Merry Christmas 2011! Metzger Newsletter

Merry Christmas from all the Metzgers! We pray you come to know Jesus or to know him better!

HERE is our family's Christmas Newsletter for 2011!

Free - Prepare your HEART and HOME for Christmas!

Want more meaning in your Christmas this year, celebrating the real reason for the season?

Read our first issue of Kaleo about preparing your home and heart for Christmas! This is a great FREE online magazine from At The Well, where I write monthly devotionals and homeschool help articles. In this issue, my "article" is featured on the cover - the Advent/Activity Calendar. Enjoy! It's FREE! Click "FULL SCREEN" to see it.


Merry CHRISTmas!

Great Advent Adventure and Devotional! Jotham's Journey - Great for the ENTIRE family!

This series is a GREAT Advent story and devotional! A friend recommended this series a few years ago and we have really enjoyed them! Last year we did Bartholemew's Passage for Advent and Amon's Adventure for Resurrection Day. Our children LOVE these and literally begging us to read more every night! What a hit! Click here to see more...

Life in a Family Integrated Church!

I cannot say enough about how much we have spiritually grown as a family since attending our family integrated church 3 1/2 years ago. We are blessed to be surrounded by a supportive church family that meets for worship on Sundays, has a weekly fellowship potluck following the service and has monthly prayer and men and women's accountability meetings, as well as other social events!

Moving to a family integrated church was a big switch for us. Both Mark and I grew up in age-segregated churches and after we married we attended one of the largest churches in Charlotte for 9 years before making the big switch. It was different, to say the least.

However, since we began going to our church, Mark has felt encouraged by the other men to LEAD his family in nightly family worship. Was it natural to him? No. He didn't grow up with family worship. Mark tells of how his father, though a Baptist minister, only opened the Bible for family Bible reading twice a year (Easter and Christmas). This family worship thing was something that Mark learned to do. Is he a perfect teacher? No. But, then again, is anyone? Only Jesus!

All I can say, is that when men are "forced" (er, encouraged!) to lead their families in this regular spiritual mentorship, as God has them naturally programmed to do...WOW! God brings together the family in ways that couldn't be done without Dad taking that nightly spiritual leadership role! Men desire to lead their families, but are either never asked, required or allowed to take on that role.

Since starting regular family worship, our kids are now closer to Mark than ever (we have always homeschooled...he's always been very involved, just not in this aspect). They are learning Scripture and understanding Scriptural concepts that most adults can't wrap their minds around. All this is learned either alongside Mark or a day or two behind him! Mark didn't need to go to seminary. He just needed to study Scripture, read it aloud and explain the concepts as he noticed them. The Holy Spirit does the rest...and oh, how cool it is to watch Him move through our worship and Bible reading times!

I'll also say that our pastor has a wonderful way of speaking to all ages. There are concepts that our children don't understand...that's okay. They'll either ask us later (they take notes and write down their questions) or they'll catch what they can for their age and that's exactly what the Holy Spirit had in mind for them! It's kind of like when we have the littles sit in on our history or science lessons. We call it the "school bus stop approach". They listen and their brains "get off the bus" after they have exceeded their attention span. Does that mean it was fruitless? On the contrary...they learn MUCH MORE than we assumed they were able. Same with a family integrated church...we always underestimated the Holy Spirit's workings in our children's hearts and minds! DUH...they have the SAME Holy Spirit we do! ;)

I could go on and on, but I will leave it at that. Oh, and just a few weeks ago...the fathers and sons are on our church's father and son retreat! While they were there they called to say that they were having a blast and that they were all learning so much from the teaching that all the dads were doing throughout each day! I LOVE that!

For those who need idea starters on how to do family worship, here ya go! It's not difficult. It just requires a committed, godly man to take up the natural, God-given leadership role that he hungers for whether he realizes it yet or not (and in the absence of the man, the woman can take up that role in her family). For more information on how to find a family integrated church in your area, click here! To see how we teach our children to listen and learn in church, check out this blog post from a while back!

Birthday "season" at the Metzgers!

It's birthday sesason in our house! We began a tradition last year where we have the children draw names, instead of everyone buying for Kaitlyn and everyone buying for Trey and so on. Doing it the old way made for many "discussions" on what's to be gotten for that person. This way makes shopping for that special someone a little more exciting. Mommy and Daddy also give them gifts, but ours are more educational or super-special (ears getting pierced, promise rings, multi-tools, etc.).

Ellie got to buy birthday gifts for Kaitlyn! Analise bought for Ellie! And Jake bought for Julia! Look at the looks on the givers' face...it's almost more excited than the one receiving. So sweet! And SUCH fun!

As is tradition in our home, the birthday person receives one of Daddy's "famous" Mickey Mouse chocolate chip pancakes! Mmm!
Kaitlyn turned 12 years old on September 27th!
Julia turned 6 on October 7th!

