The Last Straw

Perfect book.

Perfect for a Christmas Fam Home Evening. My friend

Lara and I were

talking about Christmas FHE's for this month...

This book, "The Last Straw, " is just what we needed.

The story line:

It's winter, the kids are stuck inside the house, Mom is tired of kids fighting, arguing..she was on her last straw.

She had an idea to change the "mood" of the house....BUILD a manger for Baby Jesus by Christmas Eve, using straws from the kids "service" to each other. (get it?..the last straw)

She had the kids pick names, keep it a secret, and do service for each other.

Every time the kids do something nice, they add a

S T R A W to the manger.

Day by day, week by week, the straw builds up for the manger...

Every Sunday, they re-pick names and do service for a new person.

Soooooo, I loved the idea.

My kids have been on each other lately due to the cold weather and spending more time in.

SO last Monday, I bought the book at Seagulls Book for $14. We sat around and we started our FHE.

The kids loved it.

The book is super cute...the illustrations are perfect for Christmas.

I read the story about the kids and the secret names and service

and I asked the kids if they wanted to do the same thing:

Yes!

They were alll excited....I was surprised. (Cuz what kids really want to willingly help one another....!) So we all picked names... and have started building our manger for Baby Jesus....

And let me say, it's been so cute to watch the kids get creative.

I really am surprised they jumped right into the idea.

I walked into the room and found this on my pillow.....

The next day when Ry got home from work,

this note was waiting for him....

Last night, I found Ash giving a piggy back ride to Mace to cheer him up.

And Aus's bed was secretly made with his clothes put away.

And this morning,

Ashlyn's backpack and coat were layed out ready for school!

Wahooooo!

cute,

It may of worked... and maybe if it even works for a day, a moment, that's all I can ask for....

I just want the kids to grasp the concept of service.

I want them to know that giving is much more rewarding than receiving.....

and they have all loved the feeling of giving their secret service to one another and seeing the reaction of the recepient.

So we will see, we will see how big Baby Jesus Manger gets....

I have a brown bowl as the Manger, but on the hunt for a real manger...still looking.

And it doesn't look like lots of straw yet, maybe 20 plus......but each straw represents something each kid has done.

Great. thrilled. Glad they are even trying...

Treats to always follow after FHE.

the favorite: symphony bar with toffee.

yum!
Oh and forgot to say. Ashlyn read the book in her class yesterday and the Teacher loved it, so she had them ALL pick names and do secret service for each other...thought that was great...I love love the twins teacher...she is the best!

And just wanted to end with my snowflake window...we always do a snowflake window. But this year the kids want to hang snowflakes at the entry way at different lengths. So I bought these snowflakes for cheap and put them up!

Hope everyone is having a great Christmas season...!

And one more day until my party....
bring it on!