I thought I’d veer away from the Proverbs passages for the Words of Wisdom Copywork  for a few more weeks. I have put together in a special collection of verses to help us all in Keeping Christ in Christmas. I plan to make 4 separate books to use over the next few weeks filled with the promises and the story of the birth of our Savior. The first book contains 7 passages from the Old Testament, one for each day of the first week of December. Each book will have all font versions: manuscript, transitional manuscript, and cursive. Next week all the passages will be from Isaiah. I will be posting that December 7th or 8th so you will have them for the week. The third week will have passages from Luke 1 and 2 regarding the birth of Christ. Week 4 will have various New Testament passages. I hope that these little books will help bring the wonder and splendor of the true reason we celebrate Christmas to your homeschool.

You can download this week’s Keeping Christ in Christmas Copybook-Week 1 here.

I’d love to hear the ways you are Keeping Christ in Christmas in your home.

(If you want e-mail alerts when the new book is posted, please subscribe using the Feedburner subscriber box on the sidebar under the menu. )

Here are some pictures of our weekend.   The first group is from our Thanksgiving dinner with family.  The football pictures are from the highschool state championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium.  The kids really enjoyed going for the second year in a row. 

The first day of December is already here. The year has simply flown by. While my children spent some time over the past few days decorating the yard with lights and our manger scene, I added some festive touches to my blog. At the top you will see a music player with some of our favorite Christmas tunes. If you look over on my sidebar you’ll see a few scroll boxes I made a couple of years ago when I was teaching myself some HTML. Each day the boxes contain new content. There is a box with a different Scripture passage daily that we have used to make a countdown paper chain. We wrote the passages on strips of red and green construction paper and as we counted down the days until Christmas we tore one chain off and read the passage out loud.

Then I have a Christmas story box with 25 different short stories about the symbols of Christmas. Under that I have 2 more scroll boxes that have new links to Christmas Crafting sites. There is one for moms and dads and another with links to kid crafting sites.

I know my blogging habits have been sporadic at best, but if you are looking for new ideas over the next month I encourage you to stop by if only to check out the Christmas boxes for the new content.

And on another note, if you have been enjoying my copywork pages that I have been posting, at the Schoolhouse Store they are having a BOGO sale that Proverbs 22:6 Academy is participating in. If you purchase one of my copybooks, you will get A Copybook of 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 FREE. It is a $5.99 value. (You don't need to add it to your cart, it is already in the BOGO items) You can see samples of all the books in the item descriptions. While I have put love and care in all my copybooks I have to say that my absolute favorite is the State Study Motto Copybook and Notebook Pages. My daughter is just about finished going through the entire book and she absolutely loved doing it. It is way more than just a copybook. I wrote a bit about it HERE and there are sample pages there too for the US and South Carolina for you to check out.

When planning meals and menus for the holidays, my best advice is strive for simplicity.  Plan menus that are simple to prepare and don't require a bunch of ingredients that you do not regularly keep stocked in the pantry.  As much as I enjoy trying new recipes and Kitchen Adventures, I avoid those with long lists of exotic ingredients because I know the cost of buying all those little extras will add up quickly, and chances are, I'll never use some of them again.  Simple food prepared with love will be a blessing.  The most elaborate of dishes, if it stresses you to the max to create, isn't worth the trouble.  And, if your crowd is like mine, the familiar foods are usually the best received. 

One family tradition that my sister-in-law and I started a few years ago, and one that we plan to continue is a soup & sandwich buffet on Christmas Eve.  We ask everyone who wants to bring food to make either a soup, a plate of sandwiches, or a simple dessert like cookies or candy.  We serve coffee, tea, and spiced apple cider to drink.  Everything gets set out buffet style, with the soups kept warm by crock pots, and people can serve themselves as they wish.  Coffee mugs make great easy to carry soup "bowls" for this type of gathering.   We have had a large crowd in a very small space, and this worked out very well, as everyone isn't sitting down to eat at one time. 

If you are planning to give gifts of food this year, again strive for simplicity.  Make foods that are easy to create, and don't worry about the latest "thing" in the magazines.  Get the children involved and make simple, fun treats like pretzel rods dipped in melted chocolate or almond bark and rolled in nuts or sprinkles.  For great gift giving ideas, the book Homespun Gifts from the Heart by Karen Ehman, Kelly Hovermale, & Trish Smith, is an excellent resource (check your local library for a copy). 

Finally, if you haven't already done so, be sure to download The Old Schoolhouse Digital Holiday Supplement.  This great holiday freebie from TOS is filled with wonderful ideas and planning helps.

I hope your family has a simply blessed holiday season!

Catherine

Catherine Love lives in the heart of Texas with her husband Carl, and their 3 daughters, Sarah, Hannah, and Cana.  They enjoy cooking, gardening, and learning new things as they seek to live a lifestyle of learning together as a family.  You can read Catherine's Kitchen Adventures and more on her blog- Seeds of Love.

Where ever did November go? With my unexpected emergency appendectomy, the month has just gotten away from me. I had totally planned to get this month’s writing prompt calendar done early, but there have been so many other things that have been occupying my time. It just plain slipped my mind. But I have made it under the wire.

Here is December 2009 Writing Prompt Calendar.

And for those of you who only stop by once in awhile to grab these calendars and the other freebies, I want to wish you all a blessed holiday season in which Jesus fills your hearts and homes with joy.