What's been going on since November...A LOT!

Luke turned 5 last month! Carrie made him a race car cake and was he ever excited! Everyone came over for supper and dessert and then he opened his presents which were mostly cars or informational books. The other grandkids had a great time as well eating their cones and watching him open gifts.

Thanksgiving was a special day. It began with having a couple of friends over for a special breakfast. The kids took a hike in the woods near our house in the early afternoon while the turkey was cooking. Dinner began about 5 pm and all the kids were here. We moved couches out of our family room and tables and chairs in and we had a lovely spread. We read George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation just after dinner. The older girls served everyone all the different courses and we all ate together.

After dinner, all signed our Thanksgiving tablecloth stating something they were thankful for during the past year, and we also completed our annual Time Capsules recounting blessing of the past year and goals for the upcoming one. The evening was completed with pies of all sorts.

The day after Thanksgiving, we made our yearly trek to the tree field. Rick and Dusty and Tim and Kari were there as well. It was a cold, windy day, but that made it seem more like Christmas! We all agreed on the "perfect" tree and sure enough when we set it up that evening it fit perfectly! We had yummy leftovers for lunch and spent the day doing the inside Christmas decorating. The next day, Saturday, everyone joined forces to do the outside decorating. This year, I think Matt said they put up about 7000 lights on the house, deck, trees, etc. We LOVE lights. It reminds us that Jesus is the light of the world. Anyone coming to the Boyers house at night in December can tell which one it is long before they arrive!! As they decorate, they play Christmas music and sing all day long.

That evening we set up and decorated the tree. Tim and Kari's family were over and Adam was fascinated with ornaments of past years that had pictures of his daddy when he was little. He and Cass guessed who each one was! They helped hang the ornaments on the lower branches and we continued to decorate after they went home to bed.

During December, we had Anne and her daddy, Nate, one night by Anne's request for Grandad to make doughnuts and hot chocolate. Nate had been telling her about his childhood memories of Christmas and she decided that one sounded real good!! It was a fun evening.
Anne also took her first horse back ride this month on Grandad's horse. She loved it and decided she now wants Grandad to buy a black and white pinto named Checkers. I'm afraid that won't be a dream coming true any time too soon!

The first Friday night of December was the annual Holiday Carols presentation put on by Kari and Emily. It is a fun evening of quality Christmas music performed by lots of singers. They invite the whole community and of course the message of Jesus comes through each year. They did an excellent job and I kept hearing folks just wishing it would last longer.

Last Friday night we had our annual Christmas party and bonfire. It was a cold night. We sang Christmas carols around the fire and our former pastor shared a few words about Christmas. We had lots of food and great fellowship.

We've done a lot of entertaining this month. We love having people over and Christmas is such a special season that we enjoy sharing it with others as well. Next week we'll be baking nativity Christmas cookies for our neighbors and bringing them a gospel witness.

We pray that your Christmas season has been full of sweet memories and fun times as a family.

God bless each of you and a Merry Christmas from the Boyer family!!

~Marilyn Boyer

Super Cute Craft for Christmas

Christmas Choir

This is an adorable craft that my sisters found on the Family Fun website and did with the kids on Thanksgiving. It is easy, and the finished product looks just like the picture. If packed away carefully, these will last for years to come. Click Here for instructions

(instructional video also available)

Pictures from November and December

New Recipes

Click Here for New Recipes

New Uncle Rick Release

These stories were originally published in 1908 for use in the public school as fifth/sixth grade reading material. They are excellent patriotic stories of events that occurred during the War For Independence, such as the Boston Tea Party, and events that led to the war and people involved in it. They are fascinating for kids ages 5- 13. Approx. 150 minutes contained on two CD`s.

Original Price: 14.00
Special Offer through December
10.00
Click Here

A Heads-Up!

