Ok so last night we read The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola.  We learned about the Mexican legend of how that plant came to be as beautiful as it is today.  If you've never read the book or heard the story, it is about a little girl who offers weeds to the Christ Child as her gift for Christmas (she had nothing else).  As she brings the weeds to the creche at Mass that evening, they are miraculously changed to the beautiful plant we know today.  We learned the beautiful flower is not really a flower at all!  The beautiful red leaves are just that....leaves that haven't turned green yet!  The actual poinsettia flower is very tiny in the center of the leaves!

The poinsettia plant did not come to the United States until 1830!  Dr. Joel Roberts Poinsett who was our nation's minister to Mexico brought it home to the U.S.  He call it the "painted leaves" plant.  In Mexico, the plant is known by several names: flor de fuego (fire flower), flor de Navidad (Christmas flower)  and flor de la Nochebuena (Flower of the Holy Night).

We did some paper cutting (one of my son's favorite things to do) and made beautiful cut-out poinsettia's for our Liturgical Notebook.

Then we did a short study on a bible passage.  I got this (3 weeks into Advent) from the wonderful people at Our Grace Journey .  I will use this study with Cameron for the rest of Advent.  It was right on his level and all the kids enjoyed it last night.

Then we had a wonderful Mexican dish called Fideo.  My husband makes wonderful Fideo!  Fideo is like the Mexican version of spaghetti and it seems like no two people make the dish the same way.....but I really like my husband's version! It's a great warm comfort food.....perfect for winter.

I hope you are enjoying your own Advent/Christmas season with good books, good food, good friends and of course, God!