Posted in Advent, Christmas

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our Christmas and family get togethers the past few days!

Christmas 2007

Posted in Advent, Christmas

Merry Christmas!

And Happy New Year!

May the joy of CHRISTmas fill your hearts all year long!

Posted in Advent, Christmas

Joy to the world the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her king!

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And heaven and nature sing,

And heaven and nature sing,

And heaven and heaven and nature sing!

Posted in Advent, Christmas

We made these applesauce cinnamon ornaments today! The house smells delicious! The kids kept asking to take bites of the dough...but I added glue to it, so no taste testing today!

Here is all you need for this simple craft! They say you can do it without the glue, but today our dough wasn't holding together, so I added in glue at the end of our mixing.

1 cup applesauce, 1 cup cinnamon, 1/2 cup glue --- or that's about what we did anyway!

Here are my kiddos enjoying making the ornaments!

And our sweet smelling ornaments ready to be baked at 250 degrees. Last year I didn't put them in the oven, and they took DAYS to dry out completely! But, I don't really like the oven option either, I'll have to keep researching to see what is best. They got all crispy on the top and under-cooked on the bottoms, and so they broke off when trying to get them off the pan. But, I think we were able to salvage most of them.

The finished product! Our house still smells so yummy!

Posted in Advent, Christmas

Have you heard this song? If not, please pause the music on the sidebar and listen to the words...it is one of the few songs I have heard that express all the different emotions that Christmas can bring to so many people.  (the beginning of this video is kinda funny, but keep listening and I pray the song will encourage you tonight!) The song is sung by Mandisa and Matthew West.

Posted in Advent, Christmas

Let the just rejoice,
for their justifier is born.
Let the sick and infirm rejoice,
For their saviour is born.
Let the captives rejoice,
For their Redeemer is born.
Let slaves rejoice,
for their Master is born.
Let free men rejoice,
For their Liberator is born.
Let All Christians rejoice,
For Jesus Christ is born.
St. Augustine of Hippo (AD 354-440)

Posted in Advent, Christmas

Be sure to press pause on my music on the sidebar and listen for some harmonious humor!

Posted in Advent, Christmas

(since we aren't getting anything else done today, I thought I'd get a little blogging in...these pictures are a few days old.)

Here is a craft that the girls enjoyed doing...and it uses up old Christmas cards! This idea actually could fill up a whole day...or more! I have saved Christmas cards from years past and have probably a hundred in a bag. I pulled those out yesterday and we put them all out on the floor and just looked at them for awhile, noticing differences, colors, etc. Then I told the girls to find all the cards that had a part of the Bible story on it. This was good for me to see! They knew the pictures of Santa, reindeer, wreaths, etc, were not from the actual Christmas story. They pulled out all the cards that had the nativity scene on it, then from those, we also looked at differences. Some had just wisemen, some had just Mary and baby, some had the stable and lots of animals. The girls really enjoyed looking at all these cards!

Then, I told them to pick a few favorite nativity pictures and we cut out the picture part. Then, we glued them onto some cardstock and put a "stable" around the picture using wooden craft sticks. These turned out pretty cute!

Well, the girls did not want to be finished cutting up the Christmas cards! So, I glued the sticks onto a piece of paper for them and told them to glue on a nativity any way they wanted to. Emily found a card she liked and glued the whole scene into her stable. Hannah (not surprisingly) cut out each individual character from lots of different cards and glued them into her stable. They turned out pretty cute too! And the girls really enjoyed this!

Hannah's nativity scene

Emily's nativity scene

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And all that happy stuff, yeah well, it disappeared from our house today. Oh well, every advent day can't be wonderful can it? But wait, it's supposed to be the *most* wonderful time of the year.

Well, I actually *do* think it is the MOST wonderful time of the year! I love Christmas! But, I thought I'd let you peek in on our not so perfect morning...just as a reminder that no one has it all together. No one can plan out the perfect day everyday and have it always be....well, perfect.

My husband was sick yesterday, we think he has the flu. (Sing with me now...it's the most wonderful time of the year!) He was in bed most of the day yesterday with a fever, the aches, sore throat, the works. Well, today, guess what? Another sickie! Caleb! Oh my! But, he doesn't have the flu? Nope, I figured out he was sick when vomit landed in my lap not once but twice this morning. (Are you still singing...with the kids jingle belling and everyone telling you BE OF GOOD CHEER!)

So, this morning we spent a good 2 hours just on the couch vegging and watching cartoons. Then, I decided, we could really easily read some books on the couch and turn the tv off for awhile. So, I pulled out our book for the day...thinking the girls would be thrilled...but nope, no one was interested. Not in the least! They were having no part in learning about angels today, or learning how to draw them, nope. Nada. (There'll be much mistletoeing and hearts will be glowing as loved ones are NEAR.)

The fighting over who sits next to mommy was a little much for me this morning. The crying because someone else got a bigger piece of the wrapping paper than they did made me cranky and irritable. The screaming over not getting what they wanted was making me scream on the inside. (I can't hear you! It's the MOST wonderful time of the year!)

So, finally, I called it quits. NO MORE FUN ADVENT ACTIVITIES FOR US TODAY!   I put the book away and  told the kids to go play. I gave up trying to have the perfect morning. It just wasn't happening.  

Oh, but merry Christmas...peace on earth...good will towards your brother and sister...it's the MOST wonderful time of the year!

(be thankful I posted no pictures today!)

Posted in Advent, Christmas

Today we started learning about the man named Saint Nicholas.  We learned about who the man named Nicholas was and what he did that made him special. We read the book, Santa are you for real? This is a cute book! It explains who Nicholas was and told us that he was a man who loved God and also loved giving gifts in secret. We learned that he loved giving to the poor, and that is what be became known for.

I tried explaining the concept of giving in secret to the kids (including Jacob who was here today) and none of them could grasp why he wouldn't want someone to say thank-you to him. Well, I guess Aunt Lissa and I have engrained "say thank you" SO MANY TIMES that NOT saying thank you would just seem blasphemous. The kids just didn't get doing kind deeds in secret...it was kinda funny!

After we read the book they all colored a picture of Saint Nicholas from the St. Nicholas center, and then we made this cute craft from there as well. Kids and cotton! Who knew it could be so much fun?