Onesies for Christmas turned into a tool for much laughter and memory-making in our home! This is a screenshot from our Onesie Dance Video.
Is Your Home Marked by Seriousness or Joy?
Don’t miss the video of our Onesie Dance Party at the end of this blog post. But first, a few questions for you to ponder, just as I have over the years:
Is there joy in your home? How about laughter?
Or are you tense? intense? stiff? regimented? a task-master?
Wonder if we should ask our kids those questions about us.
Whether we’ve thought about it or not, our home has a tone to it.
When’s the last time you stopped your agenda, dropped the tasks at hand and were purposeful to engage with your kids…
to laugh…
to be crazy…
to lighten up…
to put aside your To Do list…
to fully engage with your family…
to let down your guard…
to bring laughter in your home…
to exude the JOY of the Lord that should be a key component in our homes…
and perhaps to do something crazy…
like…
dance…
even in onesies.
Having Fun with Onesies!
Here’s what happened.
I bought my six kids (ages 25, 23, 20, 18,15, and 13) onesies for their annual Christmas pajama gift with the thought of an awesome funny Christmas pajama photo to be laughed at for years to come.
Annual Ellis Family pajama Christmas photo – minus dad whose torso was too long for his onesie. lol.
To my surprise they liked these so much that we ended up buying them for each guest coming to our home during the holidays. The guests loved them and we ended up wearing them while playing cards, games, decorating gingerbread houses…just to…well…just to be crazy.
Tradition of decorating gingerbread houses, but this year…while wearing onesies. Haha
Okay, so we use pre-made gingerbread kits. Don’t judge us. Just notice the onesies on these three college students who are our future leaders. Scary, huh. haha.
I thought you might like to see some of the finished products. We feel it was a successful year – no duct tape or hot glue used this year. baha
A Onesie Dance Party
The night after Christmas, with all my kids home (Mama Like!) and many of their friends over I randomly said, “Let’s have a Onesie Dance Party.”
Immediately without any instruction, everyone put on their onesies. One got the fog machine (my daughter is a photographer, so that explains the possession of such a device), another put music on, and one started videoing.
I present to you a video of our Day After Christmas “Onesie Dance Party.”
This video is evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in my heart and home.
Replacing stiffness with laughter.
Breaking free of legalism and embracing joy.
Putting aside my To Do list and initiating (or joining in) fun.
Being intentional to have a home full of JOY and memory-making.
A Home Marked by Laughter, Joy, and Merry Hearts
As believers in Christ, we are people that should express joy! We have much to be joyful about… salvation, a personal relationship with God in which we can daily commune with the One who made us, loves us, and knows us intimately. Even in the darkest of times, He is with us, comforts us, and our hearts can safely trust in Him.
- Proverbs 15:13 A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance.
- Proverbs 17:22 A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.
- Psalm 35:9 My soul shall be joyful in the Lord. It shall rejoice in His salvation.
- Galatians 5:22 The fruit of the Spirit is love, JOY, peace. . .
Rhonda shakeitoff.LIGHTENUP.LetJOYabound ellis
Absolutely LOVE this post!!!! Such a great reminder to LIGHTEN UP!!!! Life gets hectic and the to do list long but the best memories are when we let our hair down. Important for our families to see we really DO have a “FUN” side. This post definitely put a “spring” in my step for the day. Thanks for the reminder!!!
Melody, thanks so much for your comment. I like how you said, “let our hair down.” So very true. Where laughter abounds there is much joy!
And the “world” thinks that Christian’s can’t have fun!
Glenn, you’re so right. I’m realizing more and more that we as Believers, by and large, appear to be stiff and lacking joy in our effort to be holy. Joy is found in deep abiding trust in The Lord, which should manifest itself in both holiness and joy… demonstrated in loving life and loving others. May our homes be filled with laughter and deep, abiding devotion to the Lord.
Thanks for commenting.
I just love this and made me smile as we did a spontaneous “shake it off” dance on our daughter’s kitchen over Christmas with about 14 of our grandchildren – such fun memories you are making with your family.
Monique, you just inspired every grandmother reading this. You get the Fun Grandma Award! Fourteen grandkids??? You are blessed.
Hooray for a new blog post and it’s a GREAT one!!!
I LOVE this post so much!! I’m thankful for chains being broken and for the freedom to live freely and to be joyful! I can’t express enough how much I love to dance (especially when everyone else is dancing)! This onesie dance party was SUCH a fun day of laughing, being crazy, and then laughing some more. Onesies have also become a staple in the Willis home (thanks to the Ellis’ of course)!! Our Brazilian friends also love the onesies and the dance parties!! I am thankful my family raised me to be free and to always dance freely! I am thankful that the Ellis family loves to be crazy and have random dance parties!!!! <3 love this post and love your family!!
Gabi, thanks for commenting. Thanks for leading out in many of these dance moves. It was fun laughing with your family with onesies on. 🙂 LOL.
Looooove! Our family enjoys dancing together in the living room. Such fun, laughter, and we all get so tickled at each other. I did some crazy move all the way across the floor one night and we were cracking up. This is also great exercise for cold nights when we could not bike together. Danny and I are sore for days after family dance night!!!
Misti, you’re killing me!! I can see you doing the worm across your floor. You get a Fun Mom Award! Love you, friend.