The Story In The Carols Day 1

Here we are in December again.  I am excited about our month leading up to Christmas Day.  

This year I decided to have the theme of Carols and the story they tell.  I hope you enjoy our little journey as we learn a little more about this time we celebrate together.

Today's devotional was the first of Advent - the Prophesy Candle representing Hope.  God's promises give us hope.  God promised he would send a messiah (Bethlehem...out of you shall come forth the One to be ruler in Israel. Micah 5:2) and he did; he sent Jesus.  And God promised that by sending Jesus a way would be made for us to be free from our sin (All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6).  

Advent - Prophesy Candle representing Hope

 This is our advent calendar.  We count down with a candy cane each per day.  They LOVE this...

And this is a new advent picture calendar for this year.  I do love Beatrix Potter.

Last year we wrapped Christmas books.  It was a huge hit.  So again this year!  
This year one child unwraps a book and a second child chooses from the unwrapped books.  I have over 50 Christmas books and I didn't want to wrap that many!

Today we had to unwrap 2 books as I had planned to begin yesterday but didn't get to everything.

Cedar and Arrow 

Crystal and Arrow

 Another tradition we began last year were the Christmas Angels.

This is the letter the children found in the mail box this morning.

The angels were hiding on the bookshelf.

I really like the words to this carol.  I don't know the tune, so I am using it as a poem which we will ponder on over the next 3 weeks as we steep in the story and it's meaning.

The first carol we have today is I Love To Tell The Story.  I love doing our activities in December with my children to help them learn the depths and beauty of the story.  And I look forward to that one day when I will sing with the angels the new, new song of the old, old story!

I stumbled upon a story bead idea for Thanksgiving, which lead me on a search for a Christmas one.  I couldn't find one that fit my ideal so I made my own up.  We will work our way through the story one day at a time.  I am hoping that by the end of the story the children will remember what each bead represents and be able to tell the Great Story of Redemption in their own words.

Christmas Bead Story

White Bead - An angel appears to Mary

 Eagerly anticipated are the movies I tuck away for December viewing only.  Here is a new one we added.  It isn't really a Christmas one, but there is snow and the story is really endearing.

For Advent, Angel, Blossom, and I made a themed dinner.

Chicken Wreath Pie
*Recipe Here*

Strawberry, Mint, Meringue wreath
*Recipe Here*

I do hope you are inspired!  Please leave a comment if you can, we would love to hear from you.

~Lorna

December Day #19

 Today our angels were sitting on another book shelf holding a star.
Stars are an integral part of the Christmas story.  The star pointed to where Jesus was.  The wise men followed it.
In Numbers 24:17 Moses prophesied "a Star shall come out of Jacob."
And that star was referring to Jesus, "I am...the Bright and Morning Star." Revelation 22:16
In Scripture it says that the purpose of the beauty of nature is to point our thinking toward the Lord. 
"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.." Romans 1:20
In the following verses the writer is saying that when he views the beauty and awe of creation all around him he wonders why God would think of or care for people.  The wonderful thing is that God does; such love!  
Psalm 8:3-4 "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?"  


Today our books were opened by Crystal and Cedar.

The books are:

• The Christmas Story.  This book is illustrated by Eloise Wilkin.  Her illustrations are happy childhood memories of reading for me.  
• An Angel Just Like Me is a story about a boy with dark skin who questions why all the angel ornaments have pink skin.  I like the sentiment of the story; it makes you think.  Don't just accept things the way they are just because they are that way.  "The truth is that whenever a fence is removed it's wise to ask why it was put there in the first place." Ravi Zacharias  It is wise to question why.  It helps us to be discerning.

We made pipe cleaner/bead crosses.  The cross was the purpose of Jesus coming.

Interesting how each child's cross shows a part of their personality!
L-R: Butterfly (bright and vibrant), Blossom (methodical and purposeful), Crystal (orderly and expressive),
Arrow (blue and worked very independently), Cedar (red and purposefully ordered)

The children enjoyed the dreidel game so much we played it again today.  We used the plastic math money.

Arrow spun first and landed the entire bowl!

Great times.

A little house cleaning tip for December.  Put a few drops of peppermint oil on the bag and/or filter of your vacuum cleaner...it smells lovely after you have vacuumed!

 Arrow playing the "boat" game on the Xbox.  It makes me smile that he uses the remote like a steering wheel as well as moving the little stick thingy.  He gets a turn once a week for half an hour and he counts down the days!  

Dinner tonight.  "BLT on T".  Bacon, lettuce, tomato on toast with a fried egg, avocado and cheese.  The secret is frying the egg on a medium heat in animal fat and topping with ranch dressing.  

~Lorna

December Day #11

This has to be my favourite place so far.  It makes a cute picture.  The angels are holding a picture of a heart house.

When Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem there was no room for them anywhere.  Finally a kindly innkeeper gave them his stable.  
Jesus is looking for a place today, but now He is looking for our hearts.  That is why He came...to live in us!


Today Arrow opened a book.  Only one today.  The book Butterfly opened the other day had 4 stories; today we read the third.

The book was: 

• The Tangerine Bear.  A sweet story about a bear with his mouth sewn on upside down.  He was happy on the inside but everyone thought he was glum and grumpy.  Good example of how we should get to know someone before we judge them!  I shared on *Day #4* the DVD of this story; the DVD is a slightly different longer version but just as lovely.

As for crafts...when will the busyness end??  I haven't done any crafts for a few days due to the need to travel into town!  And tomorrow isn't any different.  Saturday might have to be our catch up day.  

We did some Christmas shopping today though.  We bought Mr V a mug he had spied and asked for, and I bought myself 3 Amy Grant CDs...those who know me from my teen years will not be surprised at that!  I'm not sure if I will be able to wait to listen to it, but I will try!

Angel made tonight's dinner and it is definitely worth a mention!

Cheesy Ham and Potato Bacon Bake

The recipe I printed off for her to use can be found *here*, however true to her self she made it her own instead!

You can view her version of it *on my food blog*.

~Lorna

December Day #10

Just a short one today.  This week has been much busier than I had expected.  Today our angels sat in a very obvious place next to the books to unwrap and along side the advent calendars!  They were holding a Christmas decoration with this verse on it "The fruit of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." Galatians 5:22-23
We decorate our trees.  God wants to decorate us.  Pretty simple today!

Today we only opened one book as the Patricia St John book has 4 stories in it.  It was Cedar's turn.

The book was:

• The Winter Mittens.  A rather simple plain story.  You are not missing much if you haven't read it.  

Today I had to take Butterfly to her final art class.  So I pulled out some more Christmas DVDs to occupy small people on a very wet miserable "stuck inside" sort of day.

Charlton Heston's The Nativity and Beatrix Potter's The Tailor of Gloucester

Dinner was delicious.  BBQ Ranch Chicken Casserole.  Shared *on my food blog*.

I know it doesn't look like much but it was yummy!

~Lorna

Frugal Food - Big Family

You can be forgiven for being curious about how much it costs to feed a big family.  Curiosity is how we learn.  There are 2 options here:
1. Pay a large amount of money each week for food
2. Become clever at buying and preparing food on a budget, and consider what you NEED over what you THINK you NEED.

It comes down to thinking hard about what you eat and what you can do yourself in order to be more thrifty with the food budget.  I will blog over at my food blog to share our favourite recipes and ideas for not spending so much on food.

"Waste not, want not" is our motto!

Read more at my food blog