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

December Day #9

I thought I'd start today's post with something a bit different.  We don't live and breath Christmas in December, we do other things too!  
Here are Crystal and Blossom feeding our pigeon Josh (that's his real name not an online alias).

Just landing for a peanut.  

And another peanut!

And off he goes.  

So today our angels were sitting with Butterfly's things and holding a card that said "I'm trying to be like Jesus".  

Our devotional obviously was about that.  We become more and more like Jesus by reading His word.  His word gives us wisdom and strength, which in turn allows grace to come out of us.  
Ecclesiastes 10:12 "the words of a wise man's mouth are gracious."
A wise man becomes wise from reading God's Word, and his words are pleasant.


Blossom and Butterfly opened books today.

The books are: 

• The Patricia St John Christmas Book.  This has 4 short stories by Patricia St John taken from 4 of her novels.  We read Tanglewoods' Secret excerpt called A Perfect Christmas.  If you have never heard of Patricia St John you really should read a book or two of hers!  
• God's Precious Gift In A Manger tells the story of Jesus from the creation perspective, focusing on the WHY he came.

We spent some time today visiting with friends and making some Christmas craft.  Tomorrow I will post a photo of the pretty stars we made for our window.

Dinner needs a mention here today.  A Facebook friend shared a picture of a creative way to do meatballs.  As planning would have it, meatballs were on the menu tonight so I tried the idea she shared.

Meatball Subs and pasta with fresh tomato sauce.
Meatball recipe sourced from this website.

~Lorna

December Day #3

Today our angels were on the bookshelf holding tiny little books.

 The little story books were a clue to our craft activity for today.  We read through the story of Jesus' birth from angel visits, to long journeys, Bethlehem stables, a wicked king, some wise men and shepherds, a young boy who grew to be a man who fulfilled the wonderful plan of salvation for us all.  So we began to make our own little story book of this story, to be completed over the next few days.

Little story books

We finished off a craft today that we started yesterday - the glitter paint took a long time to dry.  We read about God's Kingdom in The Truth in Tinsel.  We made crowns for the King.  Our The 25 Days of Christmas devotional made mention of the names in the Bible used to describe Jesus.  I asked the children to choose a name to describe Jesus to write on their crown.

L-R Crystal and Blossom painted their crowns glitter yellow and chose the name Emmanuel which means "God With Us", Butterfly also used yellow glitter paint and chose the name King of All, Arrow and Cedar painted theirs blue and pink respectively and chose the name God of Love.

Unwrapping books today were Arrow and Crystal.  

The books are:

• Cat in the Manger by Michael Foreman, a humorous, sweet story told by the cat that lived in the stable where Jesus was born.  
• Clem the Clumsy Camel is from the Arch Books series which have a rhyming, often quite funny story.  Clem is the clumsy camel who feels that he is nothing special until he is chosen for a very important journey.  

Dinner was quick and easy for a busy day with a trip to town late afternoon.  No less yummy though thanks to my planning!  Recipe here.

Maple glazed sausages with rice and veggies

~Lorna

December Day #2

I didn't mention yesterday the books I use for December.  I usually use The 25 Days of Christmas by Rebecca Hayford Bauer.  It is so full of ideas and a great framework work my own ideas into.

This year we are trying The Truth In The Tinsel which comes in the form of an e-book and is suitable for preschool and a little older.

Today our angels were standing by the candy cane advent calendar on the mantel piece so they were easy to find!  

They were holding a broken heart with the verse "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." 1 John 4:10  Our sin makes us broken, but God had a plan to make us whole again.  That is the reason Jesus was born; to fulfill God's plan to make a way for us to be saved and made right before Him.

Grace and Promise

We read about Zechariah today in Luke 1:5-25.  God promised Zechariah that he and his wife Elizabeth would have a baby.  They both had longed for a baby but now were old, so understandably Zechariah questioned the angel in his doubt.  Because he did not believe he was unable to speak until his son John was born.  Zechariah reminds us to believe God's promises even if they seem impossible!

The children with their little Zechariah men.  We glued a bubble from bubble wrap on for his mouth.
This was a The Truth in Tinsel activity.

We also made a big poster to put some of our crafts on over the next 3 weeks.

Crystal and Butterfly talking about Christmas stuff

Today Butterfly and Cedar opened the book presents.  Follow The Star is a board book with a lovely re-telling of the journey of the wise men.  A Patch Work Christmas is a lovely little book Butterfly got when she attended Mainly Music 8 years ago.  It is a story about a mum and her daughter making a patchwork Christmas tree with scrap material telling the story of Jesus.

We baked cookies, lots of yummy wreath cookies.  Butterfly is our baking girl now. 

Butterfly and Cedar - SHE is rolling cookie dough, HE is making white circles of flour with the little sieve, THEY are making a mess but having fun!

Cookies cut and being decorated with M&M's.
No M&M's were eaten during this phase of construction!

Add a tiny icing bow and they are good to go...down into our tummies!

I did forget to mention yesterday that one very exciting part of December is being allowed to watch the DVDs reserved for these weeks.  Cedar was just bursting to watch The First Snow of Winter!  And we all love Winnie the Pooh!  

Last of all today they all convinced me to have home made hot chocolate with candy cane stirrers!

I will put our home made hot chocolate recipe on my food blog here along with the dinner we made tonight which was so yummy - Baked potatoes, bacon and egg bake and salad.

~Lorna