The Story In The Carols Day 3

Even the animals get some decorations!  Butterfly thinks of all the little details.

The lady bunnies with their babies

Mr Benjamin Bunny

Lilac and Cupcake Guineapig were much to shy to come out and pose.

Kelly loves to eat her lemon balm wreath.

Cedar and Arrow

 Today the angels were hiding in a pot plant.  You can't see it very well but there is a cross faintly in the sky on the left of the picture of Mary holding Jesus.

 The carol today is Mary Did You Know?  Questions that reflect for us on why Jesus was born at all.  This version on You Tube is wonderful - Pentatonix - Mary Did You Know?.

Today's book was opened by Blossom.  Cedar chose the unwrapped book.

Christmas Bead Story.

Brown Bead - Mary and Joseph rode a donkey to Bethlehem to be taxed.

 Movie for today, 2 actually.  

Our Christmas themed snack today.

~Lorna

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 #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

December Day #1

I love Christmas time.  I love what it is about and who it is about.  And I love making memories with my children ALL December through while we learn more about the truth of this historical event and its implications for our future.

This year I have added a few new traditions.  And I am much more organised than I have been in previous years which will make life easier.

So here we go....

I've read a bit this year about the Elf-on-the-shelf tradition, but we don't do Santa or elves so I made up my own version!  Ours is Follow-The-Star-Angel-Messages.  We have 2 Precious Moments Angels called Promise and Grace who will hide in different places around the house.  The children will be able to find them by locating a star ornament hanging nearby.  The angels will be holding a clue to that days devotional reading.  When they have found the clue we will do our family devotions and craft activities.

The letter the children found in the mailbox this morning introducing the angels and the tradition.

The red star hanging above and the angels holding a tiny loom band advent wreath.

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).  

Our Advent Wreath and Candles - Prophesy/Hope candle lighted

And on the topic of wreaths we made 2 today...

Cedar with our front door wreath

Butterfly with the wreath she made for our gate from conifer branches and flowers

We also do advent calendars because they are fun to do the count down with!  This one is possibly the favourite as I fill it with candy canes and each child gets one candy cane each day of the count down!  That is 216 candy canes!!...I know OTT and crazy...

Advent calendar (made by my mum) laden with candy canes!

This advent calendar is a newbie to my collection.  It came from my Grandparents house and is probably about 60 years old.  Special to me.

Another fun tradition we started recently is wrapping Christmas books to unwrap each day.  Since I am an avid collector of books (I adore second hand stores!!) I have enough to unwrap 2 each day, which of course is very helpful when there are so many  hands eager to unwrap!

Crystal and Blossom got to unwrap today's books.

Blossom and Crystal with today's stories.
Dick Bruna's The Christmas Book and Scripture Union's Jesus is Born.  

And to end the day off we had a wreath themed dinner!  This is another new tradition I decided to try.  Food is such a great way to cement a message and a memory!  

Chicken Pie wreath

Berry Meringues 

If you want the recipes I will have them here on my food blog.