The Duggars are busy making their massive home look festive for the holidays. The family doesn’t do Christmas trees, so it looks like they decided to improvise while looking for somewhere to put Christmas decorations.
The Duggars are doing their best to ignore all the tabloid coverage of their family’s troubles as they prepare for the holidays. Any photo of Josh and Anna Duggar’s 4-month-old daughter, Meredith Grace, is going to remind the Duggars’ critics about Josh’s sexual molestation and cheating scandals . However, it seems as though Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar thought that the photo of Meredith below was simply too adorable not to share on their family’s Facebook page.
“It looks like someone is trying to help put the final touches up for Christmas decorations!” the Duggars wrote .
The Duggars love decking their home out for the holidays, as evidenced by a video that they shared with their fans last December. In the video, Josh Duggar gives viewers a tour of the family’s house, and he talks to Michelle Duggar about why the family’s decorations don’t include a Christmas tree. According to the former 19 Kids and Counting star, the Duggars want to make it clear that they’re celebrating Jesus’ birthday, so they put up a big “Happy Birthday Jesus” banner in lieu of a tree.
According to Josh Duggar, his parents used to put up Christmas trees, but they gave up on that holiday tradition because the destructive Duggar children enjoyed knocking the trees over a little too much. In the video below, Josh also reveals that the Duggars get gifts from people all around the world on Christmas and that Jana Duggar works in the family’s “mailroom.” This means that she’s responsible for sending out gifts and Christmas cards.
Christmas is going to look very different for the Duggars this year because a few family members won’t be coming home for the holidays.
Back in August, Josh Duggar admitted that he cheated on his wife, and he also claimed that he was struggling with an addiction to internet pornography. The Duggars seemingly decided that the best way to deal with their son’s second major scandal of 2015 was to put a little distance between Josh and the rest of the family, so Anna Duggar’s troubled husband left his wife and four kids behind to enroll in the Reformers Unanimous “ school of discipleship ” in Rockford, Illinois. According to ET Online , the Reformers program is six months long, which means Josh Duggar will probably remain in Illinois over the holidays. Reformers Unanimous held a Christmas banquet last year around December 19, so perhaps the Duggars will attend the event with Josh.
Anna Duggar’s husband isn’t the only member of the family who won’t be home for the holidays. Jill Duggar and her husband, Derick Dillard, are currently on a long-term mission trip in Central America, and they’ve revealed that they don’t plan on returning to America until next summer. However, this doesn’t mean that Jill won’t get to see her family members until then. According to the Duggar Family Blog , the Duggars take short-term Christmas mission trips to Central America every year. They usually travel with S.O.S. Ministries , which currently has two Christmas mission trips scheduled : a Honduras trip with a December 4 departure date and an El Salvador trip with a December 11 departure date.
If the Duggars do travel with S.O.S. Ministries again this year, Jill and Derick may simply join them when they arrive in Central America. It’s also possible that the Duggars will travel to Central America independently, and perhaps they’ll help Jill and Derick with their mission work instead of working with S.O.S.
The video below features footage from the Duggars’ 2014 Christmas mission trip with S.O.S. Ministries.
Do you think the Duggars will find time to fly to Illinois and Central America before heading back to Arkansas for Christmas?
[Image via Duggar Family Studios YouTube ]