Ellie turned 4 on October 8th (she is 2 years and 1 day younger than Julia)!

How do you celebrate Reformation Day?

Q. Where do you go in town to celebrate Reformation Day? Is there a party nearby?

A. Well, we just do our party at home. We watch this Reformation video ahead of time and the children make a village and act out various roles, mainly of the Reformers. Though the Reformers were mostly men, our girls act as their wives and/or town people. They all dress in period costumes to the best of what we have on hand. They make "indulgences" ahead of time to sell to one another, along with a long piece of paper with the 95 theses on it! We usually have homemade bread or some treat with spiced cider, too. Here is a great link on how to make your own Reformation Day Faire!

Another fun part of the night is when we light ALL the candles all over the house to remind us of the following verse (particularly the part about what fellowship does "light have with darkness" part).

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God...Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.'"

I hope that helps a little. I found that since we prepare the day before, as well, by taking off of school that the kids REALLY look forward to planning the events of the evening. It might be just our family, but we have a blast! HERE are photos of how our family celebrates Reformation Day! Enjoy!

Reformation Overview DVD!

Our family has enjoyed this movie. It's 6 hours long, but it is manageable in that it's broken up into half-hour segments. WONDERFUL....and available from Netflix!

Reformation Overview - Explore what it means to believe with this thorough program designed to shed light on the Reformation by introducing key reformers and crucial events. Ideal for a classroom setting, these films are divided into 30-minute segments, with convenient topic conversions and forewords. Learn about John Wycliffe, John Hus, Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, The Anabaptists and William Tyndale, whose stories will encourage and motivate.

HERE are photos of how our family celebrates Reformation Day! Enjoy!

Happy Ressurection Day!

He is ALIVE!!The Metzgers had a wonderful breakfast at our church (instead of our usual fellowship lunch) and enjoyed a family meal at home in the late afternoon.We thank Jesus for giving His life so that we may LIVE!

Sharing Christmas...

This week on At The Well they are sharing ways that we all keep CHRIST in Christmas. How does this look in your life? Do you do something with your church? Do you do something as a family? This week will truly be special, because we will get ideas of how to keep the true meaning of Christmas in our communities, homes, and hearts!

Our family is sharing our Christmas celebrations with a mother who rejected abortion and chose life for the baby inside her, who is due in April. Blessing, the 18 year old mom, is staying at a local maternity home, but had nowhere to go for the Christmas break. Three regular sidewalk counselors from "our" abortion mill (one of whom is our family), decided to open our homes to her and SHOW HER JESUS this Christmas season. Our family is blessed to be able to have Blesssing stay with us on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!


By showing her the love and JOY that Jesus brings to our family and our celebrations, and by sharing Christ with her in our words, actions and conversations, we are truly keeping Christ in CHRISTmas!

Hosting a Mom who Chose Life for Christmas!

We are so excited to be able to host "B", while she is on break from her stay at a local maternity home for unwed mothers! Please keep our family in prayer as we host "B" from December 23rd - 26th! Pray that we will be able to show her the TRUE meaning of CHRISTmas and of her need for a Savior!

Our Christmas Newsletter 2010

Click on the pages to read!

A Large Family Christmas - Gift Giving

This year we finally decided to try something new....having the children draw names, instead of everyone buying for Kaitlyn and everyone buying for Trey and so on. Doing it the old way made for many "discussions" on what's to be gotten for that person. But this new method....so far, so good! I have no idea why I didn't think of this before!

In late November, each child reached into a had and picked out a name (Annalise chose her own name 4 times, which was cause for much laughter) and all have shopped for their special brother or sister. Since our children earn money for extra chores they do around the house and had money saved up, a $20 cap was set, because most wanted to just spend everything on their selected sibling (sniff, sniff...how sweet). Most of the deals were found either on "Cyber Monday" or on special "shopping dates" with Mommy.

Does this sound like something you might want to do in your large (or even small) family? What's your large family gift-giving plan?

2010 Metzger Christmas Family Photos

I'm so excited! While I accompanied Mark on a business trip to L.A., San Diego and La Jolla back home we receieved the CD of our Christmas photos, which were taken a few weeks ago by a dear friend who "battles" along side us at the abortion mill in Charlotte. The photos are extra special because they were taken right here in our own yard and in front of our humble abode! Here are my faves! I've also updated my sidebars with individual photos of the children, so be sure to check those out, as well.

Should Christians Celebrate Christmas?

This article really sums up our family's personal convictions on this subject. I know many families, including VERY close friends, who choose not to celebrate Christmas, and I do not criticize them in the least. This, in no way, is meant to start a debate on my blog. However, this just explains our family's view on celebrating Christmas in a nutshell.