MOPS | Loving My Actual Christmas – A Moment With Shona

Well, Friday has finally arrived and I couldn’t be more excited! Is anyone else’s kids kicking off their Christmas break today?! I honestly have mixed feelings about it lol! One one hand, I want my older kids to say in school because they argue as soon as they step foot in the house! And on the other hand, I want them home because I’m tired of waking up early lol! Anyone else on the struggle bus? I guess I’ll just suck it up and try to make them get along, especially for this Christmas season. I sure don’t want to be stressed for Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, I want to talk to you about my MOPS {moms of preschoolers} group I had on Tuesday. I am the MOPS coordinator for my church, House of Prayer in Virginia. Tuesday was our last group for the year & I can’t believe it! We had a great time mingling & laughing together. It’s always nice to get together with other mommas, especially after having such a rough day.

I thought I wasn’t going to be able to handle my group this time around because my friend and assistant wasn’t feeling well and she couldn’t make it. I just wanted her to rest up because it’s no fun not feeling well. Then our childcare provider couldn’t make it, so I had to come up with a plan b for our MOPS kiddos. So I set up a kids station in the same room our moms meet in. I laid out a Christmas tree coloring page as well as Jesus, Mary & Joseph in the manger coloring page in hopes that it would keep the kids occupied. I think they did well for the most part.

Meanwhile, I introduced a fun game for the mamas to play. It was called wrap the mama lol! We had red streamers and a Santa hat. We divided into teams and one mama volunteered to get wrapped, while the other had to race to see how fast she could wrap her mama friend! The fastest group wins! Let’s just say me & my friend Amanda we’re super dizzy in the end! We called it a tie lol! I picked that game because I figured it would help us loosen up a bit. It’s safe to say it worked! And afterwards, the kids started mimicking us and wrapped each other with the left over streamers lol! Yeah, that kept them busy while we started our MOPS video.

Every time we meet up, we watch a great video from MOPS International. These videos are the key component to running a successful group. It’s real life situations which moms can relate to. These videos teach us how to see the brighter picture in every area of our lives. It shows us that we are not alone on the days we just have a rough morning and we’re yelling at our kids because they are not getting out the door fast enough. We are not alone when we return from dropping our kids off at the bus stop and we sit and cry because we let our temper get the best of us that morning. Been there, done that! This is why I play these videos because I just don’t know what each mama’s day is like.

The video we watched taught us how to let go of the stress that comes along with the Christmas season. It helped us think about the true meaning of Christmas and how we could share it with our relatives. It taught us how to stop and really put ourselves in Mary’s {the mother of Jesus} shoes. Think about what she went through while carrying the Savior of the world. Think about what it was like delivering Jesus in a barn. And think about how we could share the love of Christ with others. The video was wonderful!

After our video, I like to incorporate a craft, being that I’m an Artist. So I filled the room with Christmas tunes while we made Christmas ornaments out of mason jar lids, rope and ribbons! We had a ball and we were cracking up almost the entire time!

I’m so excited for what God has in store for not only the ladies that are currently in this group, but for the mothers that are entering the group next year!

On Wednesday, I attended a MOPS group at our other House of Prayer location. It was the same video lesson, but we were able to make a cookie recipe and put them in mason jars! We also took home various cookie recipes that mothers in the group shared. We had fun!