Day 5 of 12 Days of Christmas! (with Nicki Koziarz)
*If you are reading this post in your email inbox, be sure to navigate to my blog order to leave your comment and be entered to win the giveaway. To do so, click here.
NOTE: The best way to make sure you don’t miss any of the 12 days of giveaways is to subscribe to my blog so new posts are sent to your email inbox. When you do, you will automatically be sent a PDF resource I wrote called 5 Ways to Tether Your Heart to God’s Word. Click here to subscribe.
It’s Day 5 of the 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways! If you’re just joining in, be sure to start at Day 1 by clicking here.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Although all you need to do to enter is comment here, I will also be snooping around on social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, looking for people who are promoting the giveaway by sharing an image along with the hashtag #12daysofchristmasgiveaways When you do so, you will be entered a second time for the giveaway that day!
Additionally, there is a grand prize for one person who comments on all 12 days, so set a daily alarm on your phone phone for now until December 18th and join the fun!
This year our Grand Prize is worth over $225!! It includes:
- A leader kit of my What Matters Most Lifeway study of Philippians, including the teaching DVD’s and one Bible study guide.
- A Wheatfield Woman ESV journaling Bible from Wheat and Honey Co.
- A pink cable knit throw (other color options available)
- A pour-over coffee dripper
- A half pound of Fortress coffee, a company started by two fellow alumni from Spring Arbor University
- An insulated pink shimmer mug (or color of your choice)
Day 5: The Most Thoughtful Gift Ever
For day five, our guest is my close friend and Proverbs 31 Ministries partner Nicki Koziarz. Nicki is a wife, mom, best-selling author, and speaker. Her family resides at a small farm just outside of Charlotte, NC they affectionately call The Fixer Upper Farm. She is also one of the first people I text when I need to process a life situation or want to celebrate something.
And now…here is Nicki!
The year my mom died was one of the hardest Christmases I’d ever had.
I remember tears flooding my eyes as my dad pulled up to our farmhouse on Christmas morning, alone. They had always joined us for breakfast, prayer and then watched our three daughters dig into their gifts under the tree. As his car door closed and he walked towards the steps of our house, alone, the ache of this new reality hit hard.
It had only been six weeks since she died, how would we get through this?
But my husband had something planned. Something he knew wouldn’t take the ache of her being gone away, but would remind me of the hope to come.
After the breakfast dishes were cleaned up, we sat in our living room feeling the emptiness of her not being there. The girls tried to have as much joy and excitement as possible as they opened all their gifts but we all felt her absence.
And then my husband, Kris, handed me one oddly shaped gift. It looked like pieces of paper. I had no idea what it was and thought it was strange. But as soon as I unfolded the paper, my heart fluttered. It was a printed picture of two baby girl highland cows.
We had talked about getting cows for our farm but because of my mom’s long and hard passing from a brain tumor, like most other things, we had put this little dream on hold. I wasn’t sure when we would ever pick it back up because looking forward felt hard after such a hard season.
But that Christmas day, the dream came back and the reality of our fixer upper farm turning back into an actual farm became a reality as he told me, those were mine. I cried. But this time, it wasn’t tears of sadness, they were tears of joy. Because this dream that had felt so far from becoming a reality, the rebuilding of our farm, was a little closer to coming true.
Today, when I look at Autumn and Paisley, those two baby highlands now turned into full grown cows, I’m still grateful for that gift. Because it was one that brought joy and hope for the future after a season of so much loss.
It’s been a hard year for most of us. But today, through this Christmas series Karen Ehman is offering us may we also find a little more joy and a lot more hope. The future is still full of dreams yet to be fulfilled.
Now, for today’s quick question of the day: What is the most thoughtful gift or gesture you have ever been given or that you have ever heard of?
Day 5 Giveaway
For day five, Nicki is giving away a $50 Anthropologie gift card. You can use it to buy clothing, accessories, home and furniture items, or beauty and wellness products.
Be sure to answer today’s question in the comments below!
*********************
Nicki Koziarz is a wife, mom, speaker and two-time best-selling author with Proverbs 31 Ministries. She and her husband own a small farm just outside of Charlotte, NC they affectionately call The Fixer Upper Farm. Nicki’s new book and study guide, Flooded, releases March 2021 and is available on Amazon for preorder now.
*********************
Day 5 Giveaway Question
NOTE: Affiliate links may be included. We only recommend products we know our readers will love!
12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAYS RULES
- U.S. Addresses only please.
- You can comment on all 12 days (once per person) up until midnight Pacific time, Sunday, December 20. Each day will be linked below for easy reference.
- One daily winner will be chosen from each day’s comments.
- To enter to win the Grand Prize (worth over $225 and includes: A leader kit of my What Matters Most Lifeway study of Philippians, including the teaching DVD’s and one Bible study guide; a Wheatfield Woman ESV journaling Bible from Wheat and Honey Co.; a pink cable knit throw (other color options available); a pour-over coffee dripper ; a half pound of Fortress coffee, a company started by two fellow alumni from Spring Arbor University; an insulated pink shimmer mug–or color of your choice), comment on and share all 12 posts. You can use the share buttons below or repost and share on Instagram (my fave!) and tag me @karenehman.
