December Day #6

Just a bit of fun.  Five children in a paddock of long grass!  They are not allowed in this paddock (water troughs and little boys...you know!), except for special circumstances with mum!  Today's special was just running through the long grass.  Usually it is to observe some nature thing or collect moss.

Ok, so this Saturday morning our angels were sitting on the piano holding a little song sheet of music - Mary's Song.

When the angel had told Mary she would have a baby, she went to visit her relative Elizabeth who was also pregnant with a child promised of God.  Mary sang a song of praise found in Luke 1:46-56.
We sing Christmas carols and other songs of praise too.  Our crafts today for our devotionals were...

A CD with little bits glued to it - Christmas-y things like "baby boy", stars, hearts, red boots (?), "love", a cross...

And...

Music notes with things we praise God for.

Today our books were opened by Crystal and Blossom

The books are:

• One Snowy Night, a sweet story about a gift unwanted which goes around a group of animal friends and eventually back to the original recipient in an unexpected way.
• The Christmas Angels.  A counting book from 10 - 1.  (learning never really ends even when "formal" stuff is over!)

The girls opening the advent calendars together.

Today we also wrote Christmas cards.

~Lorna

December Day #5

Posting a bit late as my camera decided to throw a spanner in the works...never mind, better late than never right?!

So Friday morning dawns and we find our angels sitting on the phone holding the picture of an ear.  "Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear."  Matthew 13:16

We talked about listening for God's voice and the different ways he spoke to people in the Bible.  The first and most important way of hearing God's voice is to read His Word.  When his Word is in our hearts we are able to more clearly hear His voice.

The Bible in our hearts

We read on Day #4 about Mary.  This is the craft we did about Mary; she had WILLING hands, LISTENING ears, and an OBEDIENT heart.

In The Truth In The Tinsel we read about Elizabeth, Zechariah's wife.  Here they are together on our poster...

In the morning I had to go to town to take Angel to design school for her last day, so I left everyone home in the capable hands of Eagle and asked Butterfly to bake cookies.

A little selection of her effort!

Opening books today were Arrow and Cedar

The books are:

• Granny Goes to Bethlehem, a completely fictional story about Mary's mother set in the stable.  Interestingly my girls commented that they didn't like the story so much as it made Mary's mother something quite unlike they would have thought her to be and the  story somewhat irreverent.  Maybe we will toss this book.  I am pleased to notice them thinking from a world view that doesn't accept silliness and a lack of reverence.
• Peter Rabbits Christmas Book.  This delightful book has lots of Christmas activities to do from Beatrix Potters stories.  We just read the story The Tailor of Gloucester.  Not about Jesus, but a story and study of character. 

Our family movie night, with home made pizza, was...

I like this movie.  I love the song the little girl sings on the train.  Some of my children said "mum it isn't about Jesus, it's got Santa in it!" I've raised them well - haha.  

But I did say to them that we read lots of fictional stories and this is just a story.  It isn't that we avoid Santa completely, he just isn't the focus.  It is actually other people that make it an issue in the minds of my children, the way adults talk as if Santa is real.  We have just never gone down that path.  

~Lorna

December Day #4

Day #4, and to be honest I am a bit tired.  This has been a busy week with term 4 activities winding up.  But onward we press...

Today our angels were sitting on my little shelf above my kitchen bench where I have my Grandma's silver cruet set.  They are holding a picture of Mary.

Mary was quite a young lady.  I like how the Bible says she pondered "these things" in her heart.  Mary had LISTENING EARS, WILLING HANDS, and an OBEDIENT HEART.

Due to time constraints today we didn't do our craft for this...but tomorrow is a new day! (With a LOT of crafts to complete - haha)

We did do our The Truth In Tinsel craft however.  We made yesterdays angels.  They were rather fiddly so I had to make them.  I LOVE them...they are so pretty!!

Gold ribbon, small bell, silver pipe cleaner, god wrapping paper = Angel

We also made Mary figures.

While we were busy doing the crafts Butterfly said "Mum, you have a message on your phone" and this is what she brought to me...

I'm keeping that one!  


Today it was Butterfly and Blossom who opened the books.

The books are:

• Josie's Gift.  This one is always a little bit hard to read if one wants to remain completely composed.  It is a beautiful story about a girl who learns "Christmas is not about what we want.  Christmas is about what we have."
• Room for a Little One is a very sweet version of the events in the stable as seen through the eyes of Kind Ox, Old Dog, Stray Cat, Small Mouse and Tired Donkey!

This is one of our most favourite Christmas movies!  It has nothing to do with Jesus, but it is such a lovely story! 

And today's creative snack is a banana and strawberry candy cane shape!

Of course it would look better if the stick part was longer, but do you know how many bananas and strawberries I would need for 8 people??  So we learn to be content with less than we might WANT and thankful that we get to have it at all!

~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

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.