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Merry Christmas from Pearl Girls™! We hope you enjoy these Christmas “Pearls of Wisdom” from the authors who were so kind to donate their time and talents! If you miss a few posts, you’ll be able go back through and read them on this blog throughout the next few days.

We’re giving away a pearl necklace in celebration of the holidays, as well as some items from the contributors! Enter now below. The winner will be announced on January 2, 2014, at the Pearl Girls blog.

If you are unfamiliar with Pearl Girls™, please visit www.pearlgirls.info and see what we’re all about. In short, we exist to support the work of charities that help women and children in the US and around the globe. Consider purchasing a copy of Mother of Pearl, Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace, or one of the Pearl Girls products (all GREAT gifts!) to help support Pearl Girls.

The Nativity
by Lynn Austin

The first time I visited Bethlehem more than twenty-five years ago, I expected to feel a sense of the beauty and simplicity of the much-loved Christmas story: a crude stable, the holy family, shepherds, wise men, and the Son of God in the manger. I was sadly disappointed. The traditional site of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem is inside the Church of the Nativity—a truly ancient church built in 565 AD. It has survived enemy invasions, the Crusaders, restorations, renovations, a fire, and an earthquake, but it looks like . . . well, a church. A beautifully decorated and ornamented church, with all the sacred clutter that has accumulated throughout the centuries, but it bore no resemblance to my image of what Jesus’ birthplace was like.

But wait—the real site was down a set of stairs and inside a natural cave that has been venerated as the place of His birth since 160 AD. But even this simple cave was so gilded and bedecked with artwork and tapestries and lamps and incense burners that I still couldn’t get a sense of what it might have looked like on that first holy night. In the center of the floor was a silver-encrusted star with a hole in the middle. By putting my hand inside, I could touch the place where Jesus was born more than 2,000 years ago. I tried it, butI left Bethlehem feeling empty, unable to make the sacred connection I had so longed for.

And isn’t that how so many of our Christmases end up feeling? In spite of all the tinsel and glitter and sparkle, all the money we spend and the stress we endure as we try to create the perfect Hallmark Christmas, we’re often left with the same let-down feeling I had inside that church in Bethlehem. We’ve lost the simple beauty of the story, that precious connection with God that is the true miracle of Bethlehem.

The year after visiting Bethlehem, I began looking for ways to recapture the simplicity of Christ’s incarnation. Santa Claus has never been invited to our family Christmases, and we’ve always celebrated it as Jesus’ birthday, exchanging presents because God gave us the gift of His Son. But year after year, the clutter and glitz had draped themselves over our celebrations, just like the religious trappings that have collected inside the Church of the Nativity over the centuries. That year, I purchased a nice but inexpensive manger set. I wanted something that wasn’t a toy but that my children could handle and touch. We placed it at their level and at the center of our holiday and began the simple tradition of gathering together as a family to fill the empty stable while my husband read the story from the Bible. Our children divided all the people and sheep and camels among themselves, and when we got to their part in the Bible story, they added their figures to the stable.

This simple tradition has become so beloved by all of us that we still do it the same way every year, even though our children are now adults. Our two married children couldn’t wait to share the tradition with their spouses, generously dividing their sheep and wise men among the newest members of our family. One year, our daughter was living overseas and couldn’t make it home for the holiday, but we still held our family tradition while she participated via Skype and a web camera.

And it’s always in those moments, with the simple stable and inexpensive plaster figures and my precious loved ones gathered around me, that I feel the holy wonder of Christmas once again—Emmanuel, God with us!

Bestselling author Lynn Austin has sold more than one million copies of her books worldwide. Her latest novel, Return To Me, is the first book in her new series.  She is an eight-time Christy Award winner for her historical novels, as well as a popular speaker at retreats and conventions. Lynn and her husband have raised three children and live near Chicago. Visit Lynn at her website.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So you missed out on the Dapple laundry detergent deal, no biggie, there’s still lots of other deal scenarios with the Love With Food Promotion.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Love With Food is offering a FREE $15 gift code to Soap.com or Little Black Back with any order.  You can get your first month of Love With Food for $2 and still get the $15 gc.  Here’s how:

1.  Sign up for Love With Food and sign up for the monthly subscription.  Use code “YUMMY” to get your first month for only $2.  You’ll have to be sure to cancel your subscription before the next billing cycle if you don’t want to continue it.  Once you’ve successfully ordered your first box, a screen will pop up giving you the option of a free $15 soap.com gc or Little Black Bag gift card.  There are lots of deals with the soap.com gc and I’ll show you a few scenarios here.  NOTE: the gift card bonus is only available until 1/1/14

2.  Next sign up for BeFrugal.com (it’s free) and search for Soap.com.  Go through that link to shop Soap.com.  You’ll earn 5% cash back with your deal.

3.  If you are a new customer with soap.com you get free shipping on your first order.  Most or all the Dapple deal products sold out but they do have a deal on Biore products buy one get one half off.

One deal is the Biore cleansing cloths 60 ct box.  $10.19 each.  There is a little ticker box for the bogo coupon, make sure you check that box and add two to your cart.  Use your $15 soap.com gc and pay $1.86 cents (that’s tax included) with free shipping if it’s your first order or pay the $1.28   and $5.99 shipping if it’s not your first soap.com order (which is still a pretty good deal for 2 60 ct box of Biore cleansing cloths.

Another deal, $15.99 for a 10 count of Duracell copper top C batteries. Who couldn’t use these at Christmas time.  Pay $1.95 after tax and applying soap.com gift code, free shipping with first order.

Really we could keep going but I Think you get the idea.