This week's questions is What does Christmas day look like in your house?  If you haven't checked out the Homeschool Lounge yet, I suggest you do.  It's a wonderful place for homeschooling mothers to meet and glean from each other.  You can find them on the web at www.thehomeschoollounge.com

Here is my answer. 

We're pretty tame here.  We don't get up extremely early, usually between 7 - 8 am.  We usually have donuts or something simple like a bowl of cereal for breakfast.  The kids hand out the presents to everyone, it's usually just the four of us.  And then they open them.  But we're not talking a tornado of paper flying everywhere, for some reason my kids have never done that!  No, it's one present at a time, slowly.  I have to sit on my hands to not jump up and start tearing into their stuff to get it open faster!  LOL  Drives me crazy, because I'm just as excited to see their reaction as they are to get it.  If I remember, I put Christmas music on first thing (or whenever I remember throughout the day).  My husband is then recruited to put every last thing together, immediately and with batteries while I go start our dinner.  This year we're just having a ham, some stuffing, maybe some mash potatoes, biscuits, veggies, simple stuff.  It's just us so I don't have to cook for any more people than usual.  That's kind of nice.   

A lot of time we'll go to the nursing home that my hubby preaches at on Sundays for Thanksgiving but we didn't get to do that this year so we'll go for Christmas instead.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas day with their families!

God Bless

Jesus is Better than Santa

Santa lives at the North Pole.

JESUS is everywhere.

Santa rides in a sleigh

JESUS rides on the wind and walks on the water.

Santa comes but once a year

JESUS is an ever present help.

Santa fills your stockings with goodies

JESUS supplies all your needs.

Santa comes down your chimney uninvited

JESUS stands at your door and knocks…And then enters your heart.

You have to stand in line to see Santa

JESUS is as close as the mention of His name.

Santa lets you sit on his lap

JESUS lets you rest in His arms.

Santa doesn't know your name, all he can say is "Hi little boy or girl, What's your name?"

JESUS knew our name before we did, Not only does He know our name, He knows our address too. He knows our history and future and He even knows how many hairs are on our heads.

Santa has a belly like a bowl full of jelly

JESUS has a heart full of love.

All Santa can offer is HO HO HO

JESUS offers health, help and hope.

Santa says "You better not cry"

JESUS says "Cast all your cares on me for I care for you.

Santa's little helpers make toys

JESUS makes new life, mends wounded hearts, repairs broken homes and builds mansions.

Santa may make you chuckle but

JESUS gives you joy that is your strength.

While Santa puts gifts under your tree

JESUS became our gift and died on the tree.

It's obvious there is really no comparison.  We need to remember WHO Christmas is all about.  We need to put Christ back in Christmas.

Jesus is still the reason for the season.

May the Lord Bless and Watch over you and your loved ones this Christmas 2008.  And may He prosper and bless the work of your hands in the New Year.

I received this in an e-mail from a friend.  Although I didn’t write it, it definitely was worth sharing. 

The homeschool lounge (www.thehomeschoollounge.com) is having another giveaway this week and the topic is your favorite Christmas recipe.  Here's mine.

My Grandmother's Cornbread Dressing

Make one 8" or 9" pie pan of cornbread as directed on package, crumbled (a fork works great to crumble it up straight out of the pan)

1 large onion, chopped

49 oz. can of chicken broth

2 packs of saltines, crushed

12 slices of bread, shredded (I use wheat, if you use white you don't need all of the chicken broth)

2 sticks of butter, softened

12 eggs, slightly beaten

salt, pepper, sage to taste

Mix all ingredients together in a 3 - 4 qt. dutch oven (will be kind of gloppy, I know very technical term, huh)

Bake at 350 until thick and brown on top.  (This can take 2 - 4 hours depending on your oven and if you're cooking anything else with it.  Mine is gas and cooks hot and fast)

If you try it, let me know how you liked it.

The Homeschool Lounge is a wonderful place for the homeschool community and this month they are hosting weekly giveaways!  If you haven't joined them yet, you can check them out at www.thehomeschoollounge.com   This week's question is...In this day of over commercialism how does your family keep a meaningful and Christ-centered Christmas?

Here is my answer...

I was not raised in a Christian home and had showered my kids with gifts every year, we even did santa up until a few years ago. My husband's family never did much for Christmas, even though they profess to be Christians it wasn't a Christ centered time either. I have to say though that my kids were totally ok with the "cut backs" on Christmas. We still don't do as much as I would like as far as making it more about Christ though. This week, I downloaded the daily devotional from The Homeschool Lounge about the Names of Jesus. I thought that would be fun for us to do. I'm actually going to start it today. I figure since it's not very long we'll just do some catch up from the first few days. We also read the story of Jesus' birth on Christmas Eve. I also like the Jesus tree idea that I have heard about, that would go along very well with the names of Jesus devotional! That's an idea for next year maybe.

I'm new here and don't have a lot of time before bed, but I thought I'd at least post a quick note.  I haven't really ever "blogged" before.  I am a member at The Homeschool Lounge, which I found from the main page here, but am still not very comfortable with all of this yet.

I am a Child of the King!  I live in a very small town in Northern IL.  I have been married to a wonderful man for over 13 years.  We have two children, one of which may end up with her own blog soon once I get this thing figured out some!  Our daughter is 11 and our son is 7.  We are going on our 3rd year homeschooling.  This year we are doing the Prairie Primer, we're just finishing book one.  We use Math-U-See and Modern Curriculum Press for Math and Landmark for English and Bible. 

I have used textbook type curricula from the beginning so the Primer has been a bit of a challenge so far (for me to stay focused and organized), but we're enjoying it.  I'm not sure how much bookwork we'll bring back when we finish it.  I have a long list of Hands of a Child lap books my son is drooling over so we may just start those next.  He is very interested in Arctic anything and they have quite a lot of lap books to choose.  I will definitely be purchasing the Super Member membership before hand! 

My son is also very excited because he started his guitar lessons on Wed.  He's been waiting for them with baited breath for over a year.  Time flies so quickly that we kept forgetting about it and simply not making it a priority financially.  He has two tadpoles.  One he got for his birthday at the end of Aug., it still has not morphed into a froglet.  The Grow-a-frog people just sent us a new one (a new tadpole per their guarantee).  So now, we have two.  I hope that they will grow eventually. 

My daughter is very into horses, sewing, and playing the piano.  We do not have a horse, but she loves them anyway.  I think it's every girl’s fantasy at some point in her life; it was mine too, once upon a time.  She is very excited to be taking her first young ladies sewing class between Christmas and the new year.  I used to know how to sew but being so rusty at it I usually end up making a mess!  I was invited to take the class with her so I may, as long as she's ok with it.  Otherwise, I will probably find an adult class to take.  She really would prefer quilting, but I want her to know how to read a pattern and other types of basics too. 

Well, that's probably plenty of info for now.  Feel free to leave a comment, if you like.  I probably won't be back on until Monday; our weekends are usually filled with church activities and family time. 

~God Bless~