How To Make Bender Doll Angels

Christmas Tradition

by Jeannine Carroll

I wrote The Christmas Gift because I love this simple tradition and wanted to share it with other families. I, also, believe there is no greater gift we can give children than helping them to know the real meaning of the Christmas story. 

 The story and tradition, shared in the book, focus's on Christ's birth and sharing God's love through acts of kindness.  At the beginning of the Christmas season, the family puts out the empty manger and bag of straw. With each good deed, they put a piece of straw in the manger. By Christmas morning, the goal is to have a full manger and give baby Jesus the gift of a warm bed, filled with kindness. But, we also know that Jesus is the very best Christmas Gift of all!

I'm sharing this tradition, just in case you don't have the book set yet, to let you know that I have added an angel to the set!  In the book, there is an angel on each page. She is watching over the family as they do their good deeds.  

When my niece, Ashley, who is a young Christian mother, read the book, she suggested that I add an angel to the set.  Parents could move the angel to different places each day, during the Christmas season, to remind their children that God's loving care is always watching over them - And sometimes He uses angels! 

Since I have put all the sets together and paint each baby Jesus, I wanted to find an angel that I could make  I found the Bender Dolls and I love them!  I came up with angels dressed in white and angels dressed in Christmas colors.  After many parents asked for a boy angel, I now have one!

Boy Angel-Afro-American

Boy Angel in my Etsy Store

Father's Day- My Guiding Star

by Jeannine Carroll

I teach senior fitness classes and wanted to have a gift for the father's on Father's Day.  I wrote this story to portray the immense importance of Christian father's and the role they play in guiding their children.
I made a star tie tac to give each father.  It was fun!  (I marbled red, white and blue polymer clay and cut the stars out with little cookie type cutters).

                                                                                                                                                                   

Tie Tacs and Card for Fathers

As a boy, one weekend my family decided to go camping in the nearby Rockies.  After Mom and my two younger siblings had gone to bed, Dad and I were waiting for the campfire to die down.  Finally we shoveled some dirt over the coals and made sure no hot spots were left.  We’d be leaving tomorrow.

Dad said, “Come on, Son.  Let’s take a walk.”  We took a path that lead to an overlook.  As we stopped, I stared down with fascination at a vast ocean of sparkling lights. The city looked endless.

“Now turn around,” Dad instructed, as he switched off his flashlight.  I turned away from the lights of the city below.  My eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness of the nearly moonless night and I could make out shadows of pines and a few aspens.

         “Look up,” Dad said.  I looked up and was amazed by the hundreds of stars I could see.  At home they were a pale sight compared to the bright lights of the city.  Here they were brilliant.

        Dad said, “You know people have not always had electricity and cars and computers. For thousands of years, they looked up to the heavens for guidance.  These stars helped them to find their way.  Now we look to gadgets to help us find our way, thinking we’d be lost without them.”

        “Son, you will never get lost if you remember to look up for God’s guidance.  Sometimes you will have to step away from the world’s brightness to see the true light.”

        As I listened to my dad, even at that young age, I knew that the brightest guiding star God had given me, was talking to me right now.

••••••••••

        Fathers have been guiding their children since the beginning of time.  The greatest have taught them to look up to find answers to life’s purpose.

Please accept this pin as a symbol of the “Guiding Star” you have been to the generations that follow close behind you. Thank you for accepting the life’s work of being a father.  There is no greater calling.

Happy Father’s Day!