It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!
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I’m on a Christmas kick these days! Fall is by far my favorite season but the life of a blogger means we are usually working a season ahead. I love the changing of the leaves and the fall comfort foods but suddenly I’m ready to decorate with twinkly lights and bust out the Christmas music playlists I made on Prime Music last year!
I want to give a huge shout out to DaySpring for providing these items to share with you for their annual Christmas Preview Event! It was Christmas morning in our house as I unpacked this box. I cheated a little and unpacked it away from the kids first then did a live “unboxing” video that you can check out on Facebook. I wanted to make sure I knew what all was included so I could have this post ready to go when I did the unboxing. I want you to be able to find what I’m talking about right away!
So here we go!
First up is this box of beautiful sparkly Christmas note cards. There are 24 cards in this box – 12 of each of the two designs. Each design contains a scripture to spread the wonderful news of Jesus this Christmas season. I don’t normally send Christmas cards but I’ll be handwriting some notes to go along with Christmas gifts this year because these are so beautiful!
Next in the box is what might be my new favorite Christmas decor item because it’s so stinking easy to work with – it’s the Joy to the World Christmas Door Banner. I love that all I need to do is slip this around my door and adjust it to the perfect spot. It has a design on each side to encourage those inside and outside your home. I can even add a wreath if I want! It’s weather resistant so the cold and snow we get will be putting it to the test. Of course I might just stick it on an inside door so we get to enjoy the whole thing inside, rather than only one side of it… and maybe so I can put it up WAY earlier than might be considered normal 😉 If you want to see how easy this door decor is to use or the other designs you can check out the page DaySpring put together here.
These next few items are what we are really pumped about this season. My kids have been wanting to do Elf on the Shelf for the last few years but we don’t do Santa in our house so why do we need an elf? But this little guy….
He’s a Shepherd on the search for Jesus! He comes in a box that doubles as a manger scene and it includes a small book that tells the story of this sweet boy that wants to find the baby the angels told him about. Each day you can move him to a new spot as he continues his journey to the manger. What a sweet way to keep us and our children focused on our own journey during the advent season!
Want to go further with your Shepherd on the Search? Say hello to this wonderful family devotional. I paged through it and I’m giddy to begin. Is it December 1st yet? Each of the twenty-five readings includes a short story written from the perspective of the shepherd (so cute!)l, a chance to reach deeper into the Bible with additional scripture references to the story plus an activity to do together as a family. My plan is to read the devotional portion at breakfast when we usually do our family devotional and then do the additional reading at dinner and the activity when we are done eating.
And finally, one more Shepherd on the Search item – an activity book! This book contains 28 pages of activities like word searches, mazes, and coloring sheets plus two pages of stickers! I plan on ordering more of these since one book between five kids is only going to cause extra chaos!
So, it’s time to haul out the tree and stockings now, right? Okay, okay, I’ll wait until November but I’m not sure I can wait until after Thanksgiving. If you keep an eye on my Instagram feed you might just see glimpses of early Christmas prep happening. What can I say? I love me some holiday fun!
We love devotions around Christmas time. I start preparing for Christmas right around November 1. I have friends who have children in the age range this devotional book would speak to! Thanks. 🙂