As leaders in ministry with children, we are all running this week to celebrate, to labor, and to gather. We are also shopping, planning, printing, phone-calling, texting and waking up staring at the ceiling wondering how to get 48 hours of productivity into the next 12. So, I’m going to hit the brakes for a few and give a shout-out to three of the many things I’m thankful for this week:

1. Drug Stores…Yep. There doesn’t seem to be enough Vitamin C, essential oils, or magic soap to keep some crud away. When the grands attend a birthday party at a place I am renaming “Catch Stuff Here,” we’re asking for trouble. Antibiotics and half a row of cold remedies can keep even a rhinoceros moving. Maybe not up to regular speed, but who in the world has time to be sick…it’s the week before Christmas!

2. Amazon…Do we have enough glow sticks? What are the items that make an interactive service with kids an interactive service? How many is really in a gross? Hate is a really strong word, so let me confess instead that I LOATHE shopping. Running around from store to store hoping to find what sold out in November just makes me more susceptible to “Catch Stuff Here, Too.” But in the comfort of my office chair, or the Doctor’s office waiting room, I can order whatever I need. In two days it’s sitting on my desk in plenty of time to glitter blast before Christmas Eve.

3. Family…Church family, extended family, and the the-ones-I-live-with-family. The family Christmas letters that come in the mail sharing life beyond what’s told on social media. The private Facebook messages from new family that makes me stop and offer a prayer of thankfulness and wonder at God’s mercy. The Christmas tree decorated by two toddlers with napkins, trucks, tshirts, baby dolls, and anything else they can get to stay in the branches. The family who sent out an invite to their open house on Christmas Eve ALONG WITH an invite to service times at church. Little people singing in their first church Christmas pageant. The many hands that make for light work where and when it’s needed most.

I could go on and on, but it’s the week before Christmas and there lots to do. A baby’s coming! And I am SO thankful.

“Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” Luke 2:15b

Every year we assign our December CLUB345 as a time to slow down, breathe, take in the season. One year we enjoy Silent Night. The alternating year we plan for a family gathering of table life, games, food, and service. When gifted with beaucoup lime green paper products left over from a baby shower last summer, we think The Grinch! Confession: inspiration comes from all sorts of places.

5-5:30 – Dinner of ham, mac-n-cheese, salad, Hawaiian rolls, and ice water and/or Sprite. Ready for early arrivals was a Grinch word search and ink pens on all of the tables. Name tags were “find your elf name“.

5:30-6:15 – Grinch stations (see below)

6:15-6:30 – Decorating a tree game, a game of Pit (green crepe paper and cardboard stars all from Walmart)

6:30-6:45 – Left/Right Nativity game (everyone retrieves an item leftover from the morning’s Jingle Bell Shop-church donates items for kids to purchase 50 cents to $5 with free giftwrap so students can shop for their families for Christmas) and circles up for a roaring game of passing items left or right depending upon the reading of the Christmas story.) This has become an annual tradition and it is hilarious!

6:45 – Closing prayers & clean up

Grinch Stations included…

• Who-Hair Station – A very creative Mom painted a canvas backdrop; asked for colored hair spray from other Moms on Facebook, gathered neon colored pipe cleaners, and Dollar Store table cloths for drop cloths because the spray can get everywhere. Don’t forget the glitter spray!
• Star ornament – cardboard cut outs with wire and pony beads to wrap or wired tinsel to wrap the cardboard star. Not every student has the same level of fine-motor skills and even our littlest family members can get in on the craft without other hands getting involved. Any crafty ornament will do, just remember to make it VERY simple so even our youngest folks are successful on their own.
• Red and white Lego bricks – just because
• Christmas cards – Many of our 3rd-5th graders don’t know the shut-in saints of their church, so we prepared a list of eight with addresses held by our journeying shepherd, Charley, and set out a place where our kids and family members could write Christmas cards. Parents showed students how to address envelopes and we will be mailing them today. This goes along with our theme this year of the life of David in a color-themed curriculum since David was a writer, having written many of the Psalms in the Bible.
• Hand painted pot holders for Grandparents – fabric paint and a lot of Dollar Tree potholders made a time where kids could make as many as they wished because everyone’s grandparents need new potholders.
• Coloring Advent Poster – this poster printed from Staples has been following us around for the last couple of weeks leading up to Christmas. Doesn’t everyone like to slow down and color a bit while chatting with friends?
• How to Draw a Grinch – markers, pencils, paper
• CLUB345 service project – preparing the candles for the church’s Christmas Eve service, cleaning up old wax, and placing them in baskets as a gift to the Worship Committee.

Favorite parts of the night? The many conversations between parents and their kids as well as parents with other parents. Even the students whose families didn’t come were loved on well and included by their friends’ families. Amazing parents who do so much for their kids that spending time across the table or passing crazy gifts right and left made them all laugh. We slow down. Dads draw with their kids. Moms and Dads serve one another for dinner. Lots of table life.

What are you doing to help families slow down and smile across the table from one another during a season of a full calendar?

The Lord is with me; He is my helper. Psalm 118:7

Ever gotten your hands on a little book that if you could, you would buy it in bulk and hand out a copy to everyone you know? This is one of those books. I was getting ready to take a trip and wanted to bring a book on the plane. I didn’t have the focus to take on a novel, so this book of less than 100 pages was perfect.

Scott Alexander wrote this little ditty when he was 23 years old back in 1980. Today he speaks around the world encouraging those who wish to make life an adventure.  I can relate to a rhinoceros…my maiden name is “Bull.” Charging toward opportunities is what I do…it’s in my dna. These are a few of the places I underlined in this little gem, or understood enough to take away:

Rhinoceroses have a natural zeal for living. (pg 13) Live each minute as though you had to pay $10 for it. (pg 46)

We become the product of three things: the people we associate with, the books we read, and the media we listen to. (pg 20) TV is not for rhinos…too much of a negative influence.

Rhinoceroses thrive on goals. (pg 23) Rhinos are happy when they are charging at their goals. (pg 33)

At least twice a year, take off for one week and go lie in a mud hole. Do nothing but relax. (pg 27) Take the family with you. (pg 70) Then when your week is up, explode out of that mud hole and charge!

In the chapter entitled “How To Be The World’s Happiest Rhinoceros” the author writes READ THE BIBLE.  He continues, “Every success book is based on the Bible, only worded differently.”

One of the most intriguing sections was the author’s challenge to be a rhino in work and in finances. Give 10% of all the money you make back to God. After all, if he is your partner, he deserves at least 10% of the take, doesn’t he? If he isn’t your partner, sign him on as soon as possible. Where else are you going to find help like that at such a price?

The other section I found intriguing was on rhino problems. Using our rhinoceros imagination, we can lower our heads, point our horns at any problem, charge full steam ahead, and tear it to pieces. But what about sorrow? What about death and tragedy? Spending our lives in a closet is not an option, though very appealing. He stresses the importance of having a rhinoceros faith in God, a rhinoceros love for our Maker,  and quotes 1 Corinthians 2:9.

Sheep are indecisive. Cows watch life go by. Rhinos have 2-inch thick skin. Rhinos and optimism go together.  Fight over-caution with rhino audacity and enthusiasm because the worst possible condition to be in life is cool. Dead animals are cool!

My daughter and daughter-in-law broke out in laughter when they saw me take this book from my carry-on bag. Like I needed help being a rhino! But even rhinos need a fresh word of affirmation every now and then. A reminder to be alert for opportunities, make time to meet and hang around other rhinos, and develop my audacity skills.

“Rhinos have scars.  They are signs of being alive and attempting great things.”– Scott Alexander from ScottRobertAlexander.com