In January we’ll be releasing our new line, Uncle Rick’s E-books. These will be a collection—eventually a great big collection—of the greatest books ever written for young people, in digital format. You’ll be able to download to your laptop or e-reader tons of biographies, novels and other books that American young people have loved for generations. Everything from biographies of Thomas Jefferson, Robert E. Lee and Sergeant York, to such all-time fiction favorites as Treasure Island and The Count of Monte Cristo. And the special feature of all these books is Uncle Rick’s Character Comments at the end of each chapter. That’s right, brief comments and questions between chapters will challenge the young reader to think about what’s really important in the story—the character traits displayed, good and evil, by the characters he’s reading about. We know of nothing like Uncle Rick’s Ebooks on the market. Be watching for them!

Grace

Grace is 18 years old and is my right arm with the Learning Parent. She helps in order fulfillment, customer relations, and duplication to name a few tasks. Grace is very diligent and dependable. She is very organized and sets daily goals to accomplish and somehow manages to get them done! She loves the outdoors and her animals. We keep 4 horses at a friends farm and Grace delights in riding them. She also has chickens, cats, guineas, and trains both our blood hound and lab mix. She recently got her learner's permit and is practicing driving. She helps me a lot with her younger sisters as she works from home. She is very diligent at piano and becoming quite skilled at it. She often helps out with her nieces and nephews as well and enjoys spending time with each of them. Her days are full, but she still finds time to spend with friends of all ages. We are thankful for Grace.

Favorite Pastimes: Riding Horses, crocheting, spending time with family Interests: Music, reading books on Biblical Womanhood
Favorite Food: Fresh Fruit
A Favorite Childhood Memory: Playing in the garden hose "sprinkler", taking Christmas cookies to neighors every year
1 Reason I'm glad I was Homeschooled: Didn't have to deal with peer pressure and bad influences nearly as much as otherwise would have, instead got to spend more time with my family
Favorite Person in History: Betsy Ten Boom, because of her strong faith and unwavering commitment to God in the hardest of circumstances

Favorite Learning Parent products:

Thy Word Scripture Memory; loved these as a little girl learned so much Scripture from them!

Jesus and the Children Print; Mom put my picture in place of the little girl in Jesus' hands and hung it by my bed and I'd look at that when I got scared at night and remember that Jesus was with me.

On My Own biographies; We didn't have these when I was learning to read but I'd have loved them; the book I learned from was so boring : )

How We Handled Gift Giving

When our children were young, we sometimes had to handle the situation of people giving them gifts which were things we didn't approve of. We found it very helpful to have a wishlist for the kids of things they wanted or things we thought would benefit them. It often solved the problem of people giving them gifts we felt were inappropriate for them. We also tried to tactfully explain to relatives the guidelines we used for gift giving to our kids. We tried to give our children real toys, things that would enable them to role play being a mommy for little girls or cars, building toys, etc for little boys. We didn't give them fantasy type gifts or the latest fad toys and we definitely limited electronic entertainments. We wanted the gifts we gave our children to be things that would contribute to them developing servant's hearts and real character and used that as a standard for our choices. Occasionally they would be given a toy we felt was inappropriate and one we could not let them keep. In those instances, we would return it to a store, if possible and let the child choose something we did approve of. At the same time we tried to lead our children to not be judgmental of others and explained that others had different standards than our family might and we must follow what our conscience told us was right.

In order not to be focused on what they were to get for Christmas, we always had a project to give to others. We gave Picture Bibles to neighborhood children each year to help introduce them to be open to hearing God's Word. (Picture Bible, BTW, make great gifts for kids in extended family who may not be familiar with God's Word. The stories are like comic books, but use realistic illustrations. They are written in an exciting way. It kind of leaves you hanging and that makes you want to read the next story too). We also brought neighbors nativity sugar cookies with a gospel tract each year.

Often we "adopted" elderly as "grandparents" or "aunt or uncles" and gave thoughtful gifts to them. We often gave to Samaritan's purse or Angel tree and for a number of years, we gave to a family who had a child suffering from leukemia. Other years, we found a less fortunate family for all to give to, sometimes a family with a single parent. Some years we ministered to others in several of these ways. One of my favorites that my teen aged children decided upon was to bring cookies and goodies to officers of police departments, sheriff's office, rescue squads, fire departments, etc, in other words our public servants. They would invite friends over to prepare the treats and deliver them together with a card of appreciation for their services to the community and of course, a gospel tract with a clear message.

