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Readings: Every good gift and every perfect present comes from heaven; it comes down from God, the Creator of the heavenly lights. (James 1:17)
Give to others and God will give to you. Indeed, you will receive a full measure, a generous helping, poured into your hands – all that you can hold. The measure you use for others is the one that God will use for you. (Luke 6:38)
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
If God is for us, who can be against us? Since He did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for the sake of all of us, then can we not expect that with Him, He will freely give us all His gifts?” (Romans 8:31-32)
Reflection/prayer: We are nearing Christmas. Often in these final days, our focus turns away from the celebration of Jesus’ birth and instead, is on creating the “perfect Christmas”. We rush around finishing our Christmas shopping, searching for the perfect gifts for our loved ones. Help us to remember that all of us have already been given the one perfect gift in Christ Jesus. We have no need for anything more. “Let us thank God for His priceless gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15)
Activity: Today would be a great day to make a few gifts to give others. In fact, I’m spending the day with my daughter, my nephew, his wife, and their children and we’re going to be making Christmas gifts for the rest of the family together. We’re going to make salt dough ornaments.
Here are some crafts you can make with your family and then give as gifts to others:
These mini photo album brooches make lovely gifts:
http://cynchronicity.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/little-photo-album-brooches/
Shadowbox ornaments from ribbon spools:
http://cynchronicity.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/christmas-shadowbox-ornament/
http://creatingthehive.com/blog-post/168235/hive-design-team-tutorial-making-silhouette-ornaments
How about doing some corking/French knitting (using a Knitting Nancy):
Make a table runner or something similar using an easy glue batik technique:
http://cynchronicity.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/easy-glue-batik-tutorial/
You could make these paper starburst ornaments (or if you make them bigger they work as “squash” book mini journals):
http://cynchronicity.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/on-robinite-paper-ornaments/
Or how about these slip covered photo frames:
http://cynchronicity.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/slip-covered-photo-frames/
Easy to make candy cane or gingerbread bath salts:
http://cynchronicity.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/bath-salts-and-more/
Already have your presents ready to go? How about making some homemade gift wrap then and having a little gift wrapping “party” today? The kids can use pieces of newspaper that they have sponge painted designs on OR use cookie cutters as stencils on brown Kraft paper OR rubber stamp on tissue paper. They can create gift bags using paper lunch bags or make their own gift bags out of envelopes: http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2009/03/gift-bags-made-from-envelopes.html If you’re giving some gift cards, you can make cute gift card holders from toilet paper rolls: http://creativeedventures.wordpress.com/2010/12/24/todays-in-the-season-live-interactive-webtv-on-the-creative-edventures-channel/
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