2LoveOrphans.com

Jennifer Connelly and I have begun an organization called, 2LoveOrphans.com. This Christmas, we are giving you the opportunity to let us do some of your shopping for you! Just go to our website and click on the PRODUCT page...we have set up a program where if you make a donation thru us to Divine Grace Primary School in Uganda, Africa...we will send your gift receipient a card to notify them of your generosity and if you donate beyond $10, we will send your gift recepient a keepsake ornamant. Check out our website for more details...this will be that gift that honors one friend while saving the life of a child...
Thanks,
Tracy and Jennifer

Free Shipping at Back To Basics Toys.....

Back to Basics Toys is a website with toys from the past. When my kids were ages 3-10, this site always had that "toy" present. My favorite present from there was a red unicycle and the swing in our tree that still gets swung! Right now there is free shipping! It doesn't happen often so look at the site for any ideas.

http://www.backtobasicstoys.com/

A Christmas Trend I LOVE!

Most of the time, I see national trends that for one reason or another make me sad...many times these trends involve a lessening of one's faith in Jesus Christ or the trends support beliefs that make me realize, our family is going to have to live counter-cultural. Thankfully, there is one national trend this holiday season that I LOVE! It is being said that this Christmas, people will be giving meaningful gifts...how inspiring is that?!?!?! I know so many generous people and their stories encourage me. I hope this season, people do chose to give to charitable organizations or to families in need in honor of others. That makes the gift two-fold...the honoree feels special and the recipient of the kind gesture feels some relief from their difficult life. Bottom line, both feel loved. And let us face it, while receiving a few gifts is fun for us all, there is only so much STUFF we can have. As I grow, I am seeing that many times STUFF actually becomes a burden. A burden to clean, a burden to store, a burden to repair. If you have done the "love language" Bible study, you know we all have a love language that speaks to us the most...guess what my love language is? Giving and receiving gifts...so, just so ya know, I am all about presents! I do love the thought though, of a gift that will change the life of another...wow, that brings everyone involved joy. Also, as the one who is spending, I know I have made a financial investment with eternal returns! Jennifer Connelly and I are in the process of starting an orphan awareness organization...if you would like to give a gift to a child in need in honor of a friend, teacher, pastor, neighbor etc., just hang in there and we will present you with some wonderful opportunities that will bless your gift recipient and will change the LIFE of a child. We will be working on a project for Divine Grace Primary School in Uganda. We are fired up and we are so excited to have the opportunity to be a part of this national trend!

Wish Lists

Hi everyone! I am trying this idea out this year...I'm pretty excited about it and hoping it works! Like most of you, my "normal-life" schedule is pretty much full as it is. So when it comes to adding another activity, it's really hard to fit it in. Even when it's something as fun as Christmas shopping for friends and family!! On amazon.com, you can create wish lists. Amazon has anything and everything you can imagine. I sent an email to all my family asking them to take a few minutes to create a wish list for themselves and their children. You can then go onto www.amazon.com and search for people's wish lists! I'm so excited about this...I always love to get out and do some shopping, but anything I can do online is so nice!! Happy Christmas planning everyone...looking forward to celebrating our Savior's birth all of December!!!

  I just wanted to share with you the darling stationary company of my friend Dabney Herring Stevens. Dabney creates the design and will customize as well.  The products are wonderful, just wanted you to know.  Just for fun thought you should know that Dabney is a wife and mother of two darling boys, and is also the aunt of the McMullan quadruplets and Mollie and Kate McMullan for whom many of you have been praying.  

Mollie Pop Press 

Mollie Pop Press

Just what you had in mind.

Mollie Pop Press is a small stationery company in Alpharetta, Georgia. It was started out of a desire to communicate stylishly, whether by note, invitation or identification. For many people I know, Santa Claus brings a variation of the same gift every year; for my four sisters and me, it was stationery. As we got married, Santa continued bringing stationery with our exciting new names in print. Our husbands were soon included in such gifts from Santa because we loved seeing their names in beautiful print as well, sometimes just to distract from the actual handwriting! My mother is an AP English teacher, and she has mastered the fine art of writing, whether on a post-it note or fine linen paper. Thus Santa's gift. Each of us grew to love seeing our names in print.

 

Mollie Pop Press strives to create, manufacture and deliver personalized paper products that you will love as much as we loved the stationery we received for Christmas each year. Whether you are browsing our website for yourself or for someone else, our products will arrive neatly and beautifully packaged with a personal note attached at your request. And, as always, we offer a 100% money-back guarantee if you are not completely satisfied. Thank you for your interest in Mollie Pop Press.

Good morning everyone!  Is everybody off and running on this cool and sunny beautiful Saturday morning?  Hope you will take time this week to get your December 1st goals down on paper and on our blog so we can enjoy encouraging each other.  I have found that because I listed in writing what I plan to get done, my brain, which doesn't normally work very efficiently, sends off a little reminder bell when I am out to grab _____ for Christmas. (For example, I was in Reeves Saine buying strawberry cake and saw beaded cross ornaments made by senior citizens in Mississippi, my home state, and I picked them up for Sunday School teacher gifts.)  

Would you please:  1) send me your favorite online resources for gifts, cards, anything that would be helpful to our group.  Tell me a tiny bit about the site, what is great about it.  Either email them to laurienewman@mac.com or post in the comments section.  

2) send favorite scriptures, quotes, poems pertaining to Christmas.  Reading these things is inspiring as well as helpful when planning Christmas cards, scrapebooks, etc..

Finally, I just discovered something wonderful I want to make sure you know about.  Sara Groves, a favorite music artist of many of us, is releasing a Christmas CD.  On it is a lovely song she has written called It's True about the fact that the fantastic fairytale like love story of Christmas is true in the birth of Christ.    I heard her sing this song at Andrew Peterson's Christmas concert last year and have searched for it in CD since then. You may pre order it at saragroves.com or I am sure it will be on itunes when it is released on the 23rd.

"But it's true

kingdoms and crowns

a God who came down to find you

it's true

Angels on high

sing through the night alleluya"

Sara Groves ~ O Holy Night

A few questions......

"Now that my child is in middle school and has 7+ different teachers, how do I handle Christmas gifts?"

"Any new ideas for group teacher gifts?"  Individual?  Could the teachers out there please offer some wisdom?

"We have already done the photo calendar, what else can we make for our grandparents?"

My own additional question:

What are some creative gifts for sunday school teachers, piano/guitar teachers, mailman, garbage man (do not laugh, the garbage man at our house works VERY hard!) , etc... ?

Looking forward to hearing your ideas in the comments below!