Christmas At Our House

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Or as Miss H says, “CHRIST-mas.” She started saying that the other day, it is really cute. Overall, our focus at Christmas time has always been Jesus. This year it was more than ever. We spent two weeks just studying God’s Word and scouring scriptures. However, we do have many fun traditions that I thought I would take some time to share. Maybe give you some ideas for next year.

Jingle the Christmas Bear

 

This is Jingle our little Christmas bear. He is only about three inches tall and the kids play hide and seek with him from the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas morning. We hide him throughout the house sometimes all you see is the tip of his hat and other times you see all of him. It is always fun when the kids are about two. They always seem to be the first to find him and they get so excited about finding him. It is way too cute. Here he is hanging from the lights. He was there for about 6 hours when at dinner, Little G started laughing uncontrollably and yelling, “Jingle, Jingle!” For some reason, she decided to look up.

Our Nativity Board

Another tradition we have is making a Christmas nativity bulletin board. I split up all of the characters between the kids to paint. Then we put it up on the wall. The kids love being able to show visitors their masterpiece and every year it looks a little different.

 

Eying the Presents Under the Tree

Every Christmas Eve, we go to Daddy Reg’s parents’ house for dinner with friends and family. Usually there are between 30 and 40 people. We eat a ton of food and hang out for a while. Then we all sing Christmas carols. After singing some carols, people share Christmas memories. Then, I read the Christmas story from Luke 2. Several years back it became my job to read it and I do look forward to it each Christmas Eve. Then we pray for friends, family, and whatever is laid on our hearts. Afterward we hang out for a little while longer, grazing on the Christmas cookies and everyone trickles out. The family stays and we all gather around the Christmas tree for gift giving. We have a large family, and when everyone is home for Christmas, this can take a few hours. It is such an enjoyable time. This year, the older kids were given clues to what their big presents from Papa, Grandma and the Uncles and Aunts. They open little gifts with clues attached. It was so much fun to watch them figure it out. They get to go on a weekend trip to a childrens museum, aquarium and more with all of them. The kids are so excited about it.

Reading The First Clue that led to many more.

 

 Putting the clues together. Still many more to go.

On Christmas morning, the kids do stockings, and a few more gifts. Then we just hang out and be family. This year, we watched both Narnia movies. And every Christmas night we have soup and rolls with Daddy Reg’s family coming over. I love cooking for many people and this is the perfect time to spend more time with family.

We had a busy but very fun week. Today we relaxed and took a much-deserved rest.

Christmas Service

Church today was so awesome. It is every Sunday before Christmas. My sister-in-law (aka the Greatest Aunt Ever) puts together a Christmas program in which the whole congregation can be involved. No one knows what she has planned until that morning (Except maybe someone who does a special song, but they do not get that much warning either.) This year it started with some reading of prophetic verses about Christ. Like Isaiah 9:6, (This is the kids memory verse they were thrilled to giggles when it was read.) Then a Christmas carol about those verses and then all through the Christmas story mixing all the accounts from the gospels together so you can see the full picture. Intermixed were songs that went with what was just read. It was seamless and amazing. Last year we did Handel's Messiah - that was so much fun.
In a way, this has become a tradition in our family. I look forward every year to what we will do together as a church family. There is no performing only worshiping our Immanuel (God With Us) who came as a baby to live, die, and rise again that we may be reconciled with God and have life in Him. That is the absolute true meaning of Christmas.

Snow Day Fun!

Meet Mr. Frosted Flakes

This past week the kids got to have some unexpected fun with our neighbor. It all started when our neighbor was surprised with a pile of snow next to her place. She was so very excited because it seems to have snowed everywhere around us but not here. It does not snow here more than once a decade and then it is a light dusting like powdered sugar. She decided to make a snowman - of course. About half way through, Daddy Reg took the kids out to watch and our neighbor let them help. - She is so great. The kids were giving her all of the accessories, the carrot, the arms, the buttons, the eyes, the mouth, and even the scarf. Oh and this snowman wore many hats. One of which Little Man proudly surprised us with. All of us had so much fun and as snow is not something we get to enjoy unless we take a road trip, it was a wonderful treat. As of today - a few days later - poor Mr. Frosted Flakes is now just a little mound. But he was such a great snow friend and I am sure, will be back again someday.

Meet Mr. Google Flakes -

Little Man was so proud of giving him this hat.

Best Buddies

Note that Princess K is wearing flip-flops.

I noticed this a few minutes after the picture. My crazy girl.

Pondering What Did Mary Know?

I have been dwelling on a verse the past week or so. It is really getting me thinking and wondering.

Luke 2:19
But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

This verse reveals her mother's heart for her son. She knew she had been entrusted with the greatest gift to the world. She knew her son wasn't any ordinary son. She knew she was responsible for training him and molding him and preparing him for what God had planned for him. But, how much did God reveal to Mary about Jesus? It is like that song Mary Did You Know?

Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you.

Mary did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God.

The blind will see, the deaf will hear and the dead will live again.
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak, the praises of the lamb.

Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you're holding is the great I am.