Now as our family has grown quite large, we handle gifts to each other by drawing names. Each person gives gifts to three others and gets gifts from three others. It's a fun way to handle family giving so that no one gets too much or is strained to feel like they have so many to give to.
Each person plans and prepares gifts for different family members each year. We also encourage each one to have a wish list we can refer to for Christmas and birthday giving. I LOVE watching the faces of little ones who have invested in planning surprises for another family member!!

~Marilyn

How We Chose to Handle Santa Claus

We made the decision when our first son was just a baby that we would not teach our children about Santa Claus. First of all, the reason we chose not to teach our children about Santa was basically because Christmas is about Jesus and Jesus deserves our full attention and praise. Secondly, we strongly felt that we should not lie to our children ,even in “play”. Both Rick and I were saved when we were 16 years old. I had never heard of all the wonderful stories of the Bible as a child. There are so many truths in Scripture that are remarkable and not natural and I didn’t want to confuse my children as to which things Mommy told them were true and which were games we play. If I were to tell them the Santa story and they later learned it wasn’t true, how could I expect them to believe me when I told them about Daniel in the lion’s den or the parting of the Red Sea. I never wanted to intentionally lie to my children.

Therefore, my goal to was to magnify Jesus Christ during the Christmas season . I wanted my children to be devoted to the Lord and not distracted with fairy tales. I began to find meaningful ways to magnify Jesus. During the years we made ornaments for our tree with names of Jesus on them, things like Wonderful Counsellor,

Prince of Peace, Light of the World, Lamb of God, etc. I evaluated the things that we used for our celebration and taught my children what significance they had (these can be found below)

We soon learned that people in stores and friends would be asking him what Santa was going to bring him for Christmas. We realized we had to address it somehow. As for answering well meaning folks we rubbed shoulders with, I told my children that some people play the Santa game. I told them why we didn’t and made it clear that Christmas was about Jesus. I also taught them not to be rude to others and when asked what Santa would bring them, just to say, “We celebrate Jesus birthday on Christmas. Also, I taught them that it was not their responsibility to set others straight and they were not to tell other children there was no Santa. We told them Santa in the mall was someone’s daddy dressed up in a costume, but the Santa game was not something our family participated in. We were not to judge others, but do what God clearly led our family to do. This has worked well for our family through the years. Our children - young and adult love the Lord Jesus Christ and we all LOVE Christmas!! It is a highlight of the year for us and a time to remind us of the greatest sacrifice of all made in our behalf- that God sent His only Son to earth as a Babe to die on a cross for my sins and for yours! What a marvel! Jesus, we love you and we celebrate your arrival here on our sinful earth. Consider what traditions you will have as a family. We have more suggestions on our booklet, More Than Just a Wish List. God bless you as you strive to make Christmas a meaningful celebration for your family.

The Christmas Tree

Jesus was born for the cross. He came to die for us- ON A TREE. I Peter 2:24 says that Jesus bore our own sins in His body on the tree”

The evergreen tree also represents eternal life- the green remains all winter long.

Lights

Jesus was the light of the world. He came to be a light shining in the darkness.

Star

God placed a special star in the sky to guide the wise men to the Savior. It’s fitting that that God used a star to announce the birth of Christ-Ps. 19:1 says, “the Heavens declare the Glory of God”

Angels

Heavenly messengers sent by God to announce the miracle to lowly shepherds

Candle and Poinsettia

Candle-We are told to be lights on a hilltop , not to cover it under a bushel, but to let our light

so shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven., leading others to our Precious Savior. What better time than

Christmas?

Poinsettia- Answers in Genesis tells us that the poinsettia was used for Christmas as it was believed to represent the unique star of Bethlehem. Also, the red color represents the blood that Jesus sacrificed for our sins. It blooms in winter

.

Gifts

Jesus was the greatest gift ever given . As his life’s blood flowed to the foot of the cross, so we place our gifts under the tree as a reminder of the greatest gift we ever received- the salvation of our soul. We emphasize the joy of giving to others during this season.

