSO SHARES ABOUT THE SERIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA will win a grand prize from me, pictured here.
REMEMBER…in order to win the grand prize, you must leave a comment on all 12 posts. You can start with Day One here.
OK, let’s get started with our third day’s guest, Sara Hagerty.
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Hagerty Family Tradition
I have a four year-old who sleeps better after he has run hard. Dirt underneath his fingernails and beads of sweat clinging to the scraggly locks of blond hair around his ears as I tuck him in for a nap, and I can be assured the rest of the day will run smoothly.
So we get outside.
At 10:00am – the time when I once was most productive – we pull on our boots and tromp through the woods. We pick berries and pull back the branches of evergreen trees in search of robin’s nests, all while his eyes dart through the underbrush for snakes.
“Tell me a story, Mommy,” he asks. His little-boy mind feeds on story and it’s snack time. We live our own story as we explore the woods and I tell him another one to feed his mind.
God knew His people feast best on story. My little guy is like every other son of Adam that preceded him. He learns the world through story.
And though my bigger kids don’t say “Mommy, tell me a story,” they lean in when my husband talks about his college days. I sometimes hear them retelling with the same intonation as we do, creating legends out of our anecdotes.
While I feel more secure with the instruction from a Proverb or an epistle, the prodigal son’s father (the picture of my Father) ran with a pounding in his chest and sweat collecting in his ears to meet his son. A whore was in the lineage of Jesus. A virgin wore stretch-marks from the Son of God within her.
We are storied people and our God speaks in story.
As life barrels, even for those of us with an intentional eye for slow, tradition anchors the flitting life right back to home. And one of our favorite family traditions revolves around story.
Every Advent, we gift each one of our children with an Advent- or Christmas-related storybook. Throughout December, these books stay scattered under the tree and wedged between couch pillows. They’re well-loved. We read them for one month and package them up for the other eleven.
The thrill of re-discovering these books – though they’re not the divine story of Scripture, but are merely illuminating the beauty of our God-in-skin – is akin to the spark in my four year-old’s eye at ten in the morning on a weekday. With this traditional anchor we cultivate holy curiosity – hunger — in the minds of our storied children.
Day Three Giveaway
For the 12 Days of Christmas series, I am giving away the two books pictured below! I’m a gift giver. I love that I can suggest a tradition to you and also initiate that tradition in your home with one of our favorite December reads: Christmas Day in the Morning. The winner of this giveaway will receive this book, along with a copy of my recently released book Unseen: The Gift of Being Hidden in a World that Loves to be Noticed.
Sara Hagerty is the author of Every Bitter Thing is Sweet and Unseen: The Gift of Being Hidden in a World that Loves to be Noticed, a wife to Nate, and a mother of six, including four children adopted from Africa, one toddler who’s found his voice amid them all, and a wee-babe. After almost a decade of Christian life, she was introduced to pain and perplexity and, ultimately, intimacy with Jesus. God met her and moved her when life stopped working for her. His Word and His whisper took on new shape and form to her in the dark. Sara writes regularly about life delays, finding God in the unlikely, motherhood, marriage, and adoption at SaraHagerty.net.
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12 Days of Christmas Giveaways Rules
- You can comment on all 12 days (once per person) up until midnight Pacific time, Sunday, December 17. All posts are linked on Day One here.
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- One daily winner will be chosen from each day’s comments and all winners (including Grand Prize) will be announced on Wednesday, December 20.
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This sounds like a wonderful gift for my older children for my grands.
We have the same Christmas tradition. Although the kids are older now, in college and married, I would still love a new Christmas book to put out. Jotham’s journey is a great kids’ advent book!!
Christmas traditions of reading books or watching certain movies can make the season feel like you’re home again, even if it’s only in my dreams. Thanks for sharing your story and the chance to win a couple of wonderful books.
I think giving a new book each Advent/Christmas is a wonderful tradition!
I love this idea! Thanks for sharing
I love this tradition. These would be wonderful books to add in our home.
This is such a great way to be introduced to new Author’s and their Books! Thank you :-)
Traditions are so important.
Christmas Day in the Morning looks like a beautiful book! I’m going to get it!
We started participating in Advent as a family for the first time this year. The changes in attitudes is slowly changing and directing towards God. I scurried throughout the home trying to locate books to support the Jesus season, placing them strategically around their favorite sitting places in hopes of them picking them up to read.
We’ve never done a book advent. I’m terrible about new daily routines, but my children are excellent at reminding us of anything that needs doing before being tucked into bed!
I love the book Advent idea. So true about stories. My son learns best through stories and always wants to hear about my childhood.
I love reading to my children. Story is such a powerful gift!
I love creating new traditions and carrying on ones I had when I was little. This is such a special time of year.
Traditions create such great memories.
Thank you for the opportunity! My boys are older but it’s never too late for new traditions.
My kids love when we read together. Well written post, reminds me of the need to be more intentional with the fleeting time. Thank you.
I love reading about all the different kinds of traditions and how they relate to the real meaning of Christmas
Love hearing about other families traditions. Thank you for sharing your story!
Thanks for sharing.
This is a great tradition in the book sound a very good read that could be enjoyed many times over.
How wonderful!!! Reading to your children or them reading to you Christmas stories is a precious way to spend time together. We buy two or three new Christmas books every year so our collection is quite a library after 31 years. My children are grown and I don’t have grandchildren YET but I continue to add to our Christmas book collection. Just not buying as many! Would love to add this book to ours to read this Christmas.
I love this idea! I do an advent calendar foe each pf my adult children.
Love this idea! I’m always looking for new traditions to do with my son and grandkids!!
We started this tradition last year, and I love it! Hubby and I were both English majors in college- it’s how we met. So we love passing on the love of reading, and story, to our kids.
Thanks for this post- it was beautifully written!