I have been entrusted with 4 beautiful little ones. It is my responsibility to prepare them for what the Lord has for them. Just like Mary had to prepare Jesus, though they aren't going to pay the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of the world. I know that God has great plans for each of them to advance His kingdom, I don't know what those plans are exactly. Only with God's wisdom can I do what I need to, in order to prepare them.
Just what I am thinking about.

An Exravagent Date

My sister-in-law deserves the Greatest Aunt of All Time award (is there such a thing?) Today, I found myself overly exhausted and I just couldn't get myself going. I tried, oh I tried. We successfully completed one school lesson about prophecies and fulfillment of prophecies and then I was done. I fell asleep on the couch about five minutes after Daddy Reg got home. Around 5:45 while I was still trying to get myself off the couch and figuring out what I was going to fix for dinner, the Greatest Aunt of All Time stopped by and asked if she could take all the kids with her to a dinner/fundraiser. Her timing could not have been more perfect. So we got all the carseats properly installed and off they went. They love their Auntie and get so excited to spend time with her. After they were off Daddy Reg and I decided it was perfect timing to pick up some white elephant gifts for the church Christmas party. So we went to the dollar store hoping to find some type of treasure. We found some stuff that will work and a few stocking stuffers. We also scored a perfect present for Little Man! He is very much into NASCAR and loves Jimmy Johnson and we found a poster of him for a dollar! Who knew that what will most likely be his favorite present would only cost a buck? Then off to Taco Bell for a quick bite and home again home again jiggidy jog. That my dear friends is a typical date night in the land of Reg. Yep, in fact that one was a bit extravagent because buying something like diapers or toilet paper wasn't involved.

A Lesson in Isaiah

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

The kids are memorizing this verse this week. When I have them memorize a verse, I want them to know more than just the words. I want them to know what it means, who wrote it, why it was written... I also use the verse for an English lesson and have them find nouns verbs, punctuation, subject, predicate... Dissecting the verse helps them memorize the verse better than if I just had them repeat it over and over.

Isaiah was a prophet, poet, and politician. I love this book because of the way it is written and some say that he is the Shakespeare of Hebrew literature. When I was in high school, I did my Senior English final term paper on the major prophetic books and I loved reading Isaiah because of how it was written. When we were reading about Isaiah today, I learned some things I thought I would share. Did you know that he was writing his book around the same time Homer was writing The Iliad and The Odyssey? (That I never realized until today even though I knew the dates of Homer and Isaiah, I never put the two together.) Also, something else I thought was interesting was that during that time, Israel was in a civil war. I did not know that.

When we were dissecting the verse today, I was watching my kids eyes light up as God was revealing little tidbits of Himself to them. It was really cool. One of the coolest moments of today’s lesson was when we were talking about how Jesus is a gift. We do not have to earn Him, there is nothing we can do to deserve Him, and He is freely given to us. All we have to do is receive Him the same way we receive a gift at Christmas. My kids were explaining it to me not me explaining it to them!

My kids get it! I love that and it makes my heart sing.

Christmas and Advent Lapbooks and Activities

This year I wanted to have the kids do a lapbook for Christmas. I want the focus to stay on the nativity and why Christ came. I am praying that God will reveal Himself to them in a new and very real way this year. I started researching for ideas and came across more than I can do in the next two weeks. I thought I would share my findings with everyone so you can use anything here that would be beneficial in your home. We are going to do a little bit from 3 or 4 of these resources.

Nativity Lapbook - Geared for ages 3-6 Everything is laid out and ready to print.

Jesus Is Born Lapbook - Geared for preschool. Everything is laid out and ready to print.

A Christmas Lapbook - All ages both Christian and Secular activities. This is a Squido lens with links to many different books to put into a lapbook. A great resource of minibooks, activities and worksheets.

Birth of Christ Lapbook - Perfect for 1st through 3rd grade with many options for graphics.

Twelve Days of Christmas - A great lapbook for elementary aged kids that goes through the song and the meaning behind the gifts.

The Christmas Day Kitten - This is a lapbook to go along with the book by James Harriot.

The Legend of the Candy Cane - This is a lapbook to go along with the book by Lori Walburg.

Christmas Customs Lapbook - This lapbook can work for elementary age and maybe older. It is all about the customs of Christmas.

Christmas Symbols Lapbook - This lapbook is geared more towards early elementary and discusses the symbols of Christmas.

Advent Lapbook Resources - This pages has great resources for advent. We aren't doing a lapbook but I pulled some stuff from this site so that we can do the reading. Great resource.

Christmas & Advent Links - Homeschooling 4 Free has a bunch of links to some great stuff for Christmas.

Tomato Picking

Today, I went out to my little plot of ground (an all 1 foot by 4 foot section) and assessed my tomato plants which are still thriving. Then I picked tomatoes! Red ripe tomatoes on the 1st of December. Now, the season where I am from is June through October and I have read that commercial production here lasts until November. I am never that lucky to get tomatoes in November.
This year the plants I planted are full of green tomato clusters. In July and September, we had a modest harvest not anything to talk about and I was pretty bummed. My sister in law had a huge tomato harvest. I was resolving myself to the fact that where we live right now, gardening isn't going to be that successful we have too much shade. Today was a pleasant surprise. Here are the tomatoes I picked today, on the 1st of December.

They were tasty too.