Ornaments

Our adornment should be of Christ- God wants to decorate us with the fruit of the spirit to make us more like Him.

Wreath
The wreath, in a circle, reminds us of God’s everlasting love which never ends. The green represents everlasting life.

Candy Cane

Read in Celebrating a Christ-centered Christmas on page 20.

Have you ever thought about the colors of Christmas or explained them to your kids?

Red- represents the shed blood Isaiah 1:18 “Thou your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”

White- Christ’s purity and sinlessness

Green- everlasting life

Gold- royalty

Memories and family traditions are the stuff life is made of. And you, as mom, have the wonderful privilege of building meaningful traditions for your children they will treasure their entire lifetime.

The Pumpkin Patch and Kasey's 11th Birthday

New Boyer Baby!

Patrick Cole Boyer was born last week to Nate and Tina! He was 7lb 2 oz.
We are so excited to begin loving on this new addition to our family!

Celebrating the Season

November is a wonderful month for the Boyers. We delight in making Thanksgiving crafts, reading the story of the Pilgrims, and making special treats. This year we made Pilgrim hat cookies with the grandkids. It is a very easy recipe and great for even short attention spans.
Luke and Melody dressed up in Kasey's old Pilgrim costumes and donned the hats they made from our craft kits. We laminated all the Thanksgiving placemats and the kids have been using them at their homes. Even Baby Patrick, Anne's new baby brother has one! We study the character quality of gratefulness. I figure we all need to be reminded of that at least once every year! I purchased some foam stamps of Pilgrims, Indians, cornucopias, leaves and other things and let the kids use washable paint to decorate sheets of construction paper. We still have Indian headdresses left to assemble! We've taken lots of walks in the woods to appreciate the beauty God has given us to enjoy. We love collecting pretty colored leaves and making color copies of them. They come out so clear and can be used for fun projects! Leaf rubbings are always favorites with all kids. You turn a leaf, bumpy side up, lay a sheet of paper over it, and color. The veins of the leaf show through.

I will share with you some of our favorite Thanksgiving traditions, just to get your creative juices flowing. Everyone has traditions unique to their family and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. That’s what makes them so special!

At our house, Christmas begins Thanksgiving night. I used to be concerned that Thanksgiving would get lost with the prospect of Christmas coming, so we thought of ways to put Thanksgiving in its proper place first.

Our younger children dress up in their pilgrim and Indian costumes to help us remember the heritage the Pilgrims left us.

We have fun listening to Stories of the Pilgrims that Rick recorded for the kids and learning of Squanto’s life and how he was used as an instrument in the hand of God on behalf of the Pilgrims. In recent years my daughter-in-law and daughters have come up with a couple of wonderful ways to appreciate Thanksgiving for what it is and also transition us into the Christmas season.

Kari and Kate had the idea of making a wreath to show our gratefulness to God and then use that wreath as the main wreath of our Christmas celebrations that year. The photo shows the one they made the first year. Everyone had their name on one of the gingerbread boys and on the back they wrote something they were thankful to God for that had occurred in the past year.

Every year they creatively plan a new wreath. One year they used miniatures to represent notable occurrences in each one’s life during the year, such as a new baby, a marriage, Tuck shooting his first deer, etc. Last year we had colorful balls on which we wrote in glitter glue something we were thankful for.

It was also their idea to begin what we call a time capsule.(download it FREE)

It’s a record of goals set and goals accomplished, and reflections on notable things that happened since the last Thanksgiving. They change the form every year. So we store everyone’s form in a old popcorn container in the attic until next year. Each person reads their own to see if they met their goals and be reminded of how God has blessed their life.

On Thanksgiving Day a couple of years ago, we started making a special tablecloth to use on Thanksgiving Day. We have all the family and any guests sign it and write something they are thankful for. (We often invite people to spend Thanksgiving with us who have no family in town).

After about 9 o’clock the Christmas season officially opens with our traditional Christmas music, Drummer Boy, an album Rick and I acquired the first year we were married and Doug Oldham’s Christmas albums.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

~Marilyn