- All winners (including Grand Prize) will be announced here on the blog on Monday, December 21, and contacted via email. Please allow 4-6 weeks to receive your prizes.
Though this sounds materialistic, it wasn’t. I was in an abusive marriage and had a one-year-old daughter who I was basically raising on my own. My Mom knew how much I struggled so she decided to make one of my dreams come true. I never had money to spend on myself but I had wanted a Coach purse for so long. I just wanted a purse that would last and not break, plus I loved the style of them. She purchased a small, black Coach purse for me that year. I cried when I opened it. Not because I had this beautiful item, but because God had used that to remind me that He wasn’t far and had a plan to make the dreams He put in my heart come true. Every time I see that purse, I think of that.
When someone unexpectedly listens to something on my heart and makes it happen.
The gift of presence. Having lost a child myself I know how lonely grief can be, and also terribly uncomfortable for those around you. The gift of presence is something that I feel is a direct reflection of God and His perfect love for us.
The best gift I have recently received for Christmas was an invite last year to someone’s house to celebrate Christmas with them and their family. My husband and I don’t live around family, except for our now adult daughter and her husband and our son who still lives at home. Sometimes the holidays can be lonely. The person gave us the gift of family for the holidays by letting us be part of theirs.
My mother handed me one of her favorite rings on her death bed, on December 17th! My favorite treasure!
My mother passed away also right close to Christmas. She had always been the one to buy the presents but my father bought me a sleep shirt that he picked out himself. This Christmas will once again be very hard as he passed away Sept. 25th this year. It will be out first Christmas without either one of them. Soooo very hard
One Christmas my husband built a dining room table out of barnwood from my Papaw’s old farm! It was a total surprise and I love it so much!
This will be our 3rd Christmas in our new home. We moved in just a few days before Christmas. We put up the prelit tree & placed a pic of each of our kids on the tree. No other decorations. We barely had any furniture moved. My new home is a reminder of how much my husband loves me & how hard he works each & every day to provide for our family…both our needs & our wants.
The Christmas of 2017 is the most recent one I can think of. I received a necklace with an owl charm in honor of my grandmother. I cried like a baby.
My husband and kids made a coupon book for me. My son was just learning to write but he wrote out the whole thing. It was a labor of love for him and he was so proud of it.
Last year I gave the older 3 grands a book of our 10nday vacation to the SW. They were amazed! To see 3 kids looking thru every page as soon as they opened it was the best!
My Mom passed away 12 years ago in July, and not a day goes by I don’t think of her. In August nod that year my husband and I planned to attend the state fair. On the morning we were to go he told me to pack a bag for the weekend but wouldn’t tell me where we were going. As we drove south along Interstate 57 I kept thinking we would be going to St. Louis but was stumped after we passed the exchange. We finally arrived in Elizabethtown IL at a bed and breakfast where he had rented a little cottage on the property. It was beautiful, but the best part was we were right on the Ohio River. Sitting under the trees and being near the water allowed me to finally feel some peace. My husband knew I need to be someplace in nature to feel the presence of God and start healing.
God has given me the most cherished gift and that is the man he has brought into my life who loves and support me even when I’m not in the best of places.
It was a gift I gave to my husband and son- family pictures on canvas. It brought tears to the eyes as they were opened to recapture the joy of family and my husbands grown son with his family. They are still a treasure to us and a reminder of what’s important
Any gift from the heart!!! I love when my husband surprises me with something that he picked out on his own!
I think the most thoughtful gifts are handmade gifts from my mom- either quilts or even scarfs and hats. Knowing the time she poured into making them makes it extra special.
I’ve had several “thoughtful” gifts. Most recent was last year when my 6 yr old grandson wrapped a box of tissues & gifted me with them. He really wanted to get me something & he knew that was something I use a lot of. Yep, I had to use them after I opened the gift just knowing how it came from his heart was so touching.
The snowmen my daughter made me.
My son felt bad for an unexpected adult guest at Christmas, since he didn’t get a gift , so he gave him one of his new toys, he just opened. I still cry about that gift. It had meant so much to that young man too.
A pound puppy I lost when I was little was given to me by one of my teachers
The most thoughtful gift is a card with writing on how much I am appreciated. Makes me tear up every time .
My husband had my first doll restored for Christmas one year.
The most thoughtful gift I have been given is a personalized picture.
2 years ago one of our very first baby goats who was six weeks away from turning 16 died. A week before my husband took a picture of her and my best friend, a photographer doctored it up and put it in a frame for me for Christmas.
The most thoughtful gift I have ever been given is the gift of life given me by an as yet unknown to me organ donor, who gave me two new (used) lungs back on June 13, 2019. I thank God every day for the gift this person gave me.