It’s Black Friday–and more importantly, it’s the day Truth in the Tinsel: An Advent Experience for Little Hands is released! I have literally been nervous for over a week waiting for this day! Everyday the count of fans on the Facebook page has gone up (almost 900 on Thanksgiving night!), the emails with positive feedback have been coming every day and lots of great reviews being posted tomorrow. At the risk of sounding trite, I am so thankful for all of you and your excitement! Thank you for getting the word out about the book. I could not have done it on my own.

Remember, during our 31 Days, I talked about making holidays HOLYdays? I wrote, “I have discovered that Christmas and Easter are my biggest and most flamboyant vehicle to teach my kids about God.” (Is it tacky to quote yourself? Oops.) I haven’t been able to get that word out of my mind–flamboyant. I love the idea of being flamboyant about teaching our kids about God. I get the feeling that most people just send their kids to church, buy a few Veggie Tales movies and hope their kid turns out ok. I want to do more than that. I want to be flamboyant, purposeful, deliberate and AWESOME in how I teach my kids about Jesus.

And Christmas, I think, is the best vehicle to do so. Just tonight, on the way home from Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt’s house the kids were oooohing and aaahhhhing over Christmas lights. Their excitement has already started!  If I take a few minutes to plan it out and to think about it I can ride that excitement and make a huge, living impact in their lives about Jesus’ birth.

Will you join me? Will you take the first 24 days of December to  impress your kids? Will you give your kids 30 minutes a day for 24 days?  Will you turn down the attention and energy put into the elf on the shelf, the presents and bows, the Santa and his reindeer and pump up the focus and excitement on Jesus? Will you be flamboyant in teaching them about the greatest gift of all this year? I’m challenging you this December to help your kids find the truth in the tinsel, to experience Christmas and to get to know Jesus.

Join me and several of my friends along with a host of other moms (and dads) as we go through the Christmas Story with Truth in the Tinsel! Buy the book, collect your craft supplies, get a Bible and do the book with us! We’ll be updating on the Truth in the Tinsel facebook page with pictures of our crafts (yes, even if they are failures!), funny things our children say and miracles that are taking place in our kids’ hearts. It will be a place to get encouragement, tips and stay accountable—a little community, if you will. We’d love for you to join us!

The book is regularly $4.99 (which is a crazy deal when you see how good it looks on the inside!) but on Black Friday it will be just $2.99! You could buy them for every mom you know and still have cash left over to go Black Friday shopping!

I’ve been praying for the families who go through Truth in the Tinsel this year and I believe it’s going to be a significant experience in your child’s life!

So, are you in? Will you take the Truth in the Tinsel challenge?

I know I’ve mentioned Veggie Tale’s new Little Drummer Boymovie a few times since Veggie Tales sponsored my trip to Relevant. (I still can’t stop laughing every time I think of that If You Give a Blogger a Drum video.) We even had an interview about Little Drummer Boy with Mike Nawrocki, co-founder of Veggie Tales and voice of Larry the Cucumber. But I still haven’t given you a review of the movie yet!

With Thanksgiving as the doorway to Christmas, I thought you might like to grab this DVD to watch on Black Friday (because I know you’ll be at home buying Truth in the Tinsel instead of running through the mall, right?) and get your Christmas holiday started off right!

It begins with a very Princess-Bride-ish Grandpa Pa Grape reading the story of the Little Drummer Boy to a begrudging Junior the Asapragus. Junior is upset because he thinks his friends ditched him for Christmas caroling.

As Pa Grape tells the story, we see the connections between Junior’s bad attitude and the Little Drummer Boy, Aaron. And here’s where the sensitive alert comes in: Aaron’s house is burnt down by the Romans and his parents gone! (After my brother’s house fire this year, that scene hit close to home.) So, Aaron has a bad attitude towards…everyone!

He ends up meeting a group of traveling gypsy-type circus performers (Mr. Lunt and friends) who want to use his drumming talent (and Aaron’s dancing pets) to make money. In their travels they meet the Three Magi (look out for some funny Jedi=Magi jokes!) and as they travel to Bethlehem, Aaron’s pet lamb, Baa-Baa is hurt.

When Aaron stumbles upon baby Jesus in the manger, I thought for a second that baby Jesus was about to heal the lamb. (Now that would have been something for Veggie Tales, huh?) Instead, Aaron’s parents return and the family is reunited. (Which heals that hard part about the fire from the beginning!)

Aaron learns to have love and forgiveness for those that hurt him. And of course, Junior, listening to the story does, too.

My very favorite part is at the very end when Aaron and his parents are reunited. They are standing in front of baby Jesus and Aaron’s mother says, “God has drawn us back together again.” And I know she’s talking about her family, but I think it was written to remind us that Jesus was born to draw us back to our Heavenly Father! The story of the Little Drummer Boy is actually the story of us! We were lost in our sins and while we were still sinners, Jesus came for us, died for us and loved us! He drew us back to him! Merry Christmas, indeed!

So, yes. I loved Little Drummer Boy! It needs to be in your Christmas classics rotation.

And to celebrate Christmas (ok, the day before Thanksgiving), Veggie Tales is giving away a Little Drummer Boy DVD and O Holy Night: Journey of a Little Drummer Boy CD to one of you today! The CD is a beautiful collection of songs featuring BeBe and CeCe Winans, Wynona Judd, Steven Curtis Chapman, Amy Grant and Matthew West! HELLO! That is awesome!

To be entered to win, just leave me a comment with your favorite Christmas song! I’ll choose a winner this weekend.

Don’t forget to check out Veggie Tales and World Vision’s partnership–give a gift, change a life!

Veggie Tales sponsored by trip to Relevant & gave me this DVD and CD in order to post about it. Opinions and text are mine.

My ebook, Truth in the Tinsel comes out this Friday! (Wheeee!) I am so incredibly excited and nervous about it. I’ve had tons of good feedback about it and I am practically jumping up and down in anticipation over here. Thank you to everyone who has shared the Truth in the Tinsel Facebook page and looked through the review copy. You guys have created a buzz!

One of my favorite parts of the book is the clues. Yes, clues. Each day we’ve provided printable pictures or words to “tease” the theme of the story and activity for your kids. My designer at Buzzhive made two awesome sets of printable clues. Ready for a sneak peek? Here you go…

One is a printable paper chain. You know, like a  traditional red and green paper chain? All you have to do is print it, cut it out and you’ve got an instant advent calendar! Each day you’re kids will break a link off, read the clue and then listen for it as you read. (Or you could do the opposite and add to the chain every day. Whatever floats your boat!)

The second clue option is some cute little pictures that you can print, cut out, place inside an Advent Calendar. Then, every day your children can pull out the clue to listen for as you read.

Some people have been asking about what kind of Advent Calendar to do this with. I sorta forget that not everyone is an Advent Calendar addict aficionado like me, so I thought I’d show you some fabulous ideas for advent calendars. Most of them are quick and easy do-it-yourself ideas you should be able to whip up in a couple of hours.

